Saturday, March 31, 2012

Deep in the Heart

Dear Friend,

Casey & CIndy in happier times

Eight years ago, late Palm Sunday evening at around 9pm, three US Army officers paid our family a visit to tell us that our dear Casey had been killed in the US's immoral war against the people of Iraq. Needless to say, we were devastated as it wasn't just a sick April Fool's Joke.

Palm Sunday fell on April 4th that year in 2004, so the date 04/04/04 will forever be painfully carved into my heart as the date is carved into the heart of the King family whose loved one, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinate on the same day in 1968 by the same evil system that forced Casey and millions of others to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan. After over ten years, the carnage continues.

April 04 falls is coming up and sometimes it feels like it's been eight days and sometimes it feels like it's been 80 years, but the spring still comes, the sun still rises, and the Empire relentlessly marches on.

On Sunday, April 01, our guest on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox will be our good friend David Swanson who chats about the book he edited called,
The Military Complex at 50, and I guarantee you that our discussion makes very relevant points and some uncomfortably relevant ones, too.

Hope you can tune in at 2pm Pacific Time, or anytime thereafter at the archives!
Next week (April 08) will be Easter Sunday, so I will take the week off to hold Casey's brothers and sisters close and celebrate New Life with my four grandchildren--the niece and nephews that Casey never knew, but who will know him well and his sacrifice to help make their world a more peaceful place. In Casey's name, I will keep moving forward on that...I hope you all will, too.

Love & Peace

Cindy Sheehan
From Deep in the Heart of Texas, today! 

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

VOLUME ONE: BEST OF CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

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Monday, March 26, 2012

AFGHANS FOR PEACE, CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

We at Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox have been a consistent, loud, and uncompromising voice for peace during the Obama administration.

More people (US troops and Afghans, alike) have died in Afghanistan since Obama took over management of that war.

This Sunday, on the Soapbox, I talk to Fatima, from Afghans for Peace. Afghans must, themselves, lead any effort for peace in that region.

Here is the video that Fatima wanted us to watch that highlights the struggle for integrity of vision and principle even within her own community.



CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW


Love, peace, and justice,

Cindy Sheehan
RevolutionALoveStory@gmail.com

The Soapbox Team 

Friday, March 23, 2012

Cindy Sheehan Back in Texas

Camp Casey, August 2005


Cindy Sheehan will be in
Houston and Austin
March 25-31

To promote, sell, and sign her new book:
Revolution, A Love Story






Houston Events:


Monday, March 26:
2pm


Texas Southern University
(University Museum)
3100 Cleburne Street
Houston, TX 77004
Solidarity March for Trayvon Martin right after event.

Tuesday, March 27:
7pm
Vegetarian/Vegan Potluck and Book Event
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
Pecore Hall
1805 W. Alabama (entrance on Sul Ross)
Houston, TX 77098




Austin Events:


March 29, Thursday, 7pm-8:30pm BookWoman, 5501 North Lamar #A, Austin, TX


Cindy Sheehan's 1st Day in Crawford

March 30, Friday, about 8pm Brave New Books, Cindy will be speaking as part of a 2-day mini-conference, Free the Slaves, Stop the Wars, End the State




March 31, Saturday, Camp Casey Reunion, Lee Atherton’s Barn, 3600 S. 2nd, Austin, TX 3-10pm.  Cindy will do a TV interview on Frontline Texas With Jack Blood from 6-7pm, then she’ll be back to the Barn to enjoy the reunion.

If you are near, hope you can make it!

Crawford Peace House
Summer, 2005






Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Occupy the IRS to Support Cindy Sheehan and Oppose the US Empire





    • Thursday, April 19, 2012
      10:30am
  • US Court, 501 I St. Sacramento, Ca 95814


  • Peace Activist and Gold Star Mother, Cindy Sheehan, is a conscientious war tax resister and the US Attorney, on behalf of the IRS, has summoned her to court to produce requested documents. This hearing date is just a few days after Tax Day where millions of Americans will help fund the war machine with their hard earned money.


