Cindy Sheehan Burns Out. For Now.
May 28th, 2007 | 22 responses
From the folks at the Daily Kos, Cindy Sheehan’s entire letter
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/28/12530/1525
Some quotes from her letter:
“I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now.”
“This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.”
“I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an “attention whore” then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others.”
“The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a “tool” of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our “two-party” system?”
However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used.”
“I have spent every available cent I got from the money a “grateful” country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then.”
” I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey’s brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings.”
” I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.”
“The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing.”
“I am going to take whatever I have left and go home.”
“Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford , Texas ? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too…which makes the property even more valuable.”
22 Responses to “Cindy Sheehan Burns Out. For Now.”
[...] The Moderate Voice also links Sheehan’s GBCW, without [...]
David Spade -
Wow, for once I agree with Cindy Sheehan. Both her and Andrew Bacevich have come to a conclusion that I came to many years ago – that both political parties are corrupt and that both don’t give a sh!t about anything but their own partisan agenda.
I hope you find some peace Cindy.
[...] been seeing this plastered all over the web. Apparently Cindy Sheehan has finally realized what the rest of have [...]
AR David Spade is a no talent comedian and actor, who sacrifices nothing. Whatever crazy things CS has done, she has lost her son while he fought for his country. What has Spade done for you?
I generally agreed with her early on in her activism, and I loved how she made hard-core righty heads explode. But she had already jumped the shark for me by the time she met with Hugo Chavez – and made my head explode.
I doubt the Democrats will miss her much given her much-publicized downward spiral, but I think Sheehan has the moral high ground on this issue. Whatever you think of her politics, Sheehan’s outrage against our government goes well beyond one political party or another. She’s already publicly voiced her dislike of Hillary Clinton, and now she’s apparently added the Democratic Congress to the list of people she despises.
I don’t think it’s hard to find things to dislike in any political system. Since before we acquired language, we’ve been playing nasty political games (assuming that we evolved from apes similar to our nearest genetic relatives). If you’re going to speak your mind in public life, chances are you’ll be rejected by every group you criticize, which could easily be every group out there.
This reminds me of “Team America”: when I first watched that movie, I started off cheering because they viciously made fun of all I wanted them to criticize. Then I froze in horror as they made fun of everything I wanted them to lionize! Eventually, I gave up and just laughed.
I think the problem for those of us who can see the ugly side of most political processes is to find constructive ways of communicating what we see, and providing useful alternative strategies. Telling people what’s wrong just makes it harder for them to deny it, which they must do if they are to go on using the only strategies they have.
Anyway, brava Cindy Sheehan for your honesty. Sorry about your son. I hope you can pull a new life together. May your efforts inspire others to do the same for our country.
Nick is right that Mother Sheehan did maintain the moral high ground.
But she made a fundamental mistake that other neophytes in her position have made over the years: She allowed the memory of her son — the reason for her cause — to be coopted by others in the movement and rather quickly lost her gravitas because of her meeting with Chavez, her Israel bashing and so on.
I have always admired her for her courage in speaking out against Bush and the war, and felt that she contributed a lot of visability to the antiwar movement at great personal cost. She obviously felt, like many grieving parents, the need to take action
in order to give some kind of meaning to her loss. In the end she found there was none, which is truly tragic.
She was vilified in the media by the right and labelled a shrill, hysterical woman who had basically become unhinged by her son’s death. I think she deserved more, although I agree with others here that she hurt her cause by alligning with Chavez. That action gave support to those who have always claimed that she and her followers hate America, and not just the policies of Bush.
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Cindy Sheehan is rather a tragic figure and a case study in how a naive person can be ground up in the process of pursuing that cause.
What she needed was a sophisticated advisor; what she got was friends with causes of their own who lured her onto dangerous side lines.
Shaun Mullen comes closest to stating what I believed happened. She was co-opted because she lacked the knowledge and sophistication to understand her friends as well as her enemies.
Grief makes a person particularly vulnerable to being co-opted. In grief one asks the eternal question of ‘why’, creating fertile ground for false prophets with sleezy answers.
I hope Cindy finds peace eventually.
In the meantime, I can empathize with her bitterness.
“Empire”? BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT
“Good Riddance!” — (real) Americans
I think she didn’t understand how similar the two parties are, that in the end they are beholden to the same special interests and that neither one is there for the average American. Otherwise we would have been out of Iraq by now, have a sensible alternative energy program and be in line with the Euros in combatting global warming.
By repeatedly using the names of other servicemen against the express wishes of their families?
By using such inflammatory language that she marginalized herself and made discussion impossible?
By standing up against the war that took her son’s life. By giving up her marriage and being with the rest of her kids to do what she believed in. She had the courage of her convictions and acted on it, while the rest of us just type at a keyboard.
Inflammatory rhetoric has been used from the beginning by both sides, so its not really fair to single her out for that.
There are a lot of people who are able to stand up against a war that they disagree with without embracing unethical, extremist, or counterproductive tactics to do it. Activism isn’t automatically good just because its activism.
And I don’t single her out as the only one guilty of extremism. I merely say that she doesn’t get a claim of special moral status. She certainly does not have a greater claim than that of other families who have lost members to the war — the same families she intentionally snubs if they dare to disagree with her politics.
Her self-righteousness has blinded her to moral and ethical questions about her own tactics. That may be understandable as she is a fallible human being who was subjected to an extremely painful experience. But the fact that her failings are understandable doesn’t mean she gets a pass on everything.
If she goes back to California, she has a few choices:
http://www.dmh.cahwnet.gov/Statehospitals/default.asp
” “Good Riddance!†— (real) Americans ”
I didn’t know you were native american DLS, and if you aren’t and make that kind of comment you’re just a fake, flag wrapped jerk that assumes one side of an argument gets to declare their ownership of something they really aren’t in either historical reality, unless you only count the last 231 years, or substance by showing some grace instead of wearing the flag as a garment, or as a cheap antanne ornament.
Btw, I never cared for Sheehan myself, but you are doing a damn good job of making her seem alot more moderate with that “(real) american” crack. Over the top political stances aren’t tempered by 180 degree opposites without it being just as whacky sounding to those that haven’t sold their souls to a political party/”team”.
> I didn’t know you were
> native [A]merican[,] DLS
There’s some ancestry there, though not whole. In any event, you were wrong in what you wrote. Normal people and real Americans, and for that matter real people elsewhere not only don’t foolishly believe, they do not respect fake charges of US “imperialism” and other such nonsense that also is slander.
Ah, the tolerance and respect for principled disagreement is on full display!
Dear All: Just a general comment… It is true, as several of you have pointed out, that not having experience or apt advisors or reliable support beforehand, and during public office or acticvism, can be a heck of a row to hoe. Burnout occurs in all professions and endeavors if certain factors are present. I hope to soon complete an article for TMV about Burn-out, its anatomy.
dr.e