Sit Down for Peace, Justice, and Accountability by Cindy Sheehan

[babylonsister]

Reprinted with Cindy's permission.

Sit Down for Peace, Justice, and Accountability




I usually end my articles with a call to action, but today, I begin with one. Maybe readers get bored with my pieces before the end and don't get to the action part, which is the most important part.

Gold Star Families for Peace is calling for an action in front of the White House on the days of November 6th to November 9th (due to the urgency of our situation, we are beginning the sit-in on Saturday, Nov. 4) to perform a Gandhi-like sit down for peace and justice. Join us to sit down for all or part of the time we will be there. We might as well face it, the White House is where the power is. Congress has spent 6 years invalidating themselves and creating a Unitary Executive Branch that pats Congress on the head for being obedient and circumvents the Supreme Court and goes whining to the same agreeable Congress when the Court (in rare cases) slaps Georgie on the wrist. The potential Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) has already said that if the Democrats take back the House, impeachment proceedings will not be forthcoming. Who's going to sit down with us to hold the war criminals in power accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity and peace?

Yesterday, without a peep from we the people, and while 10 soldiers were being murdered in George's horrendous war for corporate greed, he signed HR6166 into law. 10 soldiers were killed defending the war machine's right to garner obscene profits while the soldiers were being told that they were spreading "freedom and democracy" to Iraq. While they were dying for this supposed "freedom and democracy" their commander in chief and Congress were busy taking away ours. Who's going to sit down with us for these 10 young people to make sure their deaths do count for freedom and democracy?

HR6166 is the Military Commissions Act which allows everyone from George on down to the actual torturer to inflict inhumanity on our fellow human beings with impunity. The Act also allows George to decide who is a terrorist who does not deserve the right to Habeas Corpus and who is not a terrorist who does deserve the right to Habeas Corpus.
Who's going to sit down with us to say: "I demand my rights to Habeas Corpus and I repudiate torture in all forms."

Where were the massive demonstrations against this bill? Where was the outrage when King George the Illigitimate Pretender to the Throne signed it into law? Where are we the people? May I assume by the relative silence that the majority of Americans approve of torture and suspending Habeas Corpus? When does silence begin to equal complicity? Who's going to sit down with us to say "I am not a war criminal like BushCo?"

We the people, over two-thirds of us who disapprove of BushCo and their destructive foreign and callous domestic policies, need to stand up to be counted. Such memorials to our children who have been killed in Iraq as Arlington West and Eyes Wide Open are excoriated by the reich as "political," but they serve the purpose of showing we the people what 2768 actually looks like. 65% of America is just an abstract number. Who's going to sit down with us to show our blood-thirsty administration and Congress what a majority of America looks like?

George has condemned our irreplaceable young people to early graves and almost 700,000 innocent Iraqis have been slaughtered due to his policies. This number is staggering and heart rending to me. I met a young man in an airport that was in tears. He is a member of the First Cavalry (like Casey) and his unit is heading back to Iraq at the end of this month. He was just told that they would have to stay there for 18 months! He said he feels like he was just sentenced to a year and a half in prison for the crime of having enlisted to serve his country. Who is going to sit down with us for my young friend, Carl, and the tens of thousands of Carls who have been sentenced to similar fates?

While we the people have been naively pinning our hopes on the mid-term elections, 68 of our children have been killed in Iraq this month and untold numbers of innocent Iraqis have met similar and unjust fates. 68 families have been violently torn asunder so far this month, with no end on the horizon. 68 flag draped coffins will be coming home in a veil of secrecy, as if their civilian leaders are ashamed of them, to 68 devastated families while the war profiteers on all levels of society are rubbing their blood-stained hands with glee. 68 funerals, that George will never attend, while BushCo are planning the next wars using our children (not theirs) as pawns in their evil game of death for profit. How can we justify our comfortable complacency when 68 mothers will never be comfortable again? Who's going to sit down with us so no other mothers, Iraqi or American, white or brown, Christian or Muslim, end up with the same sorrow-filled fate?

We at Gold Star Families for Peace wonder why our children died? They all took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies "foreign and domestic" and our leaders are busy decimating the same document, after they also took an oath. Who's going to sit down with Gold Star Families to help us bring closure to this war and help us make our loved ones' death count for the Noble Cause of peace?

There is no Noble Cause for war and other people's children are dying while our emperor without clothes, courage, or honesty is fiddling with our nation's freedoms, treasure (or lack thereof) and he is dishonorably mis-using our honorable babies who would never sign up to fight wars for the war machine if they knew what they were really getting into. Who is going to sit down with us to show the war machine that we intend to throw a monkey wrench into its ravenous cogs?

We the people do have recourse, but we can't sit on our duffs waiting for bereaved families to do most of the dirty work. It is up to us, we are the ones we have been waiting for, not the blood-thirsty Congress where most of the members are benefitting financially from the fiascoes in the Middle East. We know we can't count on the blood drenched administration to help us...George has said over and over that the troops aren't coming home while he is President. Who's going to sit down with us to make sure that Congress does the right thing and institutes impeachment proceedings so our young people can finally come home from the nightmare in the desert and so the people of Iraq can go about the business of rebuilding their own country and their demolished lives?

Please, please, please....join GSFP in front of the White House. If there ever was a time to end our complacency and commitment to politics as usual and the status quo of wars for profit, it is now.
There are people all over the world counting on us to do our parts for true democracy and for world peace.
Who's going to sit down with us for true democracy and world peace?
The time is now. The person is you!

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and author of the newly released book: Peace Mom, A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism. For more information on the sit in go to Gold Star Families for Peace or email
[e-mail]

[Solly Mack]

1. I've been thinking about sit-ins a lot lately

Civil resistance is a good thing.

[keepCAblue]

2. I so wish I could join Cindy and company.

Alas, lack of money and it's a long walk from California to D.C.

Sometimes I just hate being a member of the working poor.

[babylonsister]

3. I hear you-I wish we could all meet up with her. nt

[babylonsister]

4. Kickin' for Cindy-and us! nt

[bdamomma]

5. kickin for Cindy also