    Cindy is calling for a rally before the hearing in Sacramento, Ca and wants everyone who can make it to be there to support her and show opposition to the war machine, the wars, and other oppressions.


    CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE FACEBOOK EVENT


    RELATED BLOGS:


    SURPRISE, THE U.S. ATTORNEY HAS FILED A LAW SUIT AGAINST YOU!


    PEACE IS NOT FOR WIMPS


    THE US EMPIRE IS THE BAD APPLE


    WE WILL NEVER PAY, SO STOP HARASSING US


    RELATED INTERVIEW:


    INTERVIEW WITH CINDY BY JOYCE RILEY REGARDING THE TAX ISSUE



    ********************************************************************



  • Saturday, March 17, 2012

    VIDEO OF CINDY SHEEHAN AT U.S. EMBASSY IN STOCKHOLM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioRjuSGxar8&feature=email

    Let the S#+t Storm Commence

    Cynthia McKinney interviews Gilad Atzmon on 
    Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox



    Dear Friend,

    Today finds me back in Dublin, ireland--after a very long but productive tour of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Stockholm, Sweden.

    I am actually observing a day off today as I check one more thing off of my "Bucket List:" St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.

    Our friend, Cynthia McKinney, is once again filling in for me as guest host of The Soapbox, and she invited super-controversial, Gilad Atzmon, to be her guest.

    Gilad is a former Israeli Jew who works for Palestinian rights and is in the U.S. touring with his new book,
    The Wandering Who. There is much controversy following him around the U.S. everywhere he goes.

    If you love him, hate him, or haven't heard of him, I suggest you listen to the show beginning at 2pm Pacific time on March 18th...

    The show will be availiable at
    Community Progressive Radio at 2pm Pacific, or in the archives at Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox
    from there forward.

    I am heading back to the States on Sunday and I will hit the ground running on Monday as it seems the Empire is growing ever more violent.

    Love & Peace
    Cindy Sheehan
    Soapbox Team 

    Friday, March 16, 2012

    Cindy Sheehan speaks out to free the Cuban Five



    Cindy Sheehan speaks out to free the Cuban Five


    First Published Mar 14, 2012 9:11 PM In Worker's World 

    Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and Rene González, known as the Cuban Five, have been unjustly held in U.S. prisons since 1998.

    Their freedom became an issue for anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan at the 2006 Caracas World Social Forum. On March 4, she carried her commitment to campaign to free them to Ireland and Sweden.
    The fifth of each month has been designated as an international Day of Action to free the Cuban Five. On March 5, Sheehan read a letter to President Barack Obama in front of the U.S. Embassy in Dublin. She concluded, “You have the power, Mr. President, to grant permission for the Cuban Five to return home to Cuba where they belong. You have the power, Mr. President, to make sure that Olga gets a visa to enter the U.S. to see her beloved husband, Rene. You have the power, Mr. President, to make sure that René Gonzalez goes to Havana for two weeks to see his dying brother. For the sake of humanity, Mr. President, exercise that power.”

    The Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union Cuba Solidarity Forum hosted Sheehan on International Working Women’s Day, March 8. On that day, she also finished the Ireland leg of her tour with a public meeting of students and activists organized by Amnesty International Society at Trinity College after meeting with Irish legislators earlier in the day.

    In a packed two-day visit to Belfast and Derry, Sheehan met with Irish Nobel Peace Laureates Mairead Maguire and John Hume. She launched the Cuban Five mural at the International Wall in West Belfast, accompanied by Jimmy Kelly, president of the trade union Unite and Danny Devanny, the mural artist. The Cuba Support group in Belfast commissioned the mural.

    On March 10, Sheehan continued on to Sweden.

    The pledge by Irish and British unions to reach U.S. workers with the story of the injustice being carried out against the Cuban Five resulted in a California meeting organized by the Service Employees Union last August that featured the retired UNITE the UNION leader Tony Woodley, and another meeting on March 10 in Chicago.

