Cindy Sheehan just "resigned" from her unofficial leadership role in the peace movement, partly because she couldn't take the name-calling. It's absurd to call her an "attention whore", when politicians spend millions to make their names known to the voters. Stardom is the name of the game in the US.
It's a law of nature that leadership brings negative as well as positive attention. Especially, leadership for truth, justice, and integrity leading to positive social change brings negative attention from those invested in the status quo, who feel threatened. Martin Luther King, Jr, Gandhi, and ultimately Jesus are examples of martyred leaders.
We mustn't be intimidated by this law. We need peace leaders, people who like Cindy Sheehan are willing to be public with their views and do what they must to be heard. Cindy sat in the hot Texas sun day after day, waiting in vain to talk to the man who had her son killed. This got the nation's attention, and for three years she used it to organize the antiwar movement. Thank you, Cindy.
The changes needed right now are enormous. We need a 180o turnaround from the destructive, predatory policies of the Bush regime. Though Bush and Cheney's popularity is at an all-time low, they have consolidated power over the media, the Congress, the courts. They believe that they can hold out until there's a reason to impose martial law. They'll manufacture one, if they feel it necessary to stay in power.
The struggle between those of us who want a decent future for our children, and those who care only about getting theirs now, before the sh-t hits the fan, is intensifying as the planet heats up, literally and spiritually. We need people who will step up to the plate, stand in front of a camera, do what it takes to shine a light through the miasma of lies and hypocrisy which pervades our public consciousness. We need leaders.
Yes, we want attention. But we are not whores. We are truth-tellers, who are willing to take the consequences of saying what we believe.
Jesus called it picking up one's cross and following Him.
In the name of the Prince of Peace,
Carol Wolman
