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."

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Will someone get this b*tch a North Korean or Cuban passport so that she can live happily ever after??!!

-

George Bush seems to have a sense of humor.

Maybe he actually could work out a genuine, bona fid NK passport for Cindy as part of the 6-country talks. Just slip it in there in some paragraph. If two heads of state were to agree, it would be legit right?

Then just tell her: "you're free to leave".

And then do it.

Put her on the plane - and watch her panic as she realizes she just scr_wed the pooch.

C-ya...

[DaiHuy]

Jeez she is still around?

[jtal]

... high gas prices ...

High gas prices? How did that get thrown into the list of complaints!? Do they not know how silly that sounds?

Oh well, here's hoping that Mother Sheehan is the keynote speaker at the DNC 2008. Or at least in a seat of honor in Jimmeh Carter's box.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Shehan fills me with shame...I have had too many family members for over 200 years who suffered and bled and gave so much for that flag to listen to whiners like her.

Here's to the Flatts and the Bollings and the Rosses and the Birds and the Wilsons and the Morrises and the Hardins and the Evanses and the Rays and the Pursells and the McCarleys and the Roberts and the Byars and the Driskells and the Wrights and the Stones and all those other family members who heard and answered the call over the years so that we can live free.

We stand on the shoulders of so many who gave so much so we have the freedom that Shehan and company regularly abuse. I thank them all, past and present.

[Jorge]

Is there no end to this woman's moral depravity?

[bray]

Wish I was close enought to her hunger stike to order a bucket of KFC to chow in front of her. A little corn on the cob and potato salad while I made fun of her little photop.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[Gay State Conservative]

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.

My guess is that your son reflected on this at least twice.....when he enlisted,and when he *RE-ENLISTED*!

[GOP Poet]

MASSIVE BARF ALERT.

Great example of Ann's argument in the book about these sympathy tactics as someone just mentioned here in a post. I completely agree. What an idiot Sheehan is. She is not smart or talented enough to switch her tactic either. This dates her shelf life--short. People just tune her out unless they are deeply seeped in the Kool-Aid.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

I just decided that sounded just a little too mean.

Maybe she could just be sent to ... where?

Quebec.

Just drop her off at the border.

[brushcop]

Well AMEN to that! Sure is good to read some other passionate opinions. I'm ready, many of us are, I've already passed my flashpoint however but I'm still waiting.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

It occurs to me that Casey Sheehan and his Father are "Sheehans".....and that this baby grunt-cakes of an ex-wife and alleged-mother is really something else, not a Sheehan.

[TomGuy]

Cindy needs to become a Taliban and get a burka.

Maybe after a year as a Taliban, she would appreciate the US, the freedoms she has, the rights her son died for.

[bray]

Wonder how much Blood for Oil she burned to get her little tribe down to the photop??

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[george76]

Eagles Up! Get ready for the big birthday party

[saleman]

Ya gotta admit, she rants pretty well.

Like she wrote 90% of this screed. What a tool. For the left.

"pussillanimous" Where did she dig that up.

[Tarkus2040]

"To all the Islamofascists we've loved before..."

[veronica]

Is there no end to this woman's moral depravity?

Apparently not.

[BigCinBigD]

In my life time there have been very few people I have wanted to see dead. She is one of them. Please Cindy step under a leaking vat of molten lead.

[tflabo]

Sheethannd kissing the Pig Faced Hugo Chavez.. enemy of America.

[Alouette]

while you are enjoying your potato salad and fireworks

MMMM and hot wings too!