When Robert DeLozier saw the story of Cindy Sheehan on television Sunday, he told his spouse right away: "I'm going up there. We have to drop everything and go." At the Sam's Club of all places, says Robert, he nearly broke down crying while he was shopping Monday morning thinking about what Sheehan was doing in memory of her son Casey, who was killed in Iraq last April.
"She's a strong woman," says Robert via cell phone as he drives back home Monday night. "She feels she has been wronged. She feels her son has been wronged. And she feels like this whole occupation of Iraq is wrong. She is strong and powerful enough to take a stand. When I see it, it just strikes a chord. She's speaking truth to power. That's it. David and Goliath."
Robert hands the phone to spouse Abbe Waldman DeLozier as their car glides up and down the gentle hills of Central Texas. It is just past dark Monday night, but Abbe is lit up with fresh memories of an evening with Sheehan and the brave band of pilgrims who have come from unexpected places. "Hawaii," says Robert from his seat as Abbe holds the phone.
"Yes, Hawaii, that was one of the places," says Abbe. "And California. Two young ladies from L.A., another from Pennsylvania." In all there were about 15 people who gathered at dusk to pow wow some strategy. "They say there are more people in the morning," says Abbe. This afternoon, an anonymous donor ordered up two or three party trays of sandwiches from the Subway Sandwich Shop in McGregor and had them sent out to feed Sheehan's camp. Folks are sending flowers and money, too.
Since Abbe has experience with media, she volunteered to help Sheehan sort out her media calls. There were 85 messages on Sheehan's cell phone. Abbe, with the two young ladies from California who had never done any media work before, copied down the messages, put them on a list, and began returning the calls.
"The two young ladies were very professional," said Abbe. "They had never done this before, but they were very good." By the end of the evening, Abbe had made a master schedule for Sheehan so that she could begin to manage the line of media waiting from all over the world.
Returning a call to a radio station in Oregon, Abbe suddenly found herself on the air live during a show in progress with Mike Hoffman, co-founder of Iraq Vets Against the War (IVAW). She said "Hi Mike" but didn't have much time to chat with a war resister who she had once helped with media relations back in the bad old days when the work was very difficult indeed, not like this where you end up accidentally live on the air, both of you in Oregon!
Abbe doesn't know much more about the pow wow. An NPR reporter was on hand and the group asked for fifteen minutes of privacy to talk about some serious issues like what they were going to do if the cops showed up and started arresting people. The NPR reporter was gracious enough to give the tribe some space, and Abbe was hospitable enough to walk around with the reporter while the group worked things out. Then the NPR reporter took about 90 minutes of tape from Sheehan and Company which has to be cut down to perfect size by deadline.
Abbe thinks the media are responding to Sheehan because of her strong stand. "I'm not leaving until Bush just simply comes out and talks to me," says Abbe in a respectful impersonation of Sheehan's message. "She will not leave until they put her in jail, until she sees the President, or until he leaves Crawford for the summer," says Abbe. "And she is very intelligent."
When Robert and Abbe arrived at the camp about 4:00 this afternoon, folks had just moved off a "triangle" of grass at the request of police and were camped down in a "ditch area" with cows and field for as far as the eye could see. Press reports put the group five miles from the President's ranch, but Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project says that if the media get to stand within a half mile of the ranch, so should the protesters. Legal help is another thing people are giving.
Later in the evening black suburbans started whizzing past. A stream of maybe 25, coming down the road, one after the other, about a minute apart, with government tags. Soon after that overhead came the presidential helicopter with a three helicopter escort, buzzing past the camp and over to the Western White House. But the impressive action was down in the ditch among the small band of resolute activists who have flung themselves together for this circle of courage and tears.
"It's very moving being out there," says Abbe. "I'm so glad I went." She's going to clear her schedule and go back soon. "I'm very emotional, very glad. If I could communicate to you what it's like to be there. If people could see it and experience it, well then number one..." But Abbe can't finish the sentence. "I can't finish the sentence, because I'm crying."
