Nashville

Mrs. Sheehan will be speaking about the robbery of billions of dollars to bail out financial speculators who have wrecked the economy through their greed and neglect. A small number of very wealthy people and international corporations are reaping billions of public money being bailed out and  in their pursuit of war and occupation in the Middle East. Tennesseans are losing thousands of jobs because of this irresponsible and covetous behavior. Thousands of people are saying “No more bail outs to the people and corporations that are causing so much pain and death.”

An outspoken supporter for health care justice, Reverend Henry Blaze, widely recognized as a leader committed to social justice, the social gospel, and to the philosophy of non-violence, will also speak. His 26 years in the ministry have been dedicated to the pursuit of a “Genuine Community” that recognizes the humanity and equality of all people. Reverend Blaze has consistently worked to ensure that access to health care is a reality for all Tennesseans, regardless of income or social strata. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Justice Center, a nonprofit, public interest law and advocacy firm that gives priority to policy issues and civil cases affecting the poor and marginalized communities.

David Rovics is a dangerous man who tells the truth. We all know the truth is rare these days in our media.  He asks us to think about what we would do if we knew the truth about why things are happening around us that don’t make sense. What “If every time we went to war to fight our evil foes, they told you we were really fighting for the good of CEOs — If you could feel the hunger of the many and see the riches of the few — If they told it like it is — what if you knew? David loves the ideals of our country. He thinks that we would realize the words of our national song that says we are the “home of the brave, and the land of the free” if we had unfiltered information to be the free people who would have the moral strength to make good decisions. So he sings, “If you knew that the whole planet depend on what you do now –  would you take command with the speed our times allow?  If the pundits told the truth for just a week or two, and real life was shown on TV — What if you knew?”

Our times are so exciting! It really is up to us. We must not allow ourselves to be divided left or right. We are all concerned Americans who see that real change must be brought about. So, come and party with good folks from all walks of life to show the politicians, that there are so many of us, they must pay attention. And we will have a good time showing them.

For more information contact:

• Chris Lugo: 615-593-0304
• Eliz Barger: 931-964-2119

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such “liberal blogs” as the Democratic Underground. Being called an “attention whore” and being told “good riddance” are some of the more milder rebukes.

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a “tool” of the Democratic Party.  This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our “two-party” system?

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”

I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt “two” party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland. I am demonized because I don’t see party affiliation or nationality when I look at a person, I see that person’s heart. If someone looks, dresses, acts, talks and votes like a Republican, then why do they deserve support just because he/she calls him/herself a Democrat?

I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an “attention whore” then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others. I have spent every available cent I got from the money a “grateful” country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey’s brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.

I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.

Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people. However, in five, ten, or fifteen years, our troops will come limping home in another abject defeat and ten or twenty years from then, our children’s children will be seeing their loved ones die for no reason, because their grandparents also bought into this corrupt system. George Bush will never be impeached because if the Democrats dig too deeply, they may unearth a few skeletons in their own graves and the system will perpetuate itself in perpetuity.

I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost. I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble.

Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford , Texas ? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too…which makes the property even more valuable.

This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.

Good-bye America …you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

It’s up to you now.

About Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan was an American anti-Iraq War activist, whose son, Casey Sheehan, was killed during his service in Iraq. She attracted international attention in August 2005 for her extended demonstration at a peace camp outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch garnering her both support and criticism.

* Originally posted by Cindy Sheehan at Daily Kos on Mon May 28, 2007 at 09:57:01 AM PDT