Excerpt
The following is an excerpt from the book Peace Mom
Cindy Sheehan
Published by Atria, September 2006, $ 22.95US / $ 31.50CAN; 0-7432-9791-1
Copyright © 2006 Cindy Sheehan
Chapter 6
Close Encounters of the Bush Kind
We were a little late getting the bus the next morning, because at first we could not get Andy up - either via telephone or knocking on his door. When we boarded the bus we were greeted by about sixty people, who make up two p.m. or fifteen families like ours. Everyone else had the same sad look around the eyes. There was no jocularity or singing on this bus.
I met a young woman whose husband was a flower for the money and they would have recovered nothing from him buried. His mom and dad were on the bus. They were so hurt and fragile.
But, sitting in front of me was another woman I grew up in a very strongly dislike. I soon learned that she was the stepmother of the soldiers who was killed, but he introduced himself as her husband and parents, "Ed. " She then pointed out another woman who said she was Ed's "sort of step-mother" - which I later found out was Ed's real mother. The first is a woman who was his stepmother, who had a very good relationship with Ed before he was killed. However, since he was killed, she was a tireless advocate of the war and the president. She is so "brave and courageous" to keep her chin up after her stepson was killed.
The stepmother and her husband became active participants in one of the most bizarre protest in history, "Cindy does not speak for me" tour. I can not believe that these people's views, beliefs, and intellect is so small that they can not even have the "We speak for himself" tour. Ed is a real mother, who was very anti-war and anti-Bush, is in my organization and her heart hurts every time the woman says Ed as his exploits and his name and offering to prop up the president and his misguided war.
The stepmother and her husband became active participants in one of the most bizarre protest in history, "Cindy does not speak for me" tour. I can not believe that these people's views, beliefs, and intellect is so small that they can not even have the "We speak for himself" tour. Ed is a real mother, who was very anti-war and anti-Bush, is in my organization and her heart hurts every time the woman says Ed as his exploits and his name and offering to prop up the president and his misguided war.
...
The stepmother and her husband became active participants in one of the most bizarre protest in history, "Cindy does not speak for me" tour. I can not believe that these people's views, beliefs, and intellect is so small that they can not even have the "We speak for himself" tour. Ed is a real mother, who was very anti-war and anti-Bush, is in my organization and her heart hurts every time the woman says Ed as his exploits and his name and offering to prop up the president and his misguided war.
...
My new friend "Donna" requested and received, a meeting with George Bush, who is separated from the one with her flag waving, red-white-and-blue-wearing ex-husband and his wife. It was a letter from the president's associates and waited in a room alone until George met with all the other families. I want her to recount a meeting before I found the list. Then maybe, dear reader, you will not be so horrified by our little "tea party" with George.
Donna was waiting in his small curtained-off space for the president to appear. When he did, he strode right up to her and put his face inches from her - there they stood, nose to nose, and Donna, God bless her, did not back off. He sneered at her and said in his most frightening (he thinks) reads: "I'm George W. Bush, I am the president of the United States, and I hear they have something to say to me ."
Donna looked at him straight in the eye and said: "You bet I do ."
then went on to review her complaint against him, the question that I would try to ask George a year later: "Why did my son die ?"
Donna told him that Ed had a good life if he lived, he would have been a wonderful and productive citizen of our society. Then Bush said it is the coolest thing I've ever heard. After Donna got through talking about her dear boy, George, incredible and unbelievable, said: "If your son came home from Iraq alive, you know how to have a good life ?"
When Donna told me that, I wondered how she did not slap him or spit in his face. The President or not, that was rude and coldhearted and ruthless thing to say. She was also shocked to even say anything in response.
Our meeting with George was disturbing, but to us a while to realize it, because we were still in too much shock at the time to process.
They have moved from a large hospital stay after a little room with a sofa, chair, coffee table, and fake potted tree. The room was curtained-off area, which is barely large enough for us Fri I had brought five paintings Casey, since he was a baby when he was a soldier man.
happy and smiling pictures of chubby-cheeked baby break my heart. Why did I let my sunny, beautiful boy to join Uncle Sam's Army? Casey pictures when he was a beautiful boy are heartbreaking, too. Then it became awkward teenager - tall and skinny, and all "asses and elbows, as I say to him - with braces and acne, to boot! When he arrived with braces and acne cleared, he was a handsome young man.
So we sat in this chamber at Fort Lewis with pictures Casey on the coffee table. The scene was like some tragic and a smaller version of our home and our families decimated. We are anxiously waiting for it to appear George Bush -. when he walked into Arizona Sen. John McCain
events that I am about to relate later disputed by McCain, but I know that truth. Until that point in my life, I had never met a senator, let alone one with the stature of John McCain, and I kept what he said to us.
senator was very nice and he sat right down on the couch and praised the girls how beautiful they are and how handsome Andy was - he called us all our first names - then he looked at pictures and Casey had tears in his eyes.
I asked McCain why Casey had to die, and he told me: "Well, Cindy, I'm afraid it will be for nothing, as my friends in Vietnam." I was stunned by his openness and honesty, but I deeply appreciate it. However, he denies that he said that.