"Let me just say," says Abbe Waldman DeLozier through her tears, "that there would be millions out there. Millions." -----
Greg Moses gmosesx@prodigy.net is editor of Peacefile and author of Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence. http://peacefile.org/phpnuke/
This was a very moving description of what is happening under a blazing Texas sun while our cowardly resident basks in his air conditioned western white house. A pig farm by any other name is still a pig farm which is more in line with what is residing there. No matter how bad you feel for Cindy Sheehan words simply will not convey your feelings. Where ever Bush goes he will have to carry his private army (paid for with american tax dollars) to cover his cowardly ass, he is undoubtably the most hated man (using the term loosely)in the world.The true heroine is standing in the ditch waiting. I can picture Bush being driven by in a bullet proof suv with blacked out windows and giving all he see's that cannot see him the finger and giggling like the village idiot that he is. How in Gods green earth did we, the american people ever let ourselves get into this mess? Bad enough we brought it down around our own ears but we have compounded it by turning it loose on the world. A complete disgrace and injustice to all that have paid the ultimate price for freedom and all those that will never again know what a normal life is. They may be right in a way by not wanting to give the real numbers of those killed and injured in Iraq, I do not consider these as casualties of war. Neither American nor Iraqi, I consider it murder and maiming all contributed directly to Bush and his corrupt cartel. I also believe that years to come will show that he also had something to do with our 9/11. We have a very sick puppy in office and how on earth anyone with any type of intelligence can back him is beyond my comprehension. I am not a believer and if I were I would quickly revert when I did not see him struck down for what he has done. But then as he claims 'God tells him what to do'. Have you any idea how many people are in prison and mental institutions for making the same claims and they have not done near the damage as Bush.
Thank you for a fine article.
Small Town Southern Illinois American
by
Robert D. Daily (7 articles, 12 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments)
on Thursday, August 11, 2005 at 2:38:54 PM
That we now have a government no longer Of, By and For the People?
That we have a government that could quite possibly have stopped 9-11 from happening yet Our Government sat and did nothing?
That we have a government that allowed Saudis to leave this country without any interrogation directly after 9-11 when we knew that the terrorists were Saudis?
That Bush tried again and again to stop any investigations into 9-11?
That Bush used manufactured evidence to lead us into a war with Iraq for harboring terrorists originating in Saudia Arabia when all the evidence showed that said terrorist groups were not tolerated by Saddam?
That our military could be sent to war no better prepared than they were and now years later still are. There was no planning on going in and there is no planning on leaving.
That we have a pResident that is interested in only taking from our armed forces while giving no more than lip service in return. Showing his support by wrapping himself in the American flag and cutting benefits and services for the people he so readily places in harms way.
That we have a pResident that sees no problem with using Depleted Uranium and Phosphorus on other Human Beings, Man, Woman and Child. The effects of which will also haunt our military personnel for generations to come.
That the world knew that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and many Americans with what scanty information Bush Propaganda Media allowed to get out could see there was no reason to go invade and occupy Iraq, committing mass murder with his ‘Shock and Awe’ bombing?
That time after time we now know that Bush/Cheney lied and created, manufactured evidence when inspectors on the ground could find nothing to support their lies.
That we are now beginning to hear some of the same lies and reasoning that led to Iraq, now pointed at and used in connection with Iran.
That the United States is a large supporter of Israel, a nation that has time and again been caught spying on the United States. Still they are supported with money and armament.
That those so intent on War should have to spend some time at the Nations Veterans Hospitals, even more so if they are among the group of Bush and Cheney, ones that Would Not Serve Themselves.
That there is so much secrecy surrounding everything done by this government, no matter how mundane.
That we no longer have a media that informs us of the news of the world in particular our own country and what is happening. In its stead we get a steady diet of Non-news Orchestrated by the Bush Regime by way of the likes of Fox News, Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, O’Reilly and Novak just to mention a few?
That the likes of Pat Robertson are allowed to preach their Sermons of Hate even to the point of calling for the assassination of the leader of another country with being brought down because of it?
That the Neocons, Religious Right want to give the Marching Orders for the Country and still retain their tax status. Not everyone has their outlook nor do they wish for them to have any power over the governing of the people. They would serve much better in helping the people.
That with a natural disaster such as Katrina happened with no more preparation than what was made. Knowing now that there was ample warning that could have saved possibly hundreds of lives.
That the National Guard instead of being here where they belonged doing what they are best prepared to do taking care of disasters here at home were and are instead in Iraq fighting an Illegal War with all their equipment.
That what is left of the National Guard here is now facing cuts to the Guard itself.
That there is closing of Military Bases here in the United States that employees thousands of Americans. But there are plans for Halliburton to build four (4) massive military bases in Iraq.
That there are also plans for Halliburton to build New Prisons and Detainment Centers here in the United States. Will one of us be in one of them? If you protest or dissent chances are, Yes.
