Cindy Sheehan Quits Anti-War Movement

At first blush, many might think this headline has nothing to do with the anti-nuclear movement but in some ways, it has EVERYTHING to do with it, when you look at her reasons for quitting, look at why she's hanging up her shoes, and heading home to put her life back together after two years in the fight. Yesterday, I touched on the apathy of the anti-nuclear movement, have on various occassions touched on the fact that some of the old-timers are so entrenched in their own egos that we get NOWHERE. In her fairwell letter, Cindy Sheehan touches on the reality that more people care about who will become the next idol than care about how many more of our troops will die in the next few months while the Democrats (John Hall) we sent to Washington to end that war play political games.

In short, the Democrats have betrayed us every bit as much as the Republicans they replaced did while they were in office...there are just as many fact finding missions going on, and every time they do not want to face the wraith back in their home districts, the politicans are taking trips on our dime. They are betraying us with an Amnesty for 12-15 million illegals, they have sold us and the soldiers down the river by caving into the White House, and people like John Hall, Maurice Hinchey, Nita Lowey, Senator Shumer, and presidential hopeful Hilliary Clinton are selling us down the river on Indian Point...they are giving us nothing but LIP SERVICE on the ISA, and to prove it, go look the bills up, see how many co-signers their bills have, and what their status is. Both John Hall and Hilliary's Clinton show the same lack of forward momentum as their predecessors saw, because the politicians have SOLD US OUT...where is John Hall at on this issue, where was he PERSONALLY when we had the huge OPEN HOUSE back in April?

Cindy Sheehan is suffering the same burn out and frustration that most grassroots activist suffer after awhile...they give the movement all they have, and eventually, their head bruised and bloody from beating it up against the wall, they fade away disillussioned and tired.

How many folks talk privately about their disillussionment with the anti Indian Point movement, but will not cause waves publically, because they do not want to rock the boat, or destroy the unity within the movement...what good is that unity when NOTHING is being accomplished? A few of us individually, and/or as a group will file as intervenors, a few of us will file Petitions for Rulemaking in the hopes of effecting some small changes, but with the apathy out among the general members of the public, with IPSEC struggling to find consensus, and both Riverkeeper and Clearwater refusing to come out fully and completely against nuclear as it would be bad for fund raising, Indian Point is going to be relicensed, and that is fact.

Ask yourselves, do you want HIlliary Clinton spending all her time running for president, and raising money, or do you want her to start acting like OUR SENATOR? Do you want John Hall to worry about raising money, and trying to get re-elected, or do you want him to keep the various promises he made to us when we sent him to Washington? If you are going to throw your money and volunteer efforts behind Riverkeeper and Clearwater, don't you think it's time they actually laid out PUBLICALLY a cohesive plan of attack to stop the wrongful relicensing of Indian Point, rather than lamely tell us they are working with politicians to get and ISA...hello, that strategy is a dead pony. People like Mannajo need to check their egos at the door, and start letting some of the ideas forwarded by the new upstarts through. Further, if Riverkeeper and Clearwater are stopping IPSEC from reaching consensus, then perhaps it is time for those two organizations to LEAVE IPSEC so they can become and effective tool against Indian Point relicensing.

Closing Indian Point is going to take more than handing out pens, bumper stickers and match books at a yearly festival, and the time to become active is rapidly vanishing away into the ethers.

Updated:2007-05-29 04:39:45
Anti-War Mom Gives Up on Peace Movement

CNN For full article click here:

Sheehan achieved national attention when she camped outside President Bush 's home in Crawford, Texas, throughout August 2005 to demand a meeting with the president over her son's death.

While Bush ignored her, the vigil made her one of the most prominent figures among opponents of the war.

But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.

She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said "often puts personal egos above peace and human life."

Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in an April 2004 battle in Baghdad . His death prompted his mother to found Gold Star Families for Peace.

But in Monday's 1,200-word letter, titled, "Good Riddance Attention Whore," Sheehan announced that her son "did indeed die for nothing."

"I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."