Posted on 08/08/2005 4:23:07 PM PDT by upchuck
One very positive aspect of my public anti-war, pro-peace stance is that it has put me in contact with so many people all over the world. I believe that my willingness to share my heart and tragic story - and in the process, tell the truth - helps people open up to me in ways that they cannot do with another. In the past few days, I have been bombarded with horror stories about what our government is doing to innocent Americans.
I was driving from one event to another the other day and I got a call from an Iranian woman who is now a U.S. citizen and who has been in the United States for 30 years, is married to an American, has a 5 year old son, and a brother who has been in prison for 9 months for wanting to serve America.
My new Iranian-American friend told me that her brother signed up for the National Guard to give something back to the country that he has adopted as his own. He was lied to by his recruiter, who said he could have his student loans paid off and become an American citizen within a year. He also has severe learning disabilities and his recruiter falsified his test scores and his application. The brother was told that the mistakes would be corrected before the application was turned in. Like my son, Casey, who was killed in action, my friend's brother naively trusted his recruiter.
One day, her brother, who was at that time in training as a chemical specialist, was sitting in class when FBI agents came in and hauled him off to prison. He was told it was because he twice went to Iran - his country of birth and his family's country - after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and because he falsified his application to get in the National Guard.
My new friend's brother thought going into the National Guard was going to be a good and admirable thing, and he was deceived and betrayed. He didn't get his student loans paid off or citizenship, but he did get thrown in jail without proper legal representation. My friend called her state's senators to see if they could help her and her brother and she was told to quit making trouble or her entire family would be investigated.
Then when I was traveling from event to event again, I got another telephone call from a hysterical mom, Summer, whose son had been killed in Iraq in April. Her medic son was found face down on his bunk with some morphine bottles around him. Summer was told that he died of a drug overdose and the report stated that her daughter-in-law and her son's battle buddies all said that he abused drugs in Iraq. Summer was devastated. She knew her boy. She knew her son didn't take drugs.
She finally got a hold of the reports that contradicted what she was told by the military and confirmed what she felt. All of the people interviewed said her son did not abuse drugs. She received the toxicology report two months after her son died and he did not have drugs in his system. How did Summer's son die and why is the Army trying to cover it up? Wasn't it bad enough that this government took Summer's son and killed him in an unjust, immoral and illegal war? They had to lie to her, too?
I recently spent time at Kevin and Monica Benderman's house at Ft. Stewart, Ga. Kevin, a conscientious objector who refused to go back to Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division to kill innocent people and participate in other war crimes, was convicted during his July 28 court-martial of "missing movement" and he was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. Kevin was obviously made an example to other soldiers who are also thinking of protesting this obscene occupation by refusing to kill blameless people, or die themselves. From the testimony that was given at the court-martial, it is clear that witnesses lied about Kevin and documents were falsified. I hate to see a brave, honorable and patriotic American like Kevin railroaded to federal prison for standing up for what he knows is moral and correct.
What makes Kevin's treatment even worse is that those who are responsible for killing and maiming tens of thousands of innocent people and for the destruction of an innocent country are roaming around the world free to unleash more death and pandemonium.
For my effort in trying to awaken America to the dirty tricks and fraud of our government and for trying to call attention to the fact that thousands of people are dying and in harm's way in Iraq for the lies, I am often called a traitor, terrorist supporter, Jane Fonda, unpatriotic and more. I am called names that contain words that good Christian supporters of President George W. Bush should not even know, let alone use. I am accused of not supporting the troops, and people tell me that Casey would be spinning in his grave on which I am spitting upon or otherwise defiling.
What has happened to America? What has happened to our freedoms? Where did sanity go? Where is the due process that we have always been entitled to? Why do people feel free to castigate the mother of a "war hero" for exercising her freedom of speech and why does our leadership feel free to lie to mothers of "war heroes"? Why aren't the liars being held to the same standards as the people who are trying to expose them?
Stories like these are becoming more and more common in the United States. The "un-Patriot Act" and the total disregard for the Constitution by nearly everyone who holds an elected or appointed position in our federal government is starting to hit too close to home for many people.
People like the Bendermans, Summer, my Iranian-American friend, and her brother should be defended and supported by every true American. The injustice of what is happening to some good, hardworking and honest Americans is overwhelming, unfair and un-American.
We are rapidly becoming a nation with neither liberty nor safety. We should demand both, and refuse to give up any of our liberties or our security. These things are our birthrights. We should not give up ours. I am not giving up mine.
The author, a Vacaville resident, is the mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed while serving in Iraq.
Cindy pingers.
Poor, abused woman!
The US should reach....for the button that launches all the MOABs and Diamond tipped Nukes we got.
One day, her brother, who was at that time in training as a chemical specialist, was sitting in class when FBI agents came in and hauled him off to prison.As opposed to the MPs? This doesn't sound right.
And the reason dear Cindy that you have any freedom or liberty at all is because of men like your son.
it shouldn't sound right, she sounds like she has totally lost her mind.
I'm getting quite tired of the MSM fawning all over this woman. She's sickening.
Someone is paying this whacko woman a lot of money to BS like this.
Yeah, whatever. I guess if the "truth" is both flexible and relative that case could be made - but it isn't, dear.
They have found a new voice for their agenda. 9/11 widow beware!
Nothing worse than a mother tap dancing on her son's grave.
I want to hear the recruiter's side of the story.
Look: It's easy to view this through a "political prism",and to be critical of this woman.
Losing a child is a horrible experience - as many of you already know - and surviving parents often go through emotional storms that stretch the boundaries of reason.
The people who reached out to Ms Sheehan did so coldly and deliberately: manipulating her hurt and grief to their own ends;tearing at her scars and turning them into fresh wounds.
For the sake of all that's holy,let this poor woman grieve-in her own way-for as long as it takes.
Did she respond to the "The President Did Not Kill Your Son" essay yet, written by someone in the military?
She hasn't lost her mind. It's a common syndrome among liberal mothers. Do not deal with the grief -- "make the personal political!" (feminist mantra of the left). It's been going on for over 30 years. It's nothing new, at all.
The Sarah Brady of the war. There is so much more to say, but I won't.
Therefore in sum, and ergo, she can't "move on". And the cycle of pain continues in her head. She hasn't let her son "rest in peace". She's made his death "personal". She's emotionally stuck there. When for most parents, it's initially "personal", but with solid and substantive grieving that pinch moves on, giving way to the standard steps of healing and recovery.
Check the drudge story out.
She has done a total 180 spin from when she met Bush.
That said, is the saying actually "make the personal political"?, One of my old lefty college profs use to say the opposite with "Make political personal!!!".
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