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I realize the chances of anyone at the Peace House getting this message are slim, but since Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, and others also frequent DU, I figured there's no harm in trying.
Texas is no longer "Bush Country." It's "Cindy Country." And we have a gentle, grief-stricken mother of a slain soldier to thank for bringing this change into being.
I wish we had the resources and the time to stay out there with all of you more rather than just being "weekend warriors" for the cause, but we are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers every waking moment.
It has been heartwarming to see how many supplies have been donated to you in terms of food, drink, and necessities. My wife brought some of her own and some from other DUers, and I brought some back issues of The Nation for when the Gold Star Families campaign enters the doldrums.
We've been getting some ominous storm clouds rolling across our skies here in Dallas, and I can't help but wonder about the lot of you. Are you managing to stay reasonably safe and dry? Is Cindy, out there in her little outpost on Prairie Chapel Road? It's so easy for us in the rest of the world to forget about what you're having to go through out there in the faint hopes that Bush will actually speak to Cindy.
Like some of you, I am a Quaker, but I confess my own weaknesses and idiosyncracies as a human being. And that includes a certain anger at Bush and his administration that has brought all of us to such a state that we need a Cindy Sheehan to sacrifice her time, her comfort, her voice, and sometimes even her health just to focus national attention on what is happening to our soldiers in Iraq. To say that this is a grave injustice is an insult to your intelligence and a profound understatement, but words fail me at this point. I'm at the point where I want charges of treason brought against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rove so that, if convicted, they can be locked away behind bars for the rest of their natural lives as a warning to anyone else who tries to bring America to this state ever again.
But you stand as a reminder that sometimes the greatest revolutions are also the gentlest. You can bring about profound change with a military rifle or with a vitriolic pen, but Cindy Sheehan came to Crawford with neither. She only brought herself and a picture of Casey. And no matter what her detractors say, it only seems to boost support for Cindy's cause. And more people across America are starting to learn her name.
Eyes on the prize, as always. Bush can make it stop anytime he wants. He has the power now. All he has to do is step outside his comfortable shell and peer into the real world through the eyes of Cindy. One simple act can bring this to an end. And he's too scared to lift a finger to end it. Scared of a single, gentle, unarmed, greiving woman. Who happens to be living in a tent in a ditch. In the rain that falls on all of us tonight. Of this our "President" is scared, as he lies awake between his crisp French linen sheets, his belly full of corn-fed Angus steak, the thermostat dialed to his exact wishes, his home protected by Federal agents carrying submachine guns. And still he fears this one woman.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Anyway, it's late, and I have to turn in for the night so I can go back to work for the next week. I could so use a five-week vacation right now where I can just sit around in my bathrobe and chill out, or maybe content myself with some busy work like clear-cutting some meaningless brush. But that's not going to happen. The rent and the bills won't let me. So I can only count the days until Saturday when my wife and I can once again join all of you in standing with Cindy and demanding some accountability for this mess in Iraq.
It's got to end somewhere. It's got to end sometime. And I thank you all for standing with Cindy in this endeavor.
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