That with the tragedy of 9-11 Bush pulled out all the stops in trying to Halt Any Investigation into what happened. Then forced with the organization of the 9-11 Commission we saw time and time again how they would drag their feet and refuse to testify under oath or only answer what questions they wanted to answer. In the end we get a watered down version of a real investigation.
That even as watered down as this commission was the recommendations that they made still have not been implemented
That showing the complete chaos from Katrina, how ill prepared we were and the complete incompetence of Homeland Insecurity and Fema, we are to believe that we are safer than before 9-11. That we are prepared for an enemy attack.
That this administration was quick to point out how well things were taken care of in Manhattan on 9-11, the republicans in charge knew how to react A tragedy for sure on one small island and one small area, now compare that to the entire Gulf Coast and comprising three states and even though there was a Democrat Governor and Mayor. FEMA and Homeland Insecurity is under Republican Control.
That help from outside our country was ready to move in and give aid but was denied. namely Venezuela and Cuba.
That the government now has turned all these displaced people out onto the streets with no place to live, after scattering them across the United States.
That they paid a ridiculous amount of tax payers money for cruise ships to be brought to the Gulf Coast to be peopled by very few people when there was an offer by another cruise line for ships to come free of charge.
That it leads you to believe that maybe the people on the Cruise Ships may have been “Our Kind of People”, something along the Dan Quail line.
That now when the Petroleum Companies are showing the largest Profits in History the American People in some areas of our country are relying on the charity of Venezuela in order to have the fuel to keep warm in the winter. Being sent here by the same man this government is actively trying to overthrow.
That said same government now wishes to reward the same Petroleum Companies for making such large profits by allowing them to pump their product Royalty Free, thusly adding many more BILLIONS of dollars to their already bulging coffers.
That so many companies have gone offshore in order not to pay taxes, to find cheap labor in many instances ‘Sweat Shop” labor. Still the goods are brought back here and sold for the same prices as if they were made here.
That now, months later there has still been little done to help the people for the gulf coast all in all proving that the problem was Mass Incompetence and still is. For instance all the trailers parked without residents, sinking into the mud. Costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
That in the Hearings we are now seeing all we can see is one cover-up after the other for this mass incompetence and nothing really being done. Hearings where the Major Players do not even have to be sworn in even after they have been known to have lied before, under oath.
That armament is not adequately provided for our troops and then we hear that they will be penalized for buying and using their own.
That companies such as Halliburton have been given open ended no bid contracts for any and everything in Iraq and Afghanistan where there has been one scandal after the other over price gouging, non-delivery of goods, foul housing conditions for our troops and lousy food to name but a few.
That we have heard of investigations being started over these matters but soon swept under the rug and they are forgotten about until new charges are brought up.
That we are hearing more and more about Torture at Guantanimo and the Prisons in Iraq, yet we see few being brought up on charges for these offenses and when we do we see them get not much more than a slap on the hand. Some of this torture leading to deaths. Many prisoners so far not found guilty of any crime.
That we are now learning of prisoners shipped around the world to different torture camps and prisons where human rights laws are not followed.
That by our own practices qnd those Sanctioned by this administration we could be known as a Terrorist Nation that does not believe in Human Rights.
That our elected officals be elected by one man, one vote. Yet we find massive fraud in the elections, machines provided by those who have something to gain from this administration, no paper trails to voting, disenfranchisement, intimidation even the stoppage of vote counting and the supreme slap in the face, The Selection By The Supreme Court. We are still stuck with that decision.
That we have a government that is increasingly getting to the point that it is more important to elect someone who fits it rather than one that is fighting for what is right and what is good for our country as a whole. Wanting to give the country back to the people, taking it from the special interest groups and lobbyists.
That it is time to ‘Weed Out’ the politicians, that if you vote in a Democrat and he consistently backs the republican agenda, he is NOT a democrat and should not be allowed to hold office as a Democrat and there should be a way to remove him other than waiting until another election to do so. It is beyond me how they can say No to a man with the stature of Paul Hackett when they have one with the stature of Joe Lieberman in office.
That increasingly we wonder about the Mental Health of those holding office, do they get in there without any evaluation at all?
That companies such as WalMart are being subsidized with tax payers money while the Walton Family is worth billions. Yet they cannot or will not supply group insurance and livable wages for its workers,
That no longer can you walk down town or up town or to the Mom and Pop Store that has been this countries base for years. Where someone short on cash could put things on a Tab until the next payday. Now, you have to be mobile, you have to be able to drive to the edge of town and in some case miles away to shop as everything was driven out of business by the WalMarts and K Marts.That you can get a Sam’s Membership card for 30.00 a year and end up paying more for some items than you do at one of the WalMart stores.
