Cindy Sheehan Returns to Her Homeland: The San Francisco Bay Area

Taking a breather from a grueling tour promoting her new book, Peace Mom, which had taken her to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Long Island, Portland, Seattle, and New York City, peace activist Cindy Sheehan returned to the Bay Area. 

Before a small gathering at the Modern Times Bookstore in the San Francisco Mission District Sheehan announced how glad she was to be home and visibly looked it.  Clearly, the evening was one lacking any tenseness or contention just as if she were among dear friends or family sharing supper; the tone of her talk and reading was simple, direct, and honest, and her audience responded often with affirmations of agreement, goodwill, and appreciation.

She began her talk by asking who in the audience had attended the World Can't Wait Demonstration held yesterday (answered by raised hands), and then embarked on an explanation of why she wote her book, Peace Mom.

She told the rapt group that unlike her two earlier books (Not One More Mother's Child, and Dear President Bush which she said she wished had been titled more accurately "Dear George Bush"), Peace Mom would not be a collection of essays and interviews.  Instead, she said, she hoped to tell the entire story of how she became an activist after the grief of losing her oldest son Casey who died fighting in Iraq. 

She explained that she felt it was necessay to tie her story (which she believes the public only knows in bits, pieces and sound bites) into a seamless and complete narrative-- not to help people understand her own grief (which she said is impossible)-- but rather to take her readers on a journey that would help inspire them to believe that they too, as individuals, CAN make a difference in the world, AND make the world a better place to live in.

She said her hope in writing Peace Mom is also to get parents to say:  "We are not going to give our children to the war machine."  

Explaining how it catalyzed her to embrace anti-war activism, Cindy read aloud the poem which she said her daughter Carly gave her, "A Nation Rocked To Sleep."  Cindy expressed how the poem so greatly amazed her, and explained how it was the first and last poem her daughter ever gave her.  When she had then asked her daughter how long it had taken her to write (about fifteen minutes), she became convinced that Casey's spirit had somehow imbued itself on her daughter's imagination. 

Here is the poem:

A Nation Rocked To Sleep/For Casey

    Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
    The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done.
    They call him a hero, you should be glad he's one, but,
    Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?

    Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
    They say he must be brave because his boy died for another mans lies.
    The only thing he allows himself are long, deep sighs.
    Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?

    Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
    They say he died so the flag will continue to wave,
    But I believe he died because they had oil to save.
    Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?

    Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Rocked to Sleep?
    The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won't be so deep,
    But if we the people let them continue, another mother will weep.
    Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Rocked to Sleep?


Following the talk and reading, Cindy Sheehan answered various questions put to her from the audience.

Among Cindy's more interesting statements:

She believes the two parties in power are really one party:  a War Party.  Although she sympathizes with the Democratic Party on some domestic issues, she holds Democrats as accountable as Republicans for taking us into deceptive wars.  She had kind words for Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers (who she believes is most likely to initiate long-needed investigations if Republicans lose majority power).

She lamented the idea that Republicans might be swept out of office solely over the Mark Foley pedophilia discovery, and not for crimes against the U.S. Constitution.

She supports the inclusion of independents in politics and voiced her strong support for Green Party candidates like the anti-war candidates Todd Chretien (U.S. Senate California) and Michael Berg (U.S. House of Representatives Delaware).  (She said that Michael Berg suspects the CIA for being involved in the death of his son, Nick, but lacks proof.)

Cindy Sheehan responded to a question about her husband by saying that her husband is also anti-war, but differed with her because he did not wish to see Cindy dwell on her son's death.  She explained that a death of a child commonly ruptures families, and explained that she and her husband have diffrent ways of grieving.  

Cindy Sheehan told how New York Congressman Major Owens had implored her not to include his name with other Democrats who she disdained, and how she responded to him by telling him that she had long since demoted Major "to private" because of his cowardly pro-war voting record.

Cindy mentioned that she learned that the Pentagon has a withdrawal plan for troops in Iraq (from a blog by investigative journalist Wayne Madsen), but says that it disturbs her because it makes her imagine that the plan was devised as a strategy for coping with the possibility that the U.S. will attack Iran with nuclear weapons.

Cindy said that she believes "counter-recruiting" or finding alternative careers to military service for young people is probably the most worthwhile activism for people to pursue.  She said that with the poor opportunities available to young people today, she believes that eliminating military service as an option might not be realistic in all cases-- but she hopes worthwhile alternatives will grow.  She opined that a Peace Scholarship Fund might be created to which someone in the audience suggested, "Why not a Cindy Sheehan Peace Scholarship Fund?"

Cindy Sheehan smiled broadly, liking the idea, but immediately said "A Casey Sheehan Scholarship Fund!"

Peace Mom, Activist Mom, Courageous Mom-- Cindy Sheehan reading her daughter's poem rather than her own passages in her new book, or rejoicing in the idea of honoring her son:  Cindy Sheehan for everything else she is-- is still first and foremost a real mom.