Letter from John Conyers: Support Cindy Send 1000 LTTE

[Generic Other]

Support Cindy
Help Write 1000 Letters to our local Newspapers


Cindy Sheehan’s vigil outside in Crawford, Texas has clearly struck a nerve in this country, and her willingness to speak truth to power resonates as a model of courage and dedication to us all.


I am proposing that we take three steps to support Cindy in the face of a ferocious assault by the right wing.

First, I am organizing an effort to write our local papers to support Cindy and her efforts to meet with the president. I have set up a form on my web site as part of a Crawford Action Center (which includes news reports, pictures, video, audio, and talking points) to allow you to submit a letter in your own words simultaneously to all papers in your region. I will be able to keep track of the number of letters submitted, and have set an initial goal of generating at least 1,000 letters to support Cindy. This is a follow-up to the letter that I, along with 40 Members of Congress, sent to the president urging him to meet with Cindy.

http://johnconyers.com

Second, I have made a $500 donation to the Gold Star Families for Peace. If you are able to, you can go to the following site to make a donation to the Gold Star Families or the Crawford Peace Center to support Cindy’s efforts.

http://gsfp.org

Third, arm yourselves with the facts about Cindy so that you are prepared to respond to the smear attacks coordinated by the right wing. Correct these misconceptions in your communications with the media, on the internet, and in your day-to-day conversations. I have added a talking points section to my website that provide simple, direct refutations to the lies that are being spread besmirching Cindy's character. Grassroots word-of-mouth is the first line of defense in responding to these attacks.

http://johnconyers.com

Let’s help Cindy in her pursuit for truth and justice in the face of a right wing smear campaign.

[Larkspur]

1. Here's the LTTE's I sent to the Hartford Courant and The Day

Both are CT newspapers

To the Hartford Courant I wrote
A letter writer wrote, “ camping at George Bush's … home serves to denigrate the pride and patriotism that is inherent in the heart and soul of a Gold Star mother.” <“Dead GI's Mom Is A Bush Hater,” Mark Ballard, August 16, 2005>

Cindy Sheehan is walking the same moral high ground as Chile's Mothers of the Detained and Disappeared did against brutal dictator General Pinochet.

The question Mrs. Sheehan uses to frame her protest – “What is the noble cause that my son died for?” – is a moral stake through the heart of the Bush Administration’s reasons for launching war against Iraq. George Bush cannot answer that question truthfully because his war was based upon deceit and delusions.

Cindy Sheehan is demanding that President Bush be held accountable for the web of deceit he wove to commit this nation to war against Iraq and for continuing his criminal negligence of not supporting our troops with the supplies they need. Accountability is what George W Bush has fled from his whole life.

By resolving to hold Bush accountable for his abuse of her son and our troops, Mrs. Sheehan is showing how hypocritical and immoral the Right Wing movement that supports George Bush is. It also shows how immoral pro-war Democrats, like Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Hillary Clinton are. They rather protect children from violence in video games than protect America’s sons and daughters from being sent to a war based upon lies and delusions.

To The Day I wrote
“It's obvious Cindy Sheehan has become a political player, whose primary concern is embarrassing the president,” claims Bill O’Reilly <“Conservative Backlash Aimed At Anti-war Protester Sheehan,” August 17, 2005>

President Bush should be more than embarrassed about sending our troops into a war based upon deceit and delusions.

The Sheehan-Bush Standoff in Crawford, TX reminds me of this Mahatma Gandhi quote, “Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.”

The question Mrs. Sheehan uses to frame her protest – “What is the noble cause that my son died for?” – is a moral stake through the heart of the Bush Administration’s excuses for launching war against Iraq.

Like a vampire fighting the Light of Truth, Bush sends his vassals from the Rightwing punditry to assail her character with lies and distortions. Bush even inspires his vulgar minions to use physical terrorism, like the vandalizing of “Arlington West,” to intimidate her.

Cindy Sheehan is walking the same moral high ground as Mahatma Gandhi did, and Bush’s Administration, like the British Empire, is doomed to fail. Gandhi predicted it, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”