    During the VII International Colloquium for the Freedom of the Five Cuban Heroes and against Terrorism, held in Holguin, Cuba, last November, Sheehan presented a necklace to the mothers of the Cuban Five to hold until their sons come home. The necklace has special significance to Sheehan, as her son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq during the horrific U.S. occupation of that sovereign country, gave it to her. Casey’s death propelled Sheehan to use every method within her reach to expose and oppose injustice and the U.S. war drive.

    In April, Sheehan will be part of the Five Days for the Freedom of the Cuban Five in Washington, D.C. She has agreed to serve as a judge at a tribunal on the Cuban Five in Toronto in September. n


        

    Wednesday, March 14, 2012

    "Is it Normal?" by Cindy Sheehan



    I am over here in Europe to raise awareness of the case of the Cuban 5, but I took an evening off of that in Stockholm to participate in an event with the Iraq Solidarity Group commemorating the ninth anniversary of the US led bombardment of that country.

    An Iraqi physician, and professor, who is now based in Damascus was on the program with me. I sat next to him as he read the statistics of imperial doom that befell his nation during the Clinton sanctions and the wars of the Bush crime family. Every statistic was like another knife being driven into my heart.

    Two million dead during the sanction years; 1.5 million dead after 2003; incidences of leukemia in children in Fallujah and Basra skyrocketing by a factor of ten times normal; clean water and electricity are still in short supply; and the government and laws set up by the US occupiers do not work for the people of Iraq.

    There were much more stats and while Dr. Khudair was reading them, I kept flashing back to all the times I have been asked if I think Casey’s sacrifice was “worth it” now that there is a “free and peaceful Iraq?” Bullshit—what remains is a divided,  destroyed and oppressed Iraq, but the resistance is still there to make sure the 50,000 mercenary soldiers and the thousands of Americans still there profiting off of the misery of Iraq, leave.

    The most heartbreaking thing that I heard was not a statistic, but an observation.

    Of course we know that the US used depleted uranium coated weapons in Iraq and the region is now poisoned by the radioactive waste from DU for 4.5 billion years—that is one of the reasons that incidences of leukemia are on the rise.

    One woman who does activism to ban all nuclear weapons, including DU, said that now in Iraq, a woman’s first question after giving birth is not: “Is it a boy or a girl,” but, “Is it normal?”

    The invasion and occupation of Iraq led to a personal tragedy for my family, but more importantly to a national nightmare for the Iraqi people.

    The US needs to finally and completely withdraw and a renewed call for reparations for the people of Iraq needs to be made and the US war criminals who led two countries, ours and Iraq, down the road to devastation need to be tried for crimes against humanity and crimes against the peace.




    Tuesday, March 13, 2012

    The U.S. Empire is the Bad Apple by Cindy Sheehan



    “This incident is tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.”
    U.S. President Obama after one of his troops slaughtered 16 Afghans in an unprovoked rampage in Panjwai district of Kandahar

    Beautiful Afghan baby or
    dangerous enemy?
    On April 4, 2004, I returned home from walking our two dogs, Buster and Chewy, to find three U.S. Army officers standing in my living room—there to deliver the news that one of my four children had been killed in Iraq.

    Life as I knew it was over at that instant, and it has been a steep climb back to what Warren G. Harding called: Normalcy.

    On Sunday, I think many of us were shocked at the news of a U.S. soldier who went on a violent, unprovoked rampage against civilians in Panjwai district. Details are slowly emerging that this soldier had a mild brain injury, was on his 4th deployment (three in Iraq, and this one in Afghanistan, which began in December), and was having marital difficulties. There are millions of us who have had health problems and have struggled simultaneously with marital problems, or other stressors in a capitalist society, and who do not subsequently slaughter 16 people, so I am not excusing the soldier's behavior. 

    This is the part of the story that I find most moving:

    The soldier entered the home of Samid Khan and killed 11 of his family members, including four little girls, six years and younger. Samid and one of his children, a son, were spared because they were away from the village at the time.