We are talking with some small talk and then asked us if there is anything else he could do for us and I said: "Yes, you can run with Senator Kerry as his vice president." He chuckled and said: "Everything but that, Cindy. the country was also divided as it is." Senator McCain remembers this exchange. We had quite a lively conversation about this, our first meeting, when I met with him again in Washington, DC, office in September.
I had a lot of respect for Senator McCain, and I love what he did in the Senate to try to limit the George and Dick's reign of torture. However, after the Rove team did John McCain during the 2000 campaign when they smeared him and tried to claim that the black child and demeaned his war record as a prisoner of war in Vietnam - trying to make it look as though he dropped out of the national secret torture - then John McCain bends over and lets George Bush kiss him. He even campaigned for Bush in 2004. That's when I lost respect for the senator, but in June 2004, I still had much regard for him. Now, with the senator in endless support for another Vietnam-style war, I fear that every shred of goodness and humanity in him was lost.
after the senator left our little "living room", we looked at each other, and Carly said: "I wonder if the President of the warm-up act." And Pat said, "I wonder what Casey has in store for us next ."
After what seemed like hours, the curtain finally opened and walked George. I was face to face with the devil, but I did not even know how monstrous this person really was yet.
President of the United States, probably the most powerful man in the world, entered the room wearing a blue suit that looked straight Wal-Mart rack. His whole tone was one of being at a tea party, and the first thing he uttered was, "Well, what are we Honorine 'here ?"
We all looked at each other in disbelief, and later, when we compared notes, we could not believe that the so-called leaders of the free world did not even know Casey's name. And unlike the senator, he did not know our names, because right before George came to us off our name tags. I think it's to better photo op, but I'm not really sure. At the very least, we could not believe that the assistant is not a whisper: "Mr. President, this is the Sheehan family. Their son, Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq ."
So we told him who we are and who we were 'Honorine'. "We are still not sure who he was honored, and I'm not sure what you really want to know.
I tried to get George a look at the pictures that we brought from Casey, but he would not. We tried to talk about what Casey and a valuable member of our family was, but he did not want to hear. He does not want to know anything about Casey, and I feel I do not want to see the face of someone killed by his lies. I believe George does not want to humanize their cannon fodder, or bullet sponges, as soldiers call themselves.
At one point he approached Carly said, "Who are you to a loved one?" (He always called Casey "the loved ones.") Carly said: "Casey was my brother ."
George then said a very stupid thing, which is famous for: "I wish I could bring back their loved ones to fill a hole in your hearts ."
"So we, Mr. President, " Carly agreed. At that point he gave her what Carly says, "the dirtiest look I have ever received from another human being, " and told her: "I'm sure you do." He then dismissed with Carly turn back and never spoke to her again for the rest of the meeting.
We had some presidential small talk. He wanted to know what we do in life, and is particularly interested in Andy career as a surveyor. We took some pictures with him, and he said that children "take care of your mom, she is very sweet soul ."
then we walked up to our infamous exchange. He was my right hand in both his and said "mama" - he called me mom - "I can not imagine losin 'a loved one whether it's aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, brother, sister. ..."
Before he could go through the whole litany of how Casey could be associated with me without actually saying the word: sin, I stopped him and said: "Mr. President" - that's when I called him that still - "Casey was my son I think you can imagine you have two daughters -. -. Try to imagine one of them was killed, " I saw a brief flicker of humanity in his eyes, and then he was gone. I said: "Believe me, Mr. President, you do not want to go there ."
and said, "You're right, I do not ."
at least, and I think for the first time, he was honest. I was stunned at his coldhearted statement and all I could mutter was, "Well, thanks for putting me there ."
George Bush stammered some things about everyone in the world deserves "freedom and democracy" and slobbered on something else, "expresses grateful appreciation to the people." Believe me, told me: "You're welcome." Then as fast as he swept in, the tea party is over.
When I say George pretended to pity it is because everything he said does not match his eyes. Talking to him is like talking to someone who is expelled from the reality. It is very disconcerting to talk with people, when the heart is the light of their eyes does not match what you are saying.
This is very abnormal event, not quite, but almost as disordered as burying a child.
One of the things I asked him when we were saying was, "Why were we invited here? " We did not vote for you in 2000 and we certainly will not vote for you this year! "His answer to me was: "Mom, this is not about politics." For some unknown, but entirely forgivable reason I believed him. That is, until the Republican National Convention, when my trust has been betrayed again.
in his speech for the nomination for president, he said something like: "I am meeting with the families of the fallen. I feel their pain. They tell me that they pray for me and tocompletion of the mission in Iraq so his loved ones not die in vain. "This is what is worn out for me. He told me he was meeting us for political reasons, but that's exactly what it was for. The so-called commander in chief does not permit the display images of the flag-draped coffins coming home from Iraq, nor did he attend a funeral.
He tried to convince the nation that is compassion. He was trying to tell people that we wanted more children were killed just because Casey was dead.
Again and again, and again, and again, he was lying. That's when I decided to join the 2004 presidential campaign. Do not campaign for John Kerry, but the campaign against George Bush.
Copyright © 2006 Cindy Sheehan
