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Cindy Sheehan Is Coming to Washington: What Is My Responsibility? September 18, 2005 The Reverend Roger Fritts Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church Bethesda, Maryland Next Saturday, led by Cindy Sheehan, people wi ll gather on the ellipse to call for an end to the occupation of Iraq. A group of Unitarian Universalists from Florida, who are attending the event, will be camping out in our Chalice House. A contingent of Unitarians from a church I served twenty years ago in New Bedford, Massachusetts is chartering a bus. At the Unitarian Church in Evanston, Illinois, where I served as a minister fifteen years ago, the congregation was host to a mid week candlelight service for antiwar protesters passing through Chicago on their way to Washington. I hope that we are approaching the end of the America occupation of Iraq. I hope that this occupation that has gone on for two years and six months may be winding down. I hope that this war that has taken the lives of nineteen hundred good Americans may be slowly ending. I should explain to any visitors here this morning that in a Unitarian Universalist church the minister's views are in no way the official view of the church. The congregation is free to agree or disagree or take a nap if you wish. My view of war is rooted in my religious belief. Although I do not believe that Jesus was God, I do believe that Jesus was a great human being and an important teacher of morality. In simple language he blessed the peace makers and called on us to turn the other cheek. The Unitarian Henry David Thoreau developed and expanded Jesus’ philosophy by refusing to pay his taxes because of the Mexican American War and went to jail. It was only for one day, but still it was a protest against war. Gandhi read the New Testament and Thoreau's essay “Civil Disobedience.” Martin Luther King Jr. studied Jesus’ and Gandhi’s writings. Many of us who became adults during the Vietnam War studied the life and the words of Dr. King. Many of us who have become ministers since the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s have tried to follow Dr. King’s example of non violence. Three years ago before the war started, I wrote the President encouraging him not to invade Iraq. The President did not follow my advice. One year after the war started I wrote again suggesting that because no weapons of mass destruction had been found and because our treatment of prisoners violated international treaties, a continuing U.S. military presence in Iraq was counterproductive. I said that our occupation had lost the trust of the Iraqi people and it was time that he withdraw our troops. The President did not follow my advice. Now the occupation has been going on for two and a half years. Last January’s election in Iraq cheered me. According to reporters who were there, it was a wonderful day for the people of Iraq. I would like the President to be successful and I was hoping that this was a turning point away from violence. However, after the election the conflict and the suicide bombing resumed. In spite of the violence it seemed to me that President Bush would continue the occupation of Iraq until his term ends in January 2009. In August, however, I watched the growing interest in Cindy Sheehan, a Roman Catholic from central California. The nation learned that Mrs. Sheehan was the mother of Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, who first joined the Army in May 2000. He reenlisted in August 2003, at the age of twenty-four. April 4, 2004, just after his arrival in Iraq, Casey volunteered for a rescue mission. The night of April 4, Cindy Sheehan saw a military sedan in front of her house with three men in uniform. She felt a terrible moment of recognition. At his funeral the army awarded Casey the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. About her son Cindy Sheehan said: “He was an amazing person. He was a brave and honest man full of love for his family and friends. He loved being in the drama club, playing Nintendo, and helping people. He has been an altar server for 10 years. He finally quit when he graduated from high school and asked me, ‘You know, Mom, can I quit altar serving? Can I be an usher or something now at Mass?’ I was the coordinator of our youth Mass at our parish. And he was an Eagle Scout. He was a Eucharistic Minister, and he had trained to be a Eucharistic Minister in the field when they went to Iraq, to help the priest. But he was only there for two weeks before he was killed on Palm Sunday. He never missed Mass. He was just the most calm and peaceful and gentle person that anybody would ever know. He was so quiet, but he had such an impact on everybody’s lives. And he was so brave.” Cindy Sheehan describes her last conversation with her son. She said: “He called me one time from Kuwait. They still hadn’t gone to Iraq. And he never complained. He said that it was hot and he was really busy because he had to get their vehicles ready to go on the convoy from Kuwait to Baghdad. He was on his way to Mass, and we talked about when he stopped in Ireland to refuel. She went on: “He started writing us a letter on March 31st. he said the convoy from Kuwait to Baghdad was real peaceful, and it looked like it was going to be an easy year of deployment. He wrote that on March 31st , and he was killed April 4th.” Cindy Sheehan and other grieving military families met with President George W. Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, near Tacoma, Washington. About the President, She said: “He didn’t even know our names.” He walked in to the room and ask “Who we’all honorin’ here today?” Bush called Sheehan “Mom.” He said, “Mom, I can’t imagine the pain you’re going through.” Sheehan said, “I think you can imagine it a little bit, Mr. President. You have daughters. How would you feel if one of them was killed?” As time has passed, Sheehan has become more vitriolic in her statements. This past July 4, she described her 2004 meeting with the President as “one of the most disgusting experiences I ever had.” She described President Bush as “detached from humanity” and said that “his mouth kept moving, but there was nothing in his eyes or anything else about him that showed me he really cared or had any real compassion at all.” In early August 2005 she traveled to President Bush’s ranch just outside Crawford, Texas, where he was taking a five-week vacation. Demanding a second meeting with the President, she pitched a tent by the side of the road and announced her intention to stay, day and night, for the full five weeks, or until the President granted such a meeting. “This war,” she said, “is based on lies and betrayals. Not one American soldier, nor one Iraqi should have been killed. Common sense would dictate that not one more person should be killed for lies.” Sheehan has described President Bush as having “moronic and callous foreign policies.” She has said that “The biggest terrorist in the world is George W. Bush.” She has suggested that, if President Bush really believes in this war, he should send his own daughters to fight. I can imagine that if one of my children died in Iraq, I would also use words to express my rage at the President.
