“Bushstock 2005”
By Vincent Fiore (08/25/05)
Joan Baez, last seen at Yasgur’s farm in 1969 in Sullivan County, New York, serenaded the assembled protesters down at “Camp Casey, Texas,” in what has become the modern-day left’s version of Woodstock.
It’s a fair bet that a lot of the protesters in Crawford these days are probably relics of “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” culture of the sixties. As for the others that rage against President Bush, and his “stubbornness” at not seeing--for a second time--Cindy Sheehan, (who is attending to her ailing mother back home) most are present-day anti-war activists and liberal apologist who believe that they sense change in the air regarding the war in Iraq.
Frankly, the change in the air that Mrs. Sheehan and her entourage and followers may detect is more likely just a foul wind blowing across the southern border. Though the mainstream media has tried hard, the country does not necessarily approve of what Cindy Sheehan is doing, as evidenced in part by a recent Rasmussen Reports poll which had Americans viewing Cindy Sheehan as “35% Favorable to 38% Unfavorable.”
(www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/Cindy%20Sheehan.htm)
A week or so ago, that poll may have been reversed. But as time rolls on, Americans, including most families who have loved ones in Iraq, are growing uncomfortable with the “absolute moral authority” that Mrs. Sheehan has granted herself.
Americans are coming to find out just how committed Mrs. Sheehan is to stopping the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and essentially withdrawing out of the Middle East. Some of her recent and past comments have given license to many to question just who or what this vigil is about.
When Mrs. Sheehan started her vigil on August 6, nobody but the Washington press corps and Texas livestock were on hand to see. Few people in America knew of Cindy Sheehan, or of her slain son, Casey Sheehan.
No one knew that Sheehan aligned herself with such anti-war heavyweights as Code Pink-Women for Peace, United for Peace & Justice, and Veterans for Peace.
The public was repeatedly told that Cindy Sheehan was a “Gold Star Mother”; but that is essentially untrue in its intended meaning. Cindy Sheehan belongs to, and is a founding member, of Gold Star Families for Peace.
The well-known American Gold Star Mothers, Inc, was established in 1928, and it does not support what Cindy Sheehan is doing. The media have laconically or lazily failed to make a distinction between these two polar opposites, so much so, that AGSM felt compelled to post a statement on its web site that states that Cindy Sheehan “and her organization have no connection whatever with American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.”
The public has become painfully aware of some of Mrs. Sheehan’s decidedly political statements as well, like a recent speech she gave to the Veterans for Peace on August 5 of this year. Some of Mrs. Sheehan’s more memorable applause lines were:
* “And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for. And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy I'm gonna say, ****.”
* “You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy.”
* “You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine.”
* “Another thing that I'm doing is - - my son was killed in 2004, so I'm not paying my taxes for 2004. (www.veteransforpeace.org/convention05/sheehan_transcript.htm)
There are so many more thoughtless statements besides these. It is the rantings of a mother so grief-stricken as to become a walking, talking bulletin board for the anti-war and Bush-hating left. (www.drudgereport.com/flash3.htm)
As Newton’s third law of action-reaction tells us, a collision occurs when there is contact between two colliding objects. Cindy Sheehan, along with her handlers and supporters--and the mainstream media--has set in motion a reaction because of their strident actions.
The “You don't speak for me, Cindy!” tour is winding its way to Crawford, picking up supporters along the way, and should arrive in Crawford to display Newton’s third law on August 27.
“It's time to lay down the anger. We need to continue to uphold those people over there, to uphold those men and women with their boots on the ground.” said Deborah Johns, whose son William is a marine stationed in Iraq.
The stories of the mothers and fathers of soldiers who support the war and America are missing from the pages of the Cindy-addled media, but that’s why the alternative media is so valuable, and so needed.
Even in-step progressives are starting to have doubts as to what Mrs. Sheehan is really doing out in Crawford, as Christopher Hitchens does in his bare-knuckled commentary in that, he says, Cindy Sheehan “is spouting sinister piffle.” (slate.msn.com/id/2124500/)
As this column stated nearly two weeks ago, it is time for Mrs. Sheehan to go home. Though I received over a thousand e-mail messages telling me that I was, among many other things, premature in my declarations against Mrs. Sheehan, I believe that the public at large sees what I and others have seen.
This “vigil” has ceased to be about the brave and noble sacrifice of Casey Sheehan and the Iraq war. It is about Cindy Sheehan, and the hateful twaddle that she and the left spew daily against their president, their country, and their armed services that fight despite them. How the terrorist must laugh at this, and gain strength.
As another day comes and goes in Crawford, the “Cindyless” protesters carry on. With such notables as Joan Baez, FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley, and numerous sixties has-beens and wannabes camped out in a ditch, an Austin TV producer has started making what he titles, “Bushstock 2005.”
It seems to me that this would work as a concept. Failing that, the producer could fall back on what the White House press corps has named the main camp of Cindy Sheehan: “Cirque du Soleil,” which means Circus of the Sun. How appropriate.
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