Cindy Sheehan: “US Flag Fills Me With Shame”

Sweetness & Light ^ | July 3, 2006 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

Here is Mother Sheehan's Fourth Of July love poem to our country.

Courtesy of her fellow America-hater, Michael Moore:

Bombs Bursting in Air

Monday, July 3rd, 2006

By Cindy Sheehan

The rockets red glare,
Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.

Oh, say does that
Star spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free,
And the home of the brave.

The star spangled banner has been in the news quite a lot lately. Some "courageous" Senators, including one of my own, Dianne Feinstein and everyone's favorite left-wing liberal, Hillary Clinton, bravely stuck their necks out to support an amendment that would make it illegal to burn the flag of the USA under certain circumstances.

Heaven forbid one of these pussillanimous public servants introduce, or even support a bill, that would call for an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq…or to even require that the President set a timeline for the withdrawal of our troops from a deadly quagmire of an occupation while they are handing him more money to wage the war crime in Iraq. As our nation's children are trying to only survive in the worst of circumstances, and by surviving are committing reprehensible atrocities on an innocent population which (especially in Ramadi right now) is having bombs burst in air all around them, that our Senate would even consider taking away first amendment rights from Americans is wretchedly ironic. Call me naïve, but I always thought that we elected our representatives to protect our rights, not take them away from us.

When I look at the star spangled banner I think of my son who began wearing a uniform with the flag on it from the time he went into scouting at the age of 6. I also think of one of the last pictures taken of Casey when he was awaiting deployment to Iraq from Kuwait. He was standing in a tent holding a bottle of water, wearing his desert cammies with an American flag patch on the chest. When we buried him a few weeks after that picture was taken, I was handed a folded flag which reminded me of the swaddling blanket that I wrapped him in to bring him home from the hospital almost 25 years before.

The star-spangled banner, which I can now see whipping in the wind outside of an airport terminal where I am writing this from does not fill me with pride: it fills me with shame and that flag symbolizes sorrow and corruption to me right now. The flag represents so much lying, fixed elections, profiting by the war machine, high gas prices, spying on Americans, rapid erosion of our freedoms while BushCo literally gets away with murder, torture and extreme rendition, contaminating the world with depleted uranium, and illegal and immoral wars that are responsible for killing so many. A symbol which used to represent hope to so many around the world now fills so many with disgust.

When I look at that rectangular piece of cloth that has red and white stripes and white stars on a blue field, I wonder what the Iraqi people think when they see American tanks and other vehicles rumbling through their streets carrying doom with that symbol emblazoned upon them. Or, what could our flag possibly represent to them when their women are being raped and burned to conceal crimes and entire families are being killed by soldiers whose uniforms carry that symbol? I am sure that the flag symbolizes death and destruction to them which I hope they are not confusing with freedom and democracy.

I often get told that I should "love America, or leave it." This is ridiculous logic and empty rhetoric. I love the country that I was born in and I love Americans…I am an American and so are my children. Casey was born and died a fine American who was abused by the same leaders that are abusing the world as I type. I could leave if I wanted to and, in fact, have received many offers to be an ex-patriate in many friendly countries. However, I want to stay and fight for my country. I want my country and the flag that symbolizes it around the globe to stand for something that we can all be proud of again.

BushCo and the neocon regime embarked on this disastrous misadventure in Iraq to prove to the world how strong and virile Pax Americana is. Their abjectly failed mission, which was evil and corrupt from the beginning, has not proven how strong our nation is, but, on the contrary, how weak. However, the neocons have managed to prove, that how, with the "mightiest" war machine in the world an insurgency in a country smaller than the state of California can hold their false freedom and deadly democracy at bay. One other thing that the neocons have proven is that America is no longer the moral touchstone of the world but is a nation that commits torture and crimes against humanity with the presidential seal of approval. BushCo has destroyed any credibility our nation ever had in the world and all of us need to fight to regain it and thereby redeem our own souls.

