Americans rallying behind `Peace Mom'

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From The Toronto Sun

Americans rallying behind `Peace Mom'
Iraq war opponents in coast-to-coast vigils

Outpouring of support for Cindy Sheehan



WASHINGTON—In groups as small as 20 and as large as 1,000, Americans massed silently in almost 1,600 different locations last night, lighting candles of support for a woman who has become a catalyst for those opposed to the war in Iraq.

Cindy Sheehan, the so-called "Peace Mom," has been camped out in the shadow of George W. Bush's Crawford, Tex., ranch for almost two weeks, demanding the U.S. president meet with her and explain why her son Casey died in Iraq.

Her highly publicized vigil has drawn condemnation and ridicule from the U.S. right wing, some Crawford residents and even her own family, but she has also been a magnet for protestors who've flocked to the tiny Texas community to show their support.

Last night, that support was echoed from Los Angeles to New York, an outpouring Sheehan has called "amazing."

Among those offering quiet encouragement for Sheehan's defiance were parents who have lost sons or daughters in a war that has so far taken more than 1,850 American lives.

"We want to support Cindy Sheehan's courageous demand for accountability from this president," said Rosemary Palmer, whose 23-year-old son, Marine Lance Cpl. Edward Schroeder II, died two weeks ago in a roadside explosion in Iraq.

Palmer and her husband Paul Schroeder planned to take part in a vigil along with about 100 others in front of a veterans' memorial in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.

"She has become the Rosa Parks of this movement," Palmer said, comparing Sheehan to the black Alabama seamstress whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus in 1955 was the spark for the civil rights movement in America.

Palmer and her husband want Bush to either put enough soldiers on the ground in Iraq to defeat the insurgency or bring the troops home immediately.

She said they cannot be labelled left or right, and are as close to the middle of the political spectrum as possible.

But like Sheehan, Palmer believes the loss of a child gives her the right and the obligation to speak out.

"People will only let people like us speak out," she said.

"They will hold back because they know we have suffered a loss, so we are the only ones who can stand up to the Bush `shut up and sit down' crowd.''

Most of the vigils were organized by the liberal MoveOn.org political action committee, which promised "simple and dignified" gatherings.

Sheehan's defiant stand comes at a time when many analysts in this country believe the U.S. population is at a Vietnam-like tipping point.

Polls done for Newsweek magazine and the Associated Press both put Bush's approval rating at 42 per cent, the lowest of his presidency. The Newsweek poll also showed only 34 per cent of respondents supported his handling of the Iraq war, again a historic low since he launched his invasion in March, 2003.

Sheehan has also benefited from massive publicity from journalists assigned to shadow Bush during his five-week vacation in Crawford.

But her motives have been denigrated by some conservative commentators, and her in-laws have accused her of using her son's death for political reasons.

Her estranged husband also served her with divorce papers while she has been at "Camp Casey."

The conservative Move America Forward group is organizing a "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" caravan which will head out from San Francisco next week and end with a rally in Crawford in support of the president and the troops on Aug. 27.

That caravan will be led by Deborah Johns, whose son has also served in the U.S. Marines in Iraq.

Today, Sheehan and her supporters are moving their encampment even closer to the Bush ranch.

Fred Mattlage, a Vietnam veteran and neighbour of Bush who opposes the Iraq war, has offered them the use of his land, which is only about 1.5 kilometres from the president's vacation home.

Earlier in the week, a cousin of Mattlage's, Larry Mattlage, fired off his shotgun in a display of anger and frustration over the disruption in Crawford (population 750) caused by the anti-war protestors.

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