Support Cindy - Help Write 1000 Letters to our local Newspapers

[paineinthearse]

By email.

Let this be DU's next activist campaign!

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.

Sincerely,



John Conyers, Jr.

[AuntPatsy]

1. Oh wow, a Dem actually doing something take NOTE naysayers of the Dems.

[paineinthearse]

2. Let me introduce you to the John Conyers group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=340

Mr. Conyers is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee has been "doing something", as you put it for YEARS.

His most recent efforts have been in the areas of election fraud, media complicity, DSM, Guckertgate, executive branch abuse of poser, etc etc etc.

[AuntPatsy]

3. Obviously a few people on this board conviently ignore Conyers

hard edged fighting skills for us the American people and ignore the fact that he is a Dem, so another kick is in order, obviously what we need here sometime today is a list of the Dems fighting to get their voices heard, especially when so called Dems don't see his actions and other dems worth mentioning other than posts about how weak the Dems are, this generalizing today is driving me batty..

Thanks for putting this in..

[paineinthearse]

10. That list can be found in the JC forum

Look for links to his letters to Inspector General Fine and similar.

They are signed by approximately 51 other Reps, you know, the usual suspects: George Miller, Jim McDermott, Louise Slaughter, Jim McGovern, Maurice Hinchey, just about the entire CBC......

[Larkspur]

4. I posted the 2 LTTE's I sent to CT newspapers in GD forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4387730

[paineinthearse]

9. Excellent, 2 down 998 to go! nt

[Larkspur]

11. I got one of the 2 published today!!!

Here's the link to the DU thread I posted on it -- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2019511

[paineinthearse]

17. Hope the admins are reading this

It's prime for a DU ACTIVIST campaign.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[autorank]

6. Bush cannot win against Cindy. He looks like such a wimp!

Yes, I will write my paper, the PentaPost.

Cindy has one purpose in life. Bush says he just wants 'to get on with his life.' What a joke. How about all the damage he's caused everywhere? Are we supposed to simply forget it so "he can get on with his life." No way. Meet with Cindy, take your punishment.

[Diamonique]

7. Here's My Letter

(I love Conyers! That's my congressman!)

*******************

Cindy Sheehan is one brave woman. She alone has stood up to confront the president and ask "why". His reasons for this war have shifted more than the sands in Iraq. When our troops were first sent there, he said it was because of WMD and potential mushroom clouds. Then it was Saddam in cahoots with Al Qaeda. Then it was "Iraqi Freedom", then other reasons that I can't remember. All of these turned out to be lies, and President Bush knew they were lies from the beginning. Now he says we're there to create a democracy in Iraq. Puhleeze.

None of the reasons he has given the American people represent the *real* reason he started this war. Cindy wants the real reason. She wants to know -- truthfully -- why her son died. The American people deserve to know, and that's why I attended the candlelight vigil last night and will continue to support Cindy.

I haven't yet decided whether we should pull the troops out now, so I can't say I'm 100% behind her on that issue. But I'm thoroughly behind her in her demand for the truth about why Bush started this war.

[paineinthearse]

8. Excellent start, 3 down 997 to go! nt

[paineinthearse]

12. Conyers has posted this call to action at Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

[paineinthearse]

13. SUCCESS! "we have reached our goal of 1,000 letters in less than 24 hours"

http://www.conyersblog.us/default.htm

UPDATE:

Remarkably, we have reached our goal of 1,000 letters in less than 24 hours. I am so encouraged that people took the time to write their own words of support for Cindy that I will extend this campaign to see if we can write 1,000 more letters to our local papers.

==========

Blogged by JC on 08.17.05 @ 04:42 PM ET

Join Me in Writing 1,000 Letters to Local Papers Supporting Cindy

Cross Posted at The Huffington Post

Clearly, Cindy Sheehan has 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. One way I believe all of us can help her cause – even those who cannot travel to Crawford, Texas – is by writing our local papers to support her and her efforts to meet with the president. Let's keep up the momentum so that when she is able to return to Crawford, we have not faltered in the search for a "noble cause."

I have written a letter to my local newspaper, and set up a form on my web site that will allow readers to submit their own words simultaneously to all the papers in their region. These letters are crucial to combating the nasty smear attacks that the right wing have been promoting. I will be able to keep track of the number of letters submitted through the site, and have set an initial goal of 1,000 letters and/or guest editorials.

I have also transformed the home page of my website, http://johnconyers.com, into a Crawford Action Center to assist in writing letters, and generally in organizing support and donations for Cindy. It is an online resource where you can easily find the latest information about events in Crawford through news reports, pictures, video, audio, and talking points.

I believe it is crucial that all of our local newspapers hear from us and know that support for Cindy is widespread, particularly given the smear campaign the right wing is waging against her. While Cindy has the nation's attention, we need to buttress her press coverage with personal stories from others who share her grief and outrage at the Administration's conduct in getting us into this war.

[Al-CIAda]

14. .

[Mountainman]

15. I wrote a ltte last Friday to the Bakersfield Californian in support of

Cindy and they have yet to print it. Most of my letters get printed but not this one. Also I don't think they have mentioned her at all in their paper. The Californian endorsed Bush in the last election btw.

[paineinthearse]

16. Typical

)&#)($%@#)(*$)@#() media blackout!

[the phantom shouting]

18. Letter to the Chicago Tribune

I am fascinated with the wide range of derogatory and, in some cases, downright slanderous comments being directed at Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother camped outside President Bush's Crawford ranch demanding answers to harsh questions regarding her son's death in the war in Iraq.

We hear that she is a flip-flopper, a liar, a tool of the left, an anti-Semitic wacko, a mouthpiece for Michael Moore, and even, if you believe Rush Limbaugh, nothing more than a fabrication.

It seems to me that what is being lost in this wave of name calling is the fact that the questions Cindy Sheehan is asking deserve more than just another dismissive "we must stay the course in the War on Terror" response from the President.

If Iraq had no link to the September 11 attacks, no weapons of mass destruction, and was not an impending threat to the United States, why then are we two years into a $200+ billion dollar war that has sacrificed 1,850 U.S. troops to an insurgency that shows absolutely no signs of losing strength?

Just last week, the Washington Post ran a story which quoted a senior U.S. official as saying: "The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges."

This is, in a word, unacceptable.

Regardless of what people think of Cindy Sheehan, I submit that her central question to the President is a critical one.

What, indeed, is the 'noble cause' our soldiers are fighting and dying for in Iraq?

Sincerely,
James Riley