I implore you, while you are enjoying your potato salad and fireworks on the 4th to reflect on what the star-spangled banner means to you. If our flag symbolizes the same thing to you as it does to the neocons, then by all means, enlist and go to Iraq to let some of our soldiers come home that are tired of suffering and committing war crimes for Halliburton, Dick and Donny.

If, however, you realize that the flag no longer waves "o'er the land of the free" and you would like it to again, we invite you to come out to Camp Casey this summer and help us fight for the heart and soul of our nation. If you realize that while you are "oohing and ahing" over the pretty fireworks in your home town that there are real bombs bursting on the people of Iraq, killing them and destroying their nation for no reason other than Dick Cheney wanted to, then you need to digest your 4th of July BBQ and get out and show Dicky and the world that we mean business when we say we want our troops to come home to save them and our brothers and sisters in Iraq.

Thousands of peace loving and war hating members of the human race from all over the world are planning on coming to Crawford, Tx to Camp Casey again this summer to stand, sit, or camp in the face of the neocon war machine and prove to the world that there are Americans who will courageously speak for the people of Iraq and our soldiers who have no voices but who just want to be left in peace.

When I was in elementary school we were taught a rhyme:

What kind of world would this world be,

If everyone in it was just like me?

Imagine a world full of Cindy Sheehans?

I wonder if Mother Sheehan even knows that while the US Army helped to liberate Europe from the slavery of Nazism, some of its soldiers committed terrible crimes along the way.

That didn't change the nobility of the cause or the final achievement.

But of course Mother Sheehan would have been against that war, too, since she is against all wars:

There has always been excuses for wars, but NONE of them have been good or valid.

Moreover, Saint Cindy has pronounced that we have been bloodthirsty murderers ever since we set foot on this continent:

We began the killing as soon as we stepped foot on these shores [of America] and the killing has gone on unabated for over 200 years.

Mother Sheehan considers us murderers, hates our system of government, and pronounces the US not worth dying for:

I was raised in a country by a public school system that taught us that America was good, that America was just. America has been killing people, like my sister over here says, since we first stepped on this continent, we have been responsible for death and destruction. I passed on that bullshit to my son and my son enlisted.

I’m going all over the country telling moms: ‘This country is not worth dying for.’

I would never have let [Casey] go and try and defend this morally repugnant system we have. The people are good, the system is morally repugnant.

In fact, "non-violent" Cindy believes we need a revolution, so that we can have a country like her heroes Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro have provided their lucky people:

They’re a bunch of f**king hypocrites! And we need to, we just need to rise up. We need a revolution!"

So I wonder what possessed her to write this "column" denouncing the United States again -- and for the thousandth time?

It can't be that she needs the money. Mother Sheehan grown rich (and fat) hating this country.

So fat even she has decided to go on a diet, starting tomorrow. Which of course she has to pretend is for some noble cause that will help no one but our country's enemies.

And given that she is a highly paid proponent of cowardice, you'd think Cindy would be able to spell "pusillanimous."

[napscoordinator]

I hope during her tomorrow's Crawford hunger strike that some of Dubya's barbecue aroma wafts her way...



Oh me too. That is a great post. You actually have me excited by the thought of this happening. Can you imagine the ribs with BBQ sauce, the beer tap going off and spraying them, the pies just baked with apple, peach, cherry, and many types of fruit in the air. Of course, the hamburger and hot dog smell going right to their nostrils. Man this could be my best 4th of July ever. I can see their faces now and their rumbling stomachs.
Uh oh, now I am starving...good think I am not a stupid lib on a hunger strike. lol.

[Defender2]

#39. :-)

[prairiebreeze]

Entertaining dig against Feinstein, the Hildabeest and the RATS in general. Not that they care, nor should they in this case, quite frankly.

Either Cindy Sheehan's cheese has slipped off her cracker or the bankrolling provided by Soros/Chavez/Carter/Slimes/Heinz etc. is just too tempting to turn down. Or both.

Nor do I buy her reasoning for staying in America, to "take back my country". She's a coward who can't function outside of America for long. And she knows it.