That we have now learned of the take over of six major seaports by Arabs. Seems to me that these are the same people that brought us 9-11, the terrorists coming from Saudia Arabia and not Iraq, the same people that were given leave to leave our country with any real interrogation at a time when all air traffic was shut down, knowing that some of those allowed to leave were members of the family of the man who planned the attack, in fact one of them sat with the VP while the attack took place, that is holding control over oil prices, the same people that the Bush family regards as Family.
That the Government we now have Is Not Accountable, Responsible and Definitely Not Credible. The Government that we have now was definitely NOT voted in by the People of the United States. The Government we have now could give lessons to the Mafia. Compared to them the Mafia looks like a bunch or Choir boys.
That we can look for Bush to show up disrupting everything with his private army and reporters at any disaster for a photo-op and to make promises that are forgotten by him as soon as he leaves?
That Bush had enough sense not to show up for the tragedy with the coal miners, they were not in the mood to pose for his BS photo-ops and lies. What happened there can be laid at his door.
That there are now only certain areas where you can protest at any given time.
That if you wear an article of clothing questioning the pResident you are subject to arrest and investigation.
That if you speak too loud questioning what this administration is doing then you are unpatriotic or supporting the enemy. Lord help you is you are a Veteran that has been decorated, then you get the Swift Boat Treatment such as Kerry and Max Clellan got. All Directed by a Bunch of Cowards who would not serve themselves.
That when Bush shows up for his scripted appearances as soon as he opens his mouth you know that it will be a lie, No, A Goddamned Lie.
That Bush cannot go into any honest debate without a plug in his ear and someone telling him what to say.
That if there were something to happen to Karl Rove Bush would be like a fish out of water.
That if it were not for the support of the various media peddling Rove/Cheney/Bush propaganda, the covers would have been pulled off them years ago.
That when Bush makes a promise or an offer that as soon as he leaves it will be the complete opposite of what he promised.. The all important thing is is for him to have his picture taken and travel to do it on our dollar.
That if the money spent on Bush’s BS Photo-ops around the world with his traveling Dog and Pony Show were to used constructively it would fund a lot of the programs needed by the American People that he has cut.
That we are in deep trouble along our Mexican Border with Illegals and all the violence. His solution, let the American Taxpayers be responsible for it. They have to do it, Homeland Insecurity is too incompetent. Give drivers licenses to illegals, give them all the benefits of the Americans, even those the Americans can no longer get. Give them teaching jobs in schools that now rate as almost defunct.
That we are faced once again with a scandal, possibly the largest in the history of our country, Able Danger and once again instead of a full aggressive investigation the administration tries to cover it up or lessen its importance to this country.
That this administration has driven this country so far in debt that we may never see the top and every time we turn around he is demanding more for the support of His Illegal and Immoral War to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each time. We do know that we are deeply in Hock to China. Just how deep?
That he has spent more than ALL of our presidents, put together. Not bad for someone who has never had to work a day in his life.
That if you are not born with that silver spoon in your mouth and your parents know somebody that knows somebody then you have no business getting advance schooling. You need do nothing but be a coal miner, common laborer or work for WalMart, minimum wage, no benefits, no chance for a pension and work at least two jobs to try and survive.
That if you cannot realize that what we have here is a Completely Corrupt Cartel that truly hates this country and by all they do they are showing that they are out to bankrupt it, sell it to the highest bidder, open it completely to terrorist attacks possibly take over by another nation, even to the extent that they report where the weak points in our system are.
That there are names put to such as these. Treasonous, Murderers, Corrupt, Liars, Cheats, Torturers, all committing Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes,
That they wrap themselves in the American Flag while they call True Americans Un-Patriotic and Preach Democracy in other countries while they Destroy it here at home. Or as we have heard “God told me to do it”.
That there can be NO GOD, for if there was he would not allow a Cartel such as this to bring so much misery and suffering down upon the heads of so many human beings. Said suffering and misery will remain long after Bush is gone thanks to the Un-Godly Weapons He Has Chosen To Use.
Nuff said…for now.
Robert D. Daily
by
Robert D. Daily (7 articles, 12 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 12 comments)
on Monday, February 20, 2006 at 7:36:48 AM
2 comments
How would you rate this?
You must be logged in (if signed up) to do ratings.
It's free to signup! And easy. And takes just a minute or two....
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
