[Peace-discuss] From Cindy Sheehan

[C. G. Estabrook]

   Wake Up 
   By Cindy Sheehan 
   t r u t h o u t | Perspective 
   Monday 19 September 2005 

   "So we have come to cash this check - a check that will   
   give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security 
   of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to  
   remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no
   time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the
   tranquilizing drug of gradualism." 
   -- MLK, Jr. Aug. 28, 1963, 'I Have a Dream' speech

    What Bush's Katrina shows once again is that my son died
for nothing. If you listen to Bush - and fewer and fewer are,
thank goodness - we are in Iraq in part due to 9/11. All our
president has been talking about has been protecting this
country since 9/11. That's why people voted for him in the
last election. Katrina shows it's all as sham, a fraud, a
disaster as large as Katrina itself. 

    Hundreds of billions and tens of thousands of innocent
lives wasted later, what have we achieved? Nothing. Casey died
for nothing and Bush says others have to die for those that
have died already. 

    Enough, George! What is disgusting is not, as the first
lady says, criticism of you, but rather the crimes you've
committed against this country and our sons and daughters.
Stop hiding behind your twisted idea of God and stop
destroying this country. 

    This week I arrive in Washington DC to begin my Vigil at
the White House just like I did in Texas. But this time I'll
be joined by Katrina victims as well. In your America we are
all victims. The failed bookends of your Presidency are Iraq
and Katrina. 

    It is time for all of us to stand up and be counted: to
show the media, Congress, and this inept, corrupt, and
criminal administration that we mean business. It is time to
get off of our collective behinds to show the people who are
running our country into oblivion that we will stand for it no
longer. That we want our country back and we want our nation's
young people back home, safe and sound, on our shores to help
protect America. That it is time for a change in our country's
"leadership." That we will never go away until our dreams are
reality. 

    We have so-called leaders in our country who are waiting
for the correct "politically expedient" time to speak up and
out against the occupation of Iraq. It is no sweat for our
politicos to wait for the right time, because not one of them
has a child in harm's way. I don't care if the politician is
a Democrat or a Republican, this is not about politics. Being
a strong leader to guide our country out of the quagmire and
mistake of Iraq will require people of courage and
determination to stand up and say: "I don't care if I win the
next election, people are dying in Iraq every day and families
are being decimated." We, as the 62% of Americans who want our
troops to begin coming home, will follow such a leader down
the difficult but oh-so-rewarding path of peace with justice. 

    It is no longer time for the tranquilizing drug of
gradualism. It never has been the time for that. Our "now" is
so fiercely urgent. Like my daughter, Carly, wrote in the last
verse of her "A Nation Rocked to Sleep" poem: 

	Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep? 
	Our leaders want to keep us numb so the pain won't be too deep, 
	But if we the people allow them to continue, another mother will
weep, 
	Have you heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep?

    Wake up: See you in DC on the 24th. 

________________________________

    For more information os September 24th go to: 
    http://www.unitedforpeace.org
<http://www.unitedforpeace.org/> .