[at bay]

She doesn't even get the simplest of facts straight--Hilary voted against the amendment. Statements like this prove there are virtually no limits on free speech in this country. I am more offended with this verbal swill than I am with that little Phelpos hussie thanking God for IED's. Question, seriously, if one has a sign thenking God for IED's couldn't this be used as a defense for strapping one on her, heading for cover, and blowing her to bits? (we're all allowed to dream.)

[Defender2]

#39. I Did!!!!:-)

[StJacques]

Boy this really just upsets my stomach. Another reminder for me that the price of free speech is heartburn.

Rolaids anyone? I've got the bottle out.

[cabojoe]

Wouldn't that be redundant?

[demkicker]

I hope Cindy will be happy to know that she'll go down in history alright. Her epitaph will read: A traitor to motherhood and as a United States citizen.

[headstamp]

"The star-spangled banner, which I can now see whipping in the wind outside of an airport terminal where I am writing this from does not fill me with pride: it fills me with shame and that flag symbolizes sorrow and corruption to me right now."


Hey Cindy, take a long walk off a short pier.

You've got it the wrong way around. This country is far too good for such a POS like you.

[veronica]

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....!!!

[GOP_Raider]

If our flag symbolizes the same thing to you as it does to the neocons, then by all means, enlist and go to Iraq

Only a stupid liberal would make this argument with a straight face and quite frankly I'm tired of hearing it. Hey Cindy, did you enlist to go to Kosovo or Somalia in the 90s? How about Haiti?

[MizSterious]

LOL--well, I'm pretty ashamed of Cindy, too, so we're even. To even think this country could produce someone as vile as that "woman" is embarrassing.

[A knight without armor]

Great minds think alike! I was just going to say why doesn't she move out of this country that she thinks is so horrible and go to... to....where? What country does have a system that would suit her?? What country would suit her beliefs and let her run amok degrading it on her whimsy? I honestly don't know.

[Enchante]

"I implore you, while you are enjoying your potato salad and fireworks on the 4th to reflect on what the star-spangled banner means to you...."

I will do that Cindy, and I will reflect with gratitude on all the blessings we enjoy thanks to the bravery of so many great Americans like your late son Casey, who is continually disgraced and demeaned by his nutjob mother who babbles her raving lunacies far and wide. I will reflect on how fortunate we are that we have enough Casey Sheehans to protect freedom and hope, while we don't (fortunately) have so many nutjobs like Cindy Sheehan that we are helpless snivelling weasels like the Euro-twits you worship, Cindy. I will reflect on the fact that for 230 years all the best that is America has the most in common with people like Casey Sheehan, while the worst of America has most in common with raving nutjobs like Cindy Sheehan. I will reflect upon so much good and so much bad can come out of the same family, and I will wonder how a nutjob like you, Cindy, ever raised a great American like Casey. Those are some of the enduring mysteries which will occupy my mind as we celebrate our Independence Day.

[daybreakcoming]

I don't believe she wrote that - she can't string two coherent words together unless she's programmed.

And "contaminating the world with depleted uranium"? Where did that new wrinkle in her rants come from? Stupid twit.

[Jeff Head]

Oh, she would be getting criticised alright...the media just would not ( have (and did not) aired it. Today, we have the internet and conservative talk radio to reach literally tens of millions. We lacked that back then...but the "silent majority" was still there and fuming...we were just being marginalized, as they attempt to do today. But today that dog not only don't hunt...it can't hunt!

[prairiebreeze]

I believe I will be extra patriotic and America-flag appreciative tomorrow. She's inspired me to go all out.

[prairiebreeze]

She IS an embarrassment, I was just thinking the same thing.

[AnnaZ]

Imagine a world full of Cindy Sheehans?

I saw those recent pix of her in Vienna, so I'd rather not. What with the dinner hour approaching and all...

She's ashamed? I'm ashamed that beautiful young soldiers are dying to protect her sorry excuse for free speech.

Start fasting already, Cindy. Hopefully one day we'll be able to see you eat your rancid words.

[combat_boots]

Don't let the door hit you on your way out.