    First of all, what kind of sick monster enters a home and slaughters little girls while they sleep? 85% of Samid’s family was massacred that night. The U.S. military had given this soldier mental health clearance and a clean bill of physical health to be redeployed for a 4th time to a war zone. Former U.S. SecDef, Donald Rumsfeld, famously and arrogantly claimed while visiting troops in Kuwait: “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you want.” Well, if this is an example of the “Army we have,” then we better get our asses home and in a just country, Rumsfeld would be occupying a cell at Leavenworth, himself

    The four little sisters were not even born on 9/11, when the U.S. rushed to war in the future country of their birth to go after one man that may, or may not have been involved in that attack. One by one the sisters were born into a war-torn nation that would be home to them for such a short time, in what I am sure was a rough and precarious existence. Yet, the sisters became the latest victims of yet another “Bad Apple” in the huge cesspool of Bad Apples that rape their fellow female troops, urinate on dead people, burn holy books, torture prisoners, bomb wedding parties, pilot drones carrying hellfire missiles from thousands of miles away, etc, etc, etc.

    Secondly, in the tragedy of Samid, my life was destroyed by the news of the death of one of my children. I cannot imagine coming home from a trip to find my entire family massacred by such a barbaric, yet random act. The walls of Samid's home were covered in the gore of what used to be his family and the floors were covered in blood. My heart screams in pain for Samid and my being cries for justice; Justice that I have so far been denied; justice that won’t bring his family back or give him any kind of recompense, but justice that is demanded in such a case.

    The soldier will be tried by the military and the foxes that guard the henhouse will guarantee that this individual mad man won’t have too harsh a punishment while someone who tried to stop the killing, Pvt. Bradley Manning, has had to endure torturous conditions for allegedly leaking information to Wikileaks.

    Even though I do think the soldier who perpetrated these acts of mass murder needs to be held to account, I think the mega Bad Apples who sent him there and refuse to even reconsider the “mission” need to have their heads on the proverbial chopping block, too.

    Atrocities have been committed in war since the beginning of time and I think we can stipulate that the U.S. Empire is the global Bad Apple. However, war is barbaric and war encourages barbarism. The only way to stop such barbarism is to finally, once and for all, stop using war as a tool in the repertoire of foreign policy.

    This is a note to parents everywhere: the U.S. military, war profiteers, and Empire DO NOT care about the children of the world and they DO NOT care about your child. If you have a child contemplating going into the service of the banksters and war profiteers, remember the case of this Bad Apple and the people he murdered in cold blood. Remember my son, Casey—it’s hard enough having to mourn Casey everyday—I can’t imagine being Samid, or the mother of the Bad Apple who committed the crimes. Do you want to be me, Samid or the mother or father of yet another Bad Apple? I hope your answer is an emphatic, “no.”

    Obama’s statement that I quoted above should ring hollow to those of us who have been hearing such statements our entire lives in one manifestation of barbarism or the other. In fact, Obama is contemplating other acts of Bad Appleism as we speak and cannot be let off the hook, either.

    Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has expressed his hollow outrage over this incident, and the people of Afghanistan should insist that this puppet of U.S. imperialism leave with the deadly occupation.

    When I awakened on Sunday morning with the news that this tragedy had occurred, one of my first thoughts was, “I am glad that I didn’t contribute one thin dime to this cluster f#$k.”

    As activists who called for complete, total, immediate and unconditional withdrawal while Bush was president we should be doing the same with a Democrat as Bad Apple in Chief.

    How much more evidence do we need that Democratic wars are just as pervasive, wrong and deadly as Republican wars?

    Sunday, March 11, 2012

    Cyn and Rock on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox March 11


    Today, March 11, Cindy is in Stockholm, Sweden working with the Peace Community and the Committee to Free the Cuban Five, so
    our good Soapbox friend, Cynthia McKinney, is filling in for Cindy and she will interview presidential candidate for the newly formed Justice Party, Rocky Anderson--former Democrat and mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah.

