Cindy Sheehan and Ann Wright-- in Charlottesville!
I finally got to meet Cindy Sheehan yesterday. She and Ann Wright both came to Charlottesville to speak at a public forum organized by the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice.
We got well over 400 people there, which was exciting.
Cindy, I guess I don't need to introduce to the readers here. Ann was one of the three US Foreign Service Officers who resigned the day the Bush administration started bombing Iraq. (Here's her resignation letter.) At that time she was the No.2 person in the US Embassy in Mongolia. She is a whip-smart, extremely principled, and very hardworking person! She was wearing a tee-shirt with the numbers of US (and Iraqi) casualties prominently taped to the front...
She had some really interesting ideas about how CCPJ ought to reach out and talk to folks at the US military's very own law school-- the "Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School"-- which is located right here in town, next to the UVA law school and right behind one of our main shopping centers. She noted that the head JAG officers from all four of the military services had played a strong role in trying to uphold the government's compliance with the Geneva Conventions, etc, and said it was quite likely we might find folks at the JAG school who have served down in Guantanamo, or in Bagram, or Iraq.
(I actually thought a while back we ought to do try to talk to some JAG school folks here. So it's good that Ann kind of jogged my memory on that.)
Anyway, it was really inspiring to meet both Ann and Cindy, and to hear what they said. I don't have time to write a lot here about it. If you have the capability to download a podcast, you can hear the whole forum yourself, here.
I do have to say, though, that I thought the evening went on a bit long. There were two fairly lengthy spoken introductions and then quite a lot of songs from Terri Allard before we got to the two main speakers. Many in the audience were tired even before Ann and Cindy got started-- and it looked as though both of them were pretty tired, too...
These two women are national treasures! We have to look after them!
A footnote: the reason we were able to get these two fabulous women to come and speak here was because of David Swanson, an indefatigable antiwar organizer and nationwide Democratic activist who moved here to town with his wife Anna just a few months ago. We are so lucky to have him him here. Thanks for everything you do, David!
Cindy is a wonderful person. I first met her at Eyes Wide Open in DC in January 2004 - she was a speaker there. That was in inauguration day. We had boots lined up on the steps of the First Christian Church (I think I am remembering the name of the church correctly) with candles besides the boots, just blocks from the White House. As Cindy and others spoke, stretch limo after stretch limo after .... well, probably a hundred of them drove by, totally oblivious to the pain that this administration's policies were causing.
They (and the rest of America) were oblivious to the picture that was on the front page of papers around the world that day. It was of a 3 year old Iraqi girl, with her parent's blood dripping from her hands, her mouth wide open in a scream.
US troops had shot her parents, when the car they were driving got too close to US troops on foot patrol, in Tal Afar.
our neighbor's son was recently killed in Iraq. My husband and I walked to the "memorial" they set-up...we left a vase of daffadils and a card expressing what 'A GREAT AMERICAN FAMILY' they were....because they ARE A GREAT AMERICAN FAMILY! I believe you (Cindy) degrade your son's sacrifice selfishly with your actions. I wish you would instead respect your son and his beliefs in the United States of America. SHAME ON YOU....