She is a heart-broken mother who is not paralyzed and silenced

[loupe-garou]

I heard Cindy speak in Syracuse...she was very smart,full of insight, without hatred, but with anger at how our country has been taken over with such heartbreaking consequences such as the deaths of MANY INNOCENTS....in other words, she is like all of us with more spunk and a larger audience.........I have nothing but sympathy and respect for her-SHE LOVES HER COUNTRY AND SHE LOVED HER SON! She calls herself AN AMERICAN! She is sincere and effective, and she is holding Democratic feet to the fire, something I should be doing more of myself! Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Usually I'm lurking and enjoying the debate. Happy New Year, all!

[loupe-garou]

1. OOPs This was meant as a reply to a Cindy Sheehan thread

[onecent]

2. That's OK, it's nice to see a nice thread about Cindy. Welcome

to DU.

[partylessinOhio]

3. Welcome, loupe-garou!

:hi:

Cindy is one strong woman and * is a coward. All he had to do was meet with her but he "decided" not to.

[ninkasi]

4. Welcome, werewolf

I agree with you. As the mother of two grown sons, and a grown grandson, I can very well understand why Cindy is doing what she is to try to get this insane war stopped. She lost her much beloved, and cherished son, and understands all too well the suffering other parents, other spouses, other siblings, and other children, go through, when they lose their sons, daughter, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, best friends...the list is almost endless.

She has undertaken her mission of trying to stop this war out of love for her son, and the love we should all be capable of feeling for our fellow man. To a person who has lost a loved one, trying to stop someone else from enduring the same pain can be an overwhelming thing. I love and have deep respect for Cindy, and the courage she has shown.

[xchrom]

5. welcome!

and cindy is doing just fine in my book.

[ellisonz]

6. I agree with everything you say...

except I do not believe she is "effective, and holding Democratic feet ot the fire." Dean held their feet to the fire long in 2003 before Cindy Sheehan tried to do it in 2004. There were people hard at work against the war long before Cindy Sheehan came along.

There's a reason Howard is DNC chair.

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[loupe-garou]

7. Thanks for the warm welcome

I was reading a lot of negative stuff about Cindy and it struck me as unfair, and I reacted. I also think it is hard to put your feelings and most profound hurts out in the public like that- for me anyway. I appreciate everyone's POV though...

[Rene]

8. Cindy Sheehan is the person who has broken the back of this

awful administration. I credit her for raising people's awareness and consciences about the illegal war and the loss of thousands of innocent lives. Cindy is the one person responsible for the political party power flip to Dems in D.C.

[NYCGirl]

13. Two words: John Murtha. NT

[calimary]

9. Welcome to DU! Glad you're not just lurking. I think your point about

Cindy Sheehan is correct. She's wonderful. She put a human face on the needless tragedy of this war. She's taken an awful drubbing, and I don't think she deserves that.

[ClassWarrior]

10. K&R

Thank you.

NGU.

[bling bling]

11. Heartbroken mother.

That's an important point. Let us not forget the vast range of emotions and reactions we've had the past six years, spanning from shock, to rage to embarassment to disappointment to utter disbelief. There was a time in 2004 where I felt disgusted with about 1/2 of this country. Disgusted is the nicest word I can think of right now, too. It has been madness. I don't know what else to call it. And I didn't have the added HORROR of having lost my heart too by losing my child.

Personally, as long as she is obeying the law then I think that what she is doing is important to the health of this country. The politicians, Dem or Repub, are NOT ABOVE THE PEOPLE. The people can assemble and protest this government and shout above their press conferences and quite frankly I feel less afraid and more secure in a country where this is happening. I'm more scared of living in a country where we all stand by with our hands clasped waiting for our government to address a disaster of EPIC proportions while they play the Washington game. And it is a game.

Think of Iraq as Katrina. The streets are flooded and there's no food or water. The government will get around to putting together a rescue plan but in the meantime we're watching this situation on t.v. and we're all flipping out about it. The people who hold the authority to do something ought to DO IT! They shouldn't get a weekend or holiday or any day off until they DO SOMETHING. This is what we pay them to do. They aren't above us -- they work for us and this is unacceptable. I think that's kind of what Cindy is saying. To her, Iraq is Katrina and people are drowning and there's no time to stand around talking about lobbyist ethics. Save the drowning people for fucks sake. Every day of delay means another family has to lose a child.

The woman is nothing if not diligent. She's exercising her rights and like I said before, it's a relief to me to see that if we're passionate enough about our disagreement with our government, WE THE PEOPLE can still have our voices heard in this country.

[loupe-garou]

12. Thanks for your good points --We as a people have been

put through hell---one of us is wailing and getting some attention on the problem. I don't think we should complain about the perfection of her pitch or judgement.

I think this issue pushes my buttons because my sister died in a car accident at 21 and in my own grief I watched what my parents went through, which was 10X what I went through. And that accident wasn't the fault of a megalomaniacal sociopathic ruler.

[bling bling]

14. This issue has pushed my buttons too.

I think that you and I are viewing this situation from the same angles. Not only in our sympathy for Cindy as a mother but in our view of the big picture of all of this. From our vantage point it's difficult to understand the level of contempt some people are showing for her actions the other night.

I'm very sorry about your sister. I can only imagine the kind of grief that would accompany the loss of a child (or sibling) and even just imagining it is too much to bare.

On edit: I welcomed you to DU and then saw you've been here awhile! My mistake for not checking first. But I'm still glad you came out from lurking to participate in this discussion. Hope to see you around more often.

[loupe-garou]

15. I haven't had the mental space to participate for a couple of years

while I was in school, just to lurk........ Now I'm done and hope to participate more in a couple of chosen areas, not sure what yet. So many issues to choose from!!!