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They Are Not Numbers
By Cindy Sheehan
10/22/05 -- -- I received this email the other day. I have removed
the names:
Dear Ms. Sheehan ~ I wasn't sure how else to contact you, so am
sending this thru the gsfp website. I just want to thank you for
posting your essay entitled, "A Peaceful Day."
My cousin, "brave soldier," 30, originally of Indiana, was one of
the five U.S. soldiers killed on Saturday, October 15th – Iraq's
"peaceful day." He is survived by his wife, his two children, his
parents, his sister, our grandma, his aunt, his two uncles and his
two cousins. We are currently awaiting confirmation per dna
identification.
I thank you for taking notice. The loss of his life and that of his
comrades does not make for a peaceful day ~ may their souls rest in
peace.
Thank you for your efforts.
I received this email today from a distraught Gold Star Mother:
How? I have so many questions.....How I do I stop the vulgar pain in
my chest? How do I do this? How I do I continue to breathe but
cannot live? How do I do this? How do I keep my soul in my body? How
do I do this? How do I close my eyes wondering if sleep should come
but yet knowing if I sleep I will awaken to know this is not a
nightmare but my life? How do I do this? How do I love someone with
my every being but cannot ever hold him again? How do I do this? How
do I go on without that sweet face that brought more joy to my life
than I ever deserve never be seen by my eyes again? How do I do
this? How do I stop the scream that no one hears but me? How do I do
this? PLEASE TELL ME...how do I live without my child, my son, my
heart, my soul, my joy, my validation to my life...Please tell me
...how do I do this? How does the world go on without Steven....how
do I do this?
I received this email yesterday from a mom who doesn't "qualify" to
be a Gold Star Mother (from the other org., she does belong to GSFP)
because her son committed suicide. He suffered horribly from PTSD.
Hi,
He (Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Ma) was asked about his five boys and his
answer was that they were grown, with families and they made their
own choices. He then reminded everyone that our children chose to
enlist. Aggressively recruited would be a better phrase. And then
not told the truth, only to discover like my son that he had made a
big mistake. He went on to say that he had attended all the
funerals. Kevin said simple, no you haven't... Both Kevin and Debbie
felt that the wall was up and that no change of attitude would be
forthcoming from our Bush "yes" man. On the positive side his chief
of staff spoke to Kevin privately about veteran affairs and that
they would like to improve the system.
I find that I can't get Jeffrey out of my mind. I can see him at
11–12 years old jumping in the car, when I'd pick him up at a
friend's. It's so real...it's almost like you can reach out and
touch him. What a world of hell this administration has put us in.
One we will live in all the rest of our days...
The 2000th tragically appalling death of American troops is,
unfortunately, coming up rapidly in Iraq.
The official death count today from the War Department's Casualty
site is 1992. The toll could reach 2000 within a couple of days.
Of the 1992, 13 are pending notification. I have written about
"pending notification" before. 13 families are going through their
normal lives today not even knowing that the other shoe is about to
drop. They have been worrying about their loved one for days, weeks,
or even months. Some of them may know that 11 of our children have
been killed in the last 2 days and they may be anxiously awaiting
news. Will it be their lives destroyed today? Or is it another
family who was randomly picked by the universe to suffer this
violent assault on their homes?
There are so many people in our country today that are happily
certain that their lives are not about to be turned upside down
because their darling child will be killed in a meaningless war.
This would include every member of this criminal administration and
Congress and every person who puts headphones on and spews
right-wing hate from their mouths. Not one of these people who
mostly support the war, either outspokenly, or tacitly by their
silence in not calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq, have
any idea of the horror of laying awake at night worried about your
wonderful child, or walking around all day with an icy-cold stomach
because you heard that soldiers were killed in Iraq today.
We know that George Bush and his supporters who are crumbling like
3-day-old sugar cookies care not one whit about the people they have
sent to die and kill innocent people in Iraq. We know that George,
Dick, Condi (who I believe is the Deputy Secretary of War…she never
thinks of the Diplomatic solution), Donny (In charge of the killing
department), and the rest will never admit that they made a mistake,
because guess what folks? Things are going just as they have planned
in Iraq! They are happy as clams in their shells that things are in
chaos and turmoil in the Middle East. That means that they and their
partners in crime can rake in more money, rape Iraq of its resources
and empty our treasury of money and our communities of future
leaders.
The little vignettes of pain that I have shared with you are just 3
stories out of millions. Out of the tens of thousands of mothers in
Iraq who have had their children killed, how many of them remember
their baby boy or pre-teen child with their innocent eyes reflected
with the mom's hopes and dreams of their future?
Casey had such a bright future ahead of him. Someone asked me the
other day what I miss about him the most. I just miss him. I miss
everything about him. I miss his presence on this planet. I miss his
naïve joy and heartbreaking hope for the future. I miss his future
and I remember his past with love and pain.
On the sorrowful day of the 2000th soldier killed, I am sure there
will be candlelight vigils all over the country to honor the ones
who have been killed. That is nice, but that doesn't help bring our
other troops home or insure the safety of the Iraqi people.
On the day of the 2000th, I will be in DC. I will go to the White
House. Our house. I will sit on the sidewalk again and demand that
the war criminals who live and work in there bring our troops home.
I suggest instead of candlelight vigils and singing "Give Peace a
Chance" every person who cares about ending the immorality of the
occupation of Iraq take signs and their presence to their
Congressional offices near them and demand that each and every
Congress person do everything in his/her power to bring our precious
lifeblood home from the nightmare.
It is time to get peacefully radical.
The day of the fraud-filled constitutional referendum in Iraq,
George said: "Democracies are peaceful countries."
Let's hold him and our other elected officials accountable for that
hypocritical statement. If George won't make it so, we must!
Our young people aren't numbers. Our young people are confined to
early graves because of criminals who should be confined to prison
that are profiting handsomely from the undeclared mess in Iraq. The
Iraqi people are less than numbers. If they are counted or thought
of at all, they are very often wrongly counted as "insurgents" when
they are children and women.
If mere numbers will wake America up, think of Dr. and Mrs. Death
(Donny and Condi) when they say that this occupation could last at
least a dozen or more years.
What number are you comfortable with? One was too much for me.
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, KIA
04/04/04 She is co-founder of
Gold
Star Families for Peace..
Copyright © 2005 LewRockwell.
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