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The Opposite of Good is Apathy
"The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from
its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead."
-- William Lloyd Garrison
By Cindy Sheehan
06/01/05 "ICH"
-- - The apathy of most of America is stunning and
appalling to me. When I found this quote I was filled with wide-eyed
wonder that there is one statue left in America complete with
statue, or one grave or tomb still occupied.
On October 26th, as MoveOn.org was holding its candlelight vigils
across the country to mourn the death of the 2000 th American
soldier in Iraq, I, and two dozen others, were being arrested in
front of the White House protesting the carnage done in our name by
the illegitimate residents therein.
Now, counting the 11 American soldiers who were pointlessly killed
in George's unconscionable and brainless war of terror in the Middle
East, the American "official" death toll is up to 2193: 200 more
families ruined in less than three months!
My son, Casey, was in the first 1000 to be killed in Iraq. We
reached that dismal mark by September 2004. MoveOn.org conducted
candlelight vigils for that occasion. Then a little over a year
later, MoveOn.org conducted candlelight vigils to commemorate the
2000th soldier. If we don't get off of our collective apathetic and
complacent backsides to stop the barbaric killing in Iraq, when will
the next candlelight vigil be? George Bush and the evil neocons are
killing our precious soldiers at the rate of 2.78 per day. By my
calculations, we should be lighting our candles again and singing "Kum
bah ya" by October.
This article is not intended to be an indictment of MoveOn.org which
does some amazing work and were big supporters of Camp Casey. But my
point is this, America: the longer we let the illegitimate pretender
to the White House and his conniving and callous gang of
co-conspirators to continue, the more our collective humanity is
damaged. Apparently, candlelight vigils do very little to stop, or
even slow down a little, the carnage committed by the war criminals
in DC.
Then we have the unfortunate innocents of Iraq. I have heard reports
of up to as many as 200 of them killed yesterday. So if 200 were
reported, one has to really wonder what the true count was. Bill
O'Reilly and George Bush define a terrorist as someone who "kills
innocent men, women and children." Am I the only one who sees the
irony and stunning hypocrisy in this statement?" Who do Bill and
George think are being killed in Iraq? Well-trained and an organized
Army? Terrorists? We all know that is false. This is who is being
killed in Iraq: living breathing human beings, identical to
Americans, or any other human beings on earth, who are just trying
to go about their lives trying to survive in a war torn country that
was no threat to America or our way of life.
"I would say 30,000 more or less have died as a result of the
initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis," said
George on December 12, 2005. Even if one accepts this very low
guess-ti-mate by George, his policies have been responsible for ten
times the 3000 deaths on September 11, 2001. By his own admission,
he is ten times the terrorist that Osama ever was. If George says
30,000…who knows what the truthful total is. It fills me with sorrow
and hurts my heart to even contemplate the number.
America: this is what you are allowing your government to do in your
name:
Detain and torture prisoners without due process. Use chemical
weapons on other members of humanity. Spy on Americans without a
court order (I hope my conversations put them in a coma of boredom).
Carpet bomb cities filled with human beings like yourselves. Destroy
the infrastructure of other countries. Destroy the infrastructure of
American cities. Cut taxes on the rich while pouring money and blood
into the thirsty sands of the Middle East. Decimate our treasury.
Rape the environment. Et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum.
Hillary Clinton told me that the "wheels of government grind
slowly." This is a tired cliché and it is unacceptable blather while
the war machine is grinding the bones of our children. It is time
for us wide awake Americans to make our elected officials speed up
the timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
If I hear one more rendition of "We Shall Overcome" and then watch
the vigilers or marchers go home and turn on their TV's and crack
open a brewsky content in the fact that they have done something for
peace that day, I am going to scream! We can't overcome unless we
take the proverbial bull by the horns and overcome!
Hold your vigils and marches in relevant places: such as
warmongering local Congressional offices. So many Senators and
Congresspeople come to mind. Or in front of a recruiting station. Or
Federal Buildings. Or military bases. Then instead of going home and
cracking open a beer, or uncorking a bottle of wine, sit down and
say "we aren't leaving until you call for an immediate end to the
occupation of Iraq." Put your butt on the line for humanity.
Change will not happen until we make it happen. We can't make change
happen by wishing or praying that it will happen.
We actually have to do something.
Cindy Sheehan is a co-founder of Gold
Star Families for Peace.
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