Zombie by Cindy Sheehan

[proud2BlibKansan]

June 25, 2007
Zombie
Cindy Sheehan

Another head hangs lowly,
Child is slowly taken.
And the violence caused such silence,
Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it's not me, it's not my family.
In your head, in your head they are fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are crying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou...

Another mother's breakin',
Heart is taking over.
When the vi'lence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.
It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying...

In your head, in your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie,
Hey, hey, hey. What's in your head,
In your head,
Zombie, zombie, zombie?
Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a...
The Cranberries

On the way home from Los Angeles yesterday, my
daughter Carly, and I stopped in a store on the
Grapevine to purchase some CDs for the longish drive
(6 hours). One of the CDs we bought was a greatest
hits album by The Cranberries.

It's not me, it's not my family. One of the songs on
the CD is the above song, Zombie. The Cranberries were
an Irish rock group that took on social issues like
violence and drug addiction: serious problems in all
societies, but especially their society in the 1990s.
We were listening to the CD and after Zombie I looked
at Carly and she was wiping tears off of her face. She
said: "How can you listen to that song? You listened
to it the day Casey was killed while you were cleaning
the house."

"It sure has deeper meaning to us now, doesn't it?" I
quietly replied as I started weeping.

Another mother's breakin' heart is takin' over. I have
been watching CNN this morning and I have learned more
about the horrible family tragedy in Ohio and seen
pictures of the flowers and cards left at the slain
young pregnant woman's home. I am learning of another
tragedy in Utah where a prison inmate killed a police
officer. There are fires in California. One news item
that hasn't appeared thus far is the 83 soldiers and
hundreds of Iraqis who have been killed so far in Iraq
in June because of George's bloody surge. No one has
mentioned the 20 American mothers who still don't know
their child is dead for lies. It seems that we news
consumers can feel better about ourselves mourning a
beautiful mother and her unborn baby killed by a
callous murderer in front of their two year old son,
then mourning thousands of people killed by the
callous murderers in Washington, DC who care more
about their corporate puppeteers than the lives they
have destroyed. In our collective sub-conscious we
know that we are also responsible for our state
sanctioned murder.

It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen: I was
recently in Dublin and statues are erected to the
leaders of the Easter Week Rebellion of 1916 when
Irish Patriots rose up against a fateful British
decision to forcibly conscript the Irish for the
"Great War" effort. After the uprising the British
Empire executed 16 Irish Patriots. However, I have a
slight correction: it's the same old theme since
civilizations were formed. Imperial powers oppress,
kill, demonize and marginalize people who dare to be
in the way of their empires. In the 21st century you
would think that "civilized" countries would be
finished with killing people for profit, but sadly, it
seems that we have learned and will learn nothing from
all of the death and destruction caused by callous
murderers who put on the cloaks of "respectability" of
their elective offices and can serially slaughter in
the name of the people of their states. How and why
can these immoral wars continue? Because we are:

Zombie, Zombie, Zombie: One of the definitions of a
zombie is a person whose behavior or responses are
"wooden, listless, or seemingly rote; automaton"
(dictionary.com). As Carly and I were wiping our eyes
and blowing our noses yesterday, enormous gas guzzling
behemoths were whizzing by us on I-5 rushing from
point A to point B. Some had "Support the Troops"
magnets and some had "W" stickers. I wonder if any of
them reflect (for even a second) on what support for W
and his pre-meditated, pre-emptive act of aggression
has cost some people and if anyone they whizzed by
yesterday (in smaller, more modest cars) were weeping
because of their robotic allegiance to a dangerous
imbecile. Even more disastrously, the immense majority
of our brothers and sisters who disapprove of BushCo
and its foreign policy ("if you're not with us, you're
against us"), are apathetic consumer-ing automatons
that allow the carnage to continue. And the violence
caused such silence.

In America alone there are over 3500 families whose
lives have been profoundly altered forever. We never
know when the fresh grief will strike or from what
direction it will come. The only thing we can be
assured of is that it will always be there.

For Carly and I, on I-5 yesterday it came from Zombie.

[Dhalgren]

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