Dear George,
You don't mind if I call you George, do you? When you sent me this letter offering your condolences on the death of my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, you called me Cindy, so I naturally assume we are on a first-name basis.
George, it has been seven months today since your reckless and wanton foreign policies killed my son in the illegal and unjust war on Iraq. Casey, my big boy, my hero, my best friend.
Casey was always a good boy. He could play for hours by himself. He loved Nintendo, GI Joes, the World Wrestling Federation, baseball (especially the Dodgers), his church, and God.
He joined the Cub Scouts when he was in the first grade, and he eventually earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He became an altar boy when he was eight, and he continued serving his church for the rest of his life. He never talked back to his dad or me. He rarely fought with his brothers and sisters. He loved our animals and he loved little children.
Everyone assumed Casey was going to be a priest because he was so faithful to God and to the church.
The above is an excerpt from (page 15) Cindy Sheehan's "From Cindy To George" in CODEPINK's Stop The Next War Now.
Cindy Sheehan (Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families For Peace) was one of the many moving speakers at the Conyers Hearing on the Downing Street Memo.
Carly Sheehan has a poem in honor of her brother Casey on page 18 of Stop The Next War Now. It's entitled "A Nation Rocked to Sleep."
Carly Sheehan's poem can be found online at Casey's Peace Page. At Casey's Peace Page, you can also find Cindy Sheehan's "Dear George" letter. In addition to that site, you can also check out Karen Houppert's "The New Face of Protest" from The Nation. (An important article, my opinion.)
As always, Democracy Now! is a resource worth checking. We'll note two reports from them:
"Pentagon Turns Away Mothers of Soldiers Killed in Iraq" and "Thousands Protest in Fayetteville in Largest Army Base Demonstration Since Vietnam."
For those keeping track, we've now excerpted from Nancy Lessin's "Breaking The Code Of Silence," Camilo Mejia's "Regaining My Humanity," Arundhati Roy's "Introduction," Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans preface, and Alice Walker's foreword. In addition, Dallas has provided a list of all the contributors to CODEPINK's Stop The Next War Now.
On May 4th we noted this:
Code Pink has a book out entitled Stop the Next War Now. For more information, see Code Pink or BuzzFlash. The book contains contributions from a number of women this community has noted and highlighted. Among the contributors: Medea Benjamin, Amy Goodman, Barbara Lee, Naomi Klein, Eve Ensler, and Arianna Huffington.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