    Rocky Anderson


    Tune in today, March 11, at 2pm pacific time at: www.CindySheehansSoapbox.com
    or
    anytime thereafter in the archives.


    CLICK TO DONATE!


    NOTE: CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX WILL EVENTUALLY BRING ALL OF THE 3RD PARTY OR INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES ON THE SHOW  AND THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN ENDORSEMENT OF MR. ANDERSON'S CAMPAIGN BY CINDY SHEEHAN OR CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX.

    CINDY CAN BE REACHED AT:
    REVOLUTIONALOVESTORY@GMAIL.COM




    Saturday, March 10, 2012

    PDF COPY OF REVOLUTION A LOVE STORY



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    Friday, March 9, 2012

    Peace is not for Wimps by Cindy Sheehan


    Peace is not for Wimps

    Cindy Sheehan

    I am on an overseas trip to Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Sweden invited by the Free the Cuban Five Committees of Ireland and Sweden. On days two and three of the trip, I was very excited to go to Northern Ireland as I have never been there before and there is, of course, a deep tradition of struggle and a hard, hard won peace--with reconciliation being an ongoing process. 

    I learned so much in Northern Ireland about the “Troubles,” as I met and spoke at length with members of the Peace People and Sinn Fein; some with ties to the Irish Republican Army.

    Mairead Maguire with Cindy Sheehan
    Whew! The process contained so many nuances and secret negotiations that I learned of as I sat soaking up the history at the same kitchen table in Derry (Bloody Sunday) at the Hume home, where Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein and future Nobel Peace Laureate, John Hume, leader of the Social Democrat and Labour Party (SDLP), met off and on for five years trying to hammer out a peace accord that would work for everyone in the North. John Hume is unfortunately not very well, but meeting him and hearing about his historic work from himself was very inspiring. 

    I also met with Mairead Maguire (listen to our Soapbox interview with Mairead recorded on July 19, 2009 after she was put in Israeli jail for trying to break the blockade of Gaza) who founded Peace People after the tragic death of three of her sister’s children who were killed when a British soldier shot an IRA member in the head while he was driving and the car careened out of control wiping out the family. Mairead is also a Nobel Peace Laureate. I was honored to speak at the Peace House in Belfast that she founded using her monetary award.

    Katrina Ruane (Sinn Fein, MLA) and Martin McGuinness
    (Sinn Fein Deputy Prime Minister of the
    Northern Ireland Assembly) with
    Cindy Sheehan
    I had a lovely meeting with Martin McGuinness who is a member of Sinn Fein and who is Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. We met at the Stormont, which is the Northern Ireland assembly—grounds sold to the Crown in the 1920’s by a noble to build the government seat.

    Martin told me that Tony Blair was a good friend of his and so, when the drums of war were pounding for a US/UK invasion of Iraq, Martin and Gerry Adams (current President of Sinn Fein and someone also deeply involved in the peace process) went to 10 Downing Street to meet with Blair and to encourage him to forget about this insane idea of his to go along with the Bush regime like the good poodle he would become.

    President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, with Cindy Sheehan
    at Leinster House in Dublin
    Martin told me that Blair’s Chief of Staff said not to worry because they would be “in and out of Iraq in three months.” Martin and Gerry feared that it would be years, if not decades. Here we are in 2012, and the US is firmly entrenched in Iraq and, although some troops have pulled out, don’t seem to be leaving that war torn country any time soon.

    From the office of the Peace House, I did an interview with the BBC. I don’t like the BBC and I usually have distasteful experiences, but it has such a huge audience, I try to swallow my distaste and just do the interviews. Seamus, the host, didn’t disappoint me—he was just like all the rest--combative and sensationalist. 

    At one point he asked me something like this: “Cindy, given the fact that the Military Industrial Complex is so large and powerful, what kind of impact do you think not paying your taxes has on it?”

    Well, at least I can read the latest act of horror committed by my country or its adjuncts and think to myself, “at least I didn’t fund that.” How can one say he/she is against war and other atrocities, yet pay for them? And Seamus was right, withholding my money and using it for good rather than evil doesn’t seem to be slowing down the war machine even a little bit, but what if conscientious war tax resistance were a movement and not a statement by just a few?

    After that interview with Seamus and the meeting at the Peace House in war-torn, but healing Belfast, I received an email from one of my attorneys who is helping me with my tax issues telling me that my hearing before a magistrate to try and force me to comply will probably be on April 19th in Sacramento.

    At the meeting at the Peace House, a gentleman asked me if I would go to prison rather than pay my taxes.

    I don’t want to go to prison in the USA—that’s one of the last things in the world I want to do. I don’t think that it will come to that, but my answer to the gentleman was, “Yes.” This is one of the multitude of reasons why:

    The other day, I saw a video report from the BBC, not some left wing anti-Semitic, radical news source, that told about an Israeli soldier that lined three sisters ages four to eight up against the side of their home in Gaza and shot them—killing two and crippling the four year old. By conservative estimates, the US gives Israel ten million per day for military aid. Would I rather go to prison than fund the murder of these young girls and millions more?

    That’s not a hard choice for me.

    In Belfast, the British troops finally left, forced out by a combination of non-violent protest and armed struggle.
    Tax resistance is one of the most non-violent forms of resistance that I can think of: One that can make a profound difference.

    I hope we can Occupy Peace and grow the tax resistance movement to really and non-violently make a difference.

    We must ask ourselves if funding the execution of babies is something that our moral center is comfortable with.

    Tax resistance does not have to take an "all or nothing" approach.

    I warmly invite and encourage you to check out the website of the National War Tax Resister's Co-ordinating Committee for more information.


    CLICK TO DONATE!



    Tuesday, March 6, 2012

    "Is there a problem?" by Cindy Sheehan in Belfast

    From my hotel room in Howth (near Dublin)
    The 5th of each month has been designated by the International Committee to free the Cuban 5 as a day where activities are planned to spread the word about the case and to do whatever we can to hasten the end of the anti-terrorists' unjust imprisonment.


    As a refresher: the Cuban 5 were sent to Florida by their nation to infiltrate anti-Castro, anti-Revolution, communities of Cuban exiles which had caused the deaths, by acts of terrorism (most notably the downing of a Cubana airliner that killed everyone on board) of over 3,000 Cubans. 


    During the course of the mission of the Five, they found information that was felt was crucial to the national security of the USA, and when the information was reported to the FBI, the real terrorists weren't arrested, but the Five were, for "espionage."


    After a sham trial in Miami, (a change of venue was clearly warranted, but not granted), the Five wee sentenced to lengthy prison terms. One of them, Rene Gonzalez, was freed last year, but he has an onerous three year probation in Miami.


    I have done activism for the Five around the world and on March 5th, I was in Dublin, Ireland having been invited there by the Irish Committee to Free the 5. 


    Our March 5th activity was to go to the US Embassy in Dublin and I read a letter to the president of the United States, which I then tried to deliver to be sent to him.


    After I read the letter surrounded by Irish Free the 5 activists, I walked up to the window to ask if I could go inside MY embassy and deliver the letter to someone who could send it to the POTUS (I was born during the day, but not yesterday, I knew they wouldn't take it) and I was told that I "didn't have an appointment" by an Irish lad who works at MY embassy.


    I then informed him (in case he didn't know), that I was an American and asked him if I could go in if I "had a problem."


    He asked me what my "problem" was.


    "My country is illegally imprisoning or detaining five Cuban citizens and I want to see that remedied." I still wasn't admitted and told that I had to "post" my letter to Obama.


    After our even yesterday, my Irish colleague and I, drove up to Northern Ireland and I have quite a busy day planned and I will post a report of all of that tomorrow.


    Cindy Sheehan


    Belfast, Ireland


    March 6, 2012





    Sunday, March 4, 2012

    Free the Cuban Five Statement by Cindy Sheehan




    I will be reading this statement near the US Embassy in Dublin today.

    Free the Cuban Five Campaign Ireland

    March 5th 2012

    Dear President Obama,

    As a citizen of the United States of America whose son, Casey, died in Iraq allegedly protecting his country against terrorism in an invasion that was based on lies and destruction, I call on you to free the Five Cuban anti-terrorists, four of whom are still incarcerated in US prisons.

    The fifth, René Gonzalez was released last October from Marianna prison in Florida after serving his full unjust sentence having been found guilty on charges of conspiracy based on a legally flawed court hearing in Miami. René is also a citizen of the US and was entitled to a fair trial with an unprejudiced jury, a situation that was impossible for him to have in that city. 

    Roberto González, René's only sibling and an important member of the Cuban Five's legal team, is gravely ill with cancer in a Havana hospital. Although René has served his unjust sentence of more than 13 years in U.S. prison, as a punitive measure he is being forced to serve a further three years probation in the United States. As a result he is unable to be with his brother at this critical time, unless he receives special permission to do so.

    His attorney Phil Horowitz has filed an emergency court petition requesting permission for René to return to Cuba for only two weeks to visit his brother in the hospital. The petition states, "Over the past nearly five months since his release from incarceration, the defendant has faithfully complied with each and every condition of his supervised release." Horowitz says, "The motion that is being filed is not unusual; it is common for a defendant to seek court permission on an emergency basis, to travel internationally for health concerns of a family member."

    I urge you, President Obama to immediately allow René to travel Cuba for two weeks as a humanitarian gesture.

    René is also suffering the absence of his wife, Olga who he hasn’t seen since he was imprisoned nearly 14 years ago because US immigration will not give Olga a visa to travel to Miami to see him. This is also a tragic situation that needs to be addressed.

    You have the power, Mr. President, to grant permission for the Cuban Five to return home to Cuba where they belong. You have the power, Mr. President to make sure that Olga gets a visa to enter the US to see her beloved husband, Rene. You have the power, Mr. President to make sure that René Gonzalez goes to Havana for two weeks to see his dying brother. For the sake of humanity, Mr. President, exercise that power.

    Cindy Lee Sheehan

    Occupy Your Soapbox (Economics of Happiness on Today)


    Occupy Your Soapbox!
    Dear Friend,

    We, once again, and as usual, have a fabulous Soapbox for you this Sunday (2pm pacific time).

    I will once again be speaking to Helena Norberg-Hodge, the producer of one of my all-time favorite documentaries, The Economics of Happiness. The interview that we previously did with Helena can be heard at this link.

    The Economics of Happiness is hosting a conference in Berkeley the weekend of March 22, click this link for more info.

    As always the show can be heard streaming at Community Progressive Radio at 2pm (pacific) on Sunday or for eternity at the archives at
    Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox.

    Love & Peace

    Cindy Sheehan
    Soapbox Team

    Cindy Sheehan, "dangerous" antiwar "criminal" Photo by Santa Barbara Press-Democrat


     
    REVOLUTION, A LOVE STORY

    CLICK BOOK FOR ORDERING INFO

    Cindy Sheehan, Fr. Louis Vitale and Daniel Ellsberg at Vandenberg AFB protest. Photo by Santa Barbara Independent
    GREAT ARTICLE ABOUT PROTEST AND ARRESTS AT
    VANDENBERG AFB by
    NORA K. WALLACE OF THE
    SANTA BARBARA
    NEWS-PRESS
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    Cynthia McKinney gets on her Soapbox!

    Cindy will be traveling to Ireland, Northern Ireland and Sweden for the next two weeks doing activism for the Cuban 5 (read an article Cindy wrote about the case here) and to work with the peace community in those countries.

    Our dear Soapbox friend, Cynthia McKinney has graciously agreed to fill in for Cindy on March 11 and 18.

    Scheduled to be Cynthia's first guest is candidate for presidency with the budding Justice Party, Rocky Anderson.

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