When the President ended his vacation August 31, Sheehan started a trip across the United States that will end in Washington with an antiwar demonstration next Saturday. Next Saturday’s demonstration comes at a time when public support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 38 percent. Polls show that Americans are now less likely to enlist in the military or encourage their children to join. Active-duty Army recruiting expects to fall short of its goal for 2005. The national guard has fallen 13 percent short of its recruitment goals. Soldiers in Iraq say they are being pressured round the clock to re-enlist. They are being offered a $30,000 signing bonus, tax free. If soldiers still do not reenlist the Army uses “stop loss” orders that forbid then from leaving the service. None of this, not the polls, or the demonstrations or the lack of people willing to enlist, seem enough to get the President to end the occupation of Iraq. But now something has changed. Now I have hope that within the next year many American soldiers will be coming home. My reason is Hurricane Katrina. This past week when a poll asked how to pay for Katrina’s recovery, a majority said we should pay for it by cutting funds for the occupation of Iraq.
I do not believe that President Bush on his own will withdraw our troops from Iraq. He is deeply invested in persevering and he does not face reelection. Still I hope that a majority of Congress, facing reelection next year, will convince the president that it is time to shift the nation’s resources from Iraq to hurricane recovery. I hope that Republican law makers in the Senate and in the House will insist that the Federal government move its priorities from Iraq to domestic recovery. The hints that the war is ending have started to appear in the news media. This past Tuesday the Iraqi President said that the United States could withdraw as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year, declaring there are enough Iraqi forces trained and ready to begin assuming control in cities throughout the country. This morning: • I hope that Iraqis will approve a new constitution on October 15. • I hope that they will hold successful parliamentary elections in December. • I hope that because of pressure from Congress major American troop withdrawals will occur next winter and spring. • I hope that we are at the beginning of the end. I do not know what will happen in Iraq after we leave but I hope that after our departure the Sunni, the Shiites and the Kurds will work together in a new government. However, if they do not work together, it is not our job to force them. Cindy Sheehan is coming to Washington next Saturday. What is my responsibility? As an American citizen who tries to follow the teachings of Jesus about peacemaking and non violence, I believe my first responsibility is to write to key members of Congress, urging them to move the nation’s priorities away from Iraq and toward the recovery from Katrina. If members of Congress feel that they may not be reelected next year, they will end the occupation. I plan to join the gathering next Saturday. The greatest value of the march will be that it will raise the spirits of those who participate in the demonstration. When I attend such an event I see that I am not alone, that there are others who see the world as I do. I feel more energized, more filled with hope about the future. If Cindy Sheehan has the courage to stand up and speak out, I have a responsibility to stand with her. I want to know that in her grief and her anger, she is not alone. This morning I hope that a result of this terrible hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast at the end of August, will be an end to our military occupation of Iraq. I believe there is a real possibility that we may soon see an end to this war. Last March Cindy Sheehan was confronted by a retired Marine Vietnam vet. He was screaming at her, beside himself with fury. She just sat trying to let the veteran blow off some steam. Then the very, very, angry man finally screamed one thing that she couldn’t ignore. Sheehan said that he was practically frothing at the mouth when he roared: “You people are all cowards. You wouldn’t die for anything.” Sheehan stood up and said: “You are wrong about that, sir. I would have gladly gone to Iraq instead of my son. I would have died in his place without question.” This simple but true statement, which any parent would make, took the wind out of the Marine’ssails. He got tears in his eyes and he said: “I’m so sorry for your loss, ma’am. I would have taken your son’s place, too.” They hugged each other and both of them cried. At that point in time, a blue state, peace activist mom, and a red state, War supporting veteran, found common ground. It was a sacred