Cindy Sheehan on Memorial Day

In her own words;

Being cynically pessimistic, it seems to me that this new vote to extend the war until the end of September, (and let's face it, on October 1st, you will give him more money after some more theatrics, which you think are fooling the anti-war faction of your party) will feed right into the presidential primary season and you believe that if you just hang on until then, the Democrats will be able to re-take the White House. Didn't you see how "well" that worked for John Kerry in 2004 when he played the politics of careful fence sitting and pandering? The American electorate are getting disgusted with weaklings who blow where the wind takes them while frittering away our precious lifeblood and borrowing money from our new owners, the Chinese.

I knew having a Democratic Congress would make no difference in grassroots action. That's why we went to DC when you all were sworn in to tell you that we wanted the troops back from Iraq and BushCo held accountable while you pushed for ethics reform which is quite a hoot...don't' you think? We all know that it is affordable for you all to play this game of political mayhem because you have no children in harm's way...let me tell you what it is like:

You watch your reluctant soldier march off to a war that neither you nor he agrees with. Once your soldier leaves the country all you can do is worry. You lie awake at night staring at the moon wondering if today will be the day that you get that dreaded knock on your door. You can't concentrate, you can't eat, and your entire life becomes consumed with apprehension while you are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Then, when your worst fears are realized, you begin a life of constant pain, regret, and longing. Everyday is hard, but then you come up on "special" days...like upcoming Memorial Day. Memorial Day holds double pain for me because, not only are we supposed to honor our fallen troops, but Casey was born on Memorial Day in 1979. It used to be a day of celebration for us and now it is a day of despair. Our needlessly killed soldiers of this war and the past conflict in Vietnam have all left an unnecessary trail of sorrow and deep holes of absence that will never be filled.

So, Democratic Congress, with the current daily death toll of 3.72 troops per day, you have condemned 473 more to these early graves. 473 more lives wasted for your political greed: Thousands of broken hearts because of your cowardice and avarice. How can you even go to sleep at night or look at yourselves in a mirror? How do you put behind you the screaming mothers on both sides of the conflict? How does the agony you have created escape you? It will never escape me...I can't run far enough or hide well enough to get away from it.

On War and Peace

I just read an interesting story about Columbine survivor, Craig Scott. It's worth posting. A few years ago, I worked a contract for a major children's publishing house and I had to test their search engine to be sure kids and parents could find the correct books. So I entered the words 'war' and 'peace'.

War books showed up like shoppers at a Going Out of Business sale. But books on peace were virtually absent except for peace as death, isolation, or spiritual search. Try it with your favorite children's books publisher. It will tell you a lot about what children learn.

From Bill Clinton, George Bush and Craig Scott: Nation's Leaders">Bill Clinton, George Bush and Craig Scott: Nation's Leaders Mislead Youth by Preaching Peace, Practicing War by David Cook, Common Dreams

Flash forward to last week, as the Amish school shooting in Pennsylvania prompted President Bush to call a similar, post-Columbine conference on character and school violence. Present during the Maryland conference (alongside Attorney General Gonzales and Secretary of Education Spellings) was Craig Scott, the now-23-year-old who had lost his sister and friends in the Columbine shooting. During the only meaningful moment of the conference, Scott stood and addressed the president.

"I've grown up in a culture today that doesn't teach me anything of substance, of value, how it bombards me every day with messages of emptiness and shallowness. And the youth are crying for something to stand for, something to believe in. If it weren't for my faith or my family, I possibly could have fallen into the lies that our culture tells us. But now I've traveled, I've spoken to over a million teens across this country.... I've seen depression, anger and loneliness, students without direction or purpose.... I've seen students who called themselves cutters, have cut themselves because that's the way they know to take out the pain that they're dealing with. I've learned a lot about my generation. And I've learned a lot since I lost my friends and my sister.''

And then Scott said the greatest words the president or anyone else could hope to ever hear:

"And the main thing I've learned is that kindness and compassion can be the biggest antidotes to anger and hatred, and I believe the biggest antidotes to violence.''

The president responded in the only way he could, which was to thank Scott, applaud him and then ask for a copy of his speech.

The next day, researchers from Johns Hopkins released an updated body count for the war in Iraq. An estimated 600,000 civilians have died since the war began. These are not soldiers or armed resisters; these are mothers, grandfathers, children playing outside. Families, just like yours, just like mine.

God forgive me should I ever truly understand how presidents Clinton and Bush are able to mouth the hollow words about protecting children ("We must ... teach them to express their anger and resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons") and then, hours later, give the damnable blessing for military movements that kill other people's children. This is madness, and it is the hell-bent delusion of violence that allows the president of the United States to stand up before a crowded room of parents, reporters and survivors and announce his intentions to better protect American schoolchildren, and then, before the same day's sun sets, continue to sit on a war that has killed more than half-a-million souls.

And a nation of 300 million barely opens its mouth.

Neil Young: On Conscience

Washington's neo-Molochs

Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves; when that right is pre-empted it is called brain-washing.

- Germaine Greer

The freedom to share one’s insights and judgments verbally or in writing is, just like the freedom to think, a holy and inalienable right of humanity that, as a universal human right, is above all the rights of princes.

- Carl Friedrich Bahrdt

Education in America has become an exercise in political indoctrination. The Orwellian, pretzel-logic of slogans such as "No Child Left Behind" mask much darker political agendas. America has turned schools into torture chambers - cabinets for the Dr. Caligari's of the political right to experiment on our children as though they were nothing more than lab rats.

Would any adult submit themselves to an employer who regularly raised the bar on their production or efforts? Or maybe the employer is unsatisfied with your last review - you'll need to be watched and cajoled and given special attention. Yes, we have ways of dealing with you - all in the name of goodness.

Why do our military come back time and time again for hundreds of billions of funding to 'win' wars that don't exist? The bar for them is never raised. Congress never says, "We expect more with less!" No, that's not what happens.

Has corruption, mismanagement, and ubiquitous political sleaze drained last year's budget? Poor things. Here's another half trillion to tide you over until you get it right.

Meanwhile, to our schools...

I attend school board budget meetings that would make any caring citizen cry. The schools fall further and further behind technologically, educationally, and psychologically. Nowhere are state or fedreral tax dollars to be found for the sake of our children - Alaska needs another sleazy tax windfall. And Rob Simmons is all for GOOD THINGS - "You go, eastern Connecticut! I'm [RIGHT] behind you! [except when the vote counts]"

How can schools improve education when there is no desire to improve education. The LAW MANDATES UBIQUITOUS, WORTHLESS, TESTING and failure to comply, to pass, to coerce, to deface each student into a uniform widget may cost administrators, teachers, others their jobs.

And it is all a FOOL's errand. Wealthy communities always are nearly perfect, less wealthy communities are always on the cusp, poor communities are always on a treadmill to catch-up. This is worse than a wasteland. This is factory of broken souls. A treadmill for school officials and teachers commanded to give Sysiphus a coffee break.

The wealthy communities believe their children are perfect, that their schools are the best, that their Stepford Lives are predictably predictable and eternally right.

The less wealthy are in constant stress and distress. Here a circular firing squad of elderly voters, parents, administrators, budget committees, political hacks, malicious lunatics, petty tyrants, and interested parties, good-willed citizens, anti-tax lobbyists, retro-luddites, and a cacophony of citizens holding their bags of broken political promises apply lipstick to a starving pig and pass it off as a healthy speciment. And in their spare time they wound each other with friendly fire.

Worse, in the urban centers, where children are shot at in their daily lives, minorities plead with their children to conform - don't make noise, sit up, don't make the oligarchy mad, pretend you don't exist and maybe, just maybe, we'll get through this day. The dementia of relentless violence and hard drugs precludes education. This is social triage that is ineffective and politcally unconscionable.

Children have inalienable selves [rights to become] to whom inalienable political rights are systematically being ripped away without the benefit of an anesthesia. "Kindness" and "mercy" are words long absent from the religious vernaculars that have delivered us TO this evil state of affairs.

When do we rid ourselves of this criminal legislation and begin to reclaim our children as unique individuals, schools as places to learn as best students can learn?

When?

Modesty and Sacrifice

This year's Women's dance team's oufits are more modest than last year's and I, for one am grateful for that [and I'm fairly certain other parents feel similarly]. I'm not a prude but in my fifties I have anxieties about skimpy outfits on teenagers performing in public. This year's outfits make it easier to just enjoy the dance routines without feeling a little discomfort that someone might think I'm staring when I'm really spacing out.

And I don't think it's a bad thing for the boys to use their imaginations more. Mysterious forces like charm, personality, humor, and good nature advance and many of those qualitities are a far better metric for boy/girl attractions than just over-exposed looks.

At the last basketball game, however, a particularly loud spectator made an ass of himself screaming one inane chant after another [and I have my days as well]. He paid his ticket and everyone has a right... I went home with a headache.

But no matter how libertarians may argue that "you have a right to speak as long as...", I was offended when this spectator began yelling "More! More!" like a drunken sailor pounding the bar at Hooters as the dance team was leaving. I hope that whoever his friends are might gently remind this fellow where he is and how young these kids are. It ain't right.

And I want to also talk briefly about intimacies. The Bush administration has sanitized the war they're waging. Boys and girls of all nationalities are losing their lives senselessly every day. The killers all justify the deed in the name of their god.

As citizens we have to be sure to give our kids rich opportunities to dance with each other. In times of war these kids know and need to understand that war will claim some of their classmates. These are times when tenderness and kindness need to be the daily practice.

When Representative Murtha speaks about meeting soldiers who return so disfigured that their children are horrified to look at dad we need to remind ourselves of how beautiful each and every kid and parent is. Every silly love these kids experience is better than never feeling that emotion.

Peace on earth - everyday is a good day to practice that. You elected me to speak truth to power. I'm speaking it to you - you're the power. John Lennon said it best, "War is over --IF YOU WANT IT."