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PM: An Open Letter to Cindy Sheehan
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by Polly Mann, W A M M
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Photo from www.rollingstone.com |
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Dear Cindy:
All of us—that is, all 1,800 members of Women Against Military Madness—would like to express our utmost gratitude for all that you have done—speeches and interviews, airport searches, expenditure of personal funds, lost sleep, fractured personal relationships, physical hardships, all endured to bring this country to an awareness of the true cost of war and the need for peace.
We too have experienced harassment and insults but nothing like those you’ve been subjected to. But we haven’t received the media coverage you have. That coverage, in our not-so-humble opinion, has affected the polls and has increased the numbers of people saying “No, no a thousand times no,” to increased troop deployment. You’ve been effective or the criticism wouldn’t have been so severe.
How many people in the whole country would do what you have done? And at what a price? Your face and your words must have haunted the policy-makers of this country, reminding them again and again of the dying young in Iraq and Afghanistan. What greater gift could have been given to the parents of soldiers and military-vulnerable youth than you and your demand for an end to the useless slaughter? Such a gift was too much. Most of us haven’t any experience with a gift of such magnitude. We don’t know how to receive it, how to say “thank you.” Instead we react and we react badly. We grow resentful. You didn’t just permit yourself to be used. You offered yourself.
Of course, you’re angry with the pusillanimous Democratic Party. What war opponent isn’t? There are no major differences between the parties. Howard Zinn says it so succinctly in his book, The People. Both parties have supported wars. The U.S. government is building the world’s largest embassy in Iraq and the President cites the ongoing U.S. occupation of South Korea as indicative of future Iraqi policy. I didn’t hear any Democrat’s outcry against this, no full-page ads denouncing it in the New York Times. There should be so many in Congress opposing this policy, they should be falling over each other on the way to TV stations demanding to be heard. Could it be they’re more concerned about alienating the corporate contributors to their campaign funds?
The difference between your actions and ours is that you have been more successful in achieving media coverage. Peace organizations have held marches, sent out news releases, nagged reporters, and even gone to jail to capture mainstream media attention. You, in instinctive response to overwhelming grief, were quoted on radio and television, and made the front pages of the newspapers. The U.S. public has not been able to close you off.
You ended your letter of resignation from the anti-war movement by saying “Good-bye America . . . you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.” Of course! In order to work for the country that the U.S. should be, as opposed to the country that is, each of us has had to destroy the myths we were raised with, myths contained in history and social science texts. The history of the U.S. is as unsavory as that of any other colonial power.
We stole the land from indigenous people. We enslaved people. We engaged in wars of conquest. Our military machine is not to protect U.S. citizens but rather to protect the right of corporations to do business unimpeded throughout the world. To realize these things is not the end, however, but the beginning of the struggle. We have the right of free speech and a structure for change. You have done more than your part.
Now, if you feel the need to retire, do it. Your contributions are now history. I ask you: Is it unusual that many citizens of a nation whose history is most often defined by wars and whose parks are filled with statues memorializing war should denigrate one who has become an icon of the peace movement? Sadly: No. When we finally pull out of Iraq and are on the path to making war illegal, we hope you will realize that you have made a substantial contribution to this. Thank you. |
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© 2007 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete July/August 2007 Index - click here
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