The Revolution
is NOW...
By Sheila Samples
11 August, 2005
Countercurrents.org
"If you
shut up the truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and
gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through
it will blow up everything in its way."
French author
Emile Zola
The
incomparable Raw
Story website is publishing a letter it acquired on Tuesday,
Aug 9, from 16 Democratic Representatives (whose number has now burgeoned
to 38) urging George Bush to meet with Cindy Sheehan, whose son, Casey,
was slain in Iraq in 2002. Sheehan has been camped on Bush's doorstep
since Saturday when she and a small group of supporters were forced
to walk in a ditch struggling through knee-deep weeds as they made their
way to Prairie Chapel, the Bush "ranch," a former pig farm
in Crawford, Texas.
According to The
Iconoclast, Bush's hometown paper, Sheehan said she decided to go to
Crawford because of comments Bush made which coincided with the deaths
of 12 Marine reservists from Ohio who were killed in perhaps the deadliest
roadside bombing of U.S. troops in Iraq. Sheehan was outraged at Bush's
remarks to about 1,800 members of the American Legislative Exchange
Council in Grapevine on Aug 3 that the men and women whove lost
their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan died in a noble and selfless cause.
"We all know
by now that thats not true, and I want to ask George Bush, Why
did my son die? What was the noble cause that he died for?
said Sheehan. I dont want [President Bush] to use my sons
name or my family name to justify any more killing or to exploit my
sons name, my sons sacrifice, or my sons honor to
justify more killing. As a mother, why would I want one more mother
to go through what Im going through, Iraqi or American?
"And I want
to tell him that the only way to honor my sons sacrifice is to
bring the troops home now.
There are few things
more relentless this side of Hell than an August Texas sun. Unless it
would be the lost souls of Fallujah crying out for justice through the
Napalm flames. Or perhaps it is a mother so engulfed in grief at the
cruel and needless loss of her child that her primal screams reverberate
throughout the world. Except at the pig farm. Or within the entire US
Senate. Or on the deaf ears of all but 38 of the 435 representatives
in the US House.
The initial 16 --
one representative for each word Bush used to lie us onto the New World
Order killing fields -- are John Conyers, George Miller, Maxine Waters,
Corrine Brown, Dennis Kucinich, Carolyn Maloney, Jim McDermott, Jim
McGovern, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Peter Oberstar, John Lewis, Bernie
Sanders, Bob Filner, Micheal Honda, and Raul Grijalva. I have searched
in vain for Nancy Pelosi, Cynthia McKinney, Charlie Rangel -- searched
for just one Republican who would ask Bush to meet with the mother of
a slain soldier...
Six soldiers and
marines were killed today. Four yesterday. In just 10 days of August,
44 Americans and many, many more innocent Iraqis have been murdered.
We don't "do" body counts of Iraqi citizens, so there's no
way of knowing how many have died, but we do know that more than four
soldiers and marines have been slaughtered in a single day -- every
day. The pig farm president may not know where his children are tonight,
but Casey Sheehan knows where his mother is -- sweltering in 100-plus-degree
weather on a desolate prairie -- ignored by the commander-in-chief --
but still out there, bravely supporting the troops.
There are many mothers
whose anguish matches Sheehan's, not only those who have lost children,
but those whose children are returning broken and maimed; doomed to
lives of desperation and pain. Mothers like Sandy Briggs, from Keokuk,
Iowa, whose son, Sgt. Robert Briggs, a soldier in the 224th Engineer
Battalion, was hit by shrapnel from an artillery round April 16 at Iraq's
Camp Ramadi.
According to the
Burlington, Iowa, newspaper, The Hawkeye, "Surgeons took one of
his eyes. The other is partially blind. Head trauma paralyzed his left
side. Metal litters his body...An operation removed part of his skull.
Now he wears a helmet to get out of bed."
Bush says he "grieves
'n mourns" for the dead and maimed. His "thoughts 'n prayers"
go out to them. He 'preciates them making the ultimate sacrifice for
his noble cause. Many, however, are beginning to think Bush has a strange
way of showing his compassion. He has not attended a single funeral
of the now 1,848 Americans who have died in Iraq because of his lies
and lack of planning, and he continues to stubbornly "ditch"
Sheehan as she keeps a lonely vigil on the Texas plains.
Bush might wish
later that he had come out to meet with Sheehan upon her arrival Saturday
when there was but a handful of supporters accompanying her. If the
media covered the meeting at all, he would have been portrayed as a
caring president, and by Sunday it would all have been over. But that
isn't how Bush operates. He does not negotiate; remember, his will is
strong, his resolve will not be broken. Bush is not satisfied until
everything he touches turns into a steaming, odious pile of bullshit.
He made the cowardly choice to send out a couple of minions -- national
security adviser Steve Hadley and deputy White House chief of staff
Joe Hagin -- to tell her that Bush really really cares, but nobody's
coming home until "the mission is accomplished..."
So -- as Bush likes
to say, "history will show" the Revolution started on a steamy
August day...at the pig farm.
Who knew? Who would
have believed just a week ago that, after all our years of hard work,
the crude and pitiless Bush would run out there, ram his middle finger
in the face of a heartbroken mother, and jump-start the Revolution?
By the time Cindy
Sheehan leaves her station at the pig farm, Bush will know that he was
wrong. He will know, because "Mother" is not just half a word,
as Bush and his Texas buddies, his Skull and Bones cohorts, his PNAC
perps were raised to believe. "Mother" is Nature. "Mother"
is Earth. "Mother" is an invincible, protective force that,
if awakened and sufficiently outraged, will sweep the entire murderous
bunch from their seats of evil power. Ultimately, "Mother"
will bring our troops home.
The mainstsream
media will find, much to their chagrin, that the Revolution is NOW,
and will continue apace without them. The Iconoclast is offering hourly
updates on the Sheehan vigil. Friends of Peace and Justice of Waco is
mobilizing support for Sheehans vigil, which could last until
the end of August.
More information
can be obtained at the Crawford
Peace House website or by calling (254)486-0099.
Air America Radio hosts, especially Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy,
are all over this story, giving minute-by-minute updates, many of them
coming from Sheehan herself, who calls the station regularly. Google
"Cindy Sheehan," and you will discover the entire Internet
is wide awake and on the march, and will join the Revolution -- at the
pig farm.
Also check out --
Gold Star Families
for Peace; www.gsfp.org
Military Families
Speak Out; www.mfso.org
Veterans for Peace;
www.veteransforpeace.org
CodePink; www.codepink4peace.org
Vietnam Veterans
Against War; www.vvaw.org
Iraq Veterans Against
the War; www.ivaw.net
Meet With Cindy;
www.meetwithcindy.org/
Sheila Samples is
an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information
Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.
Contact her at: [email protected]. © 2005 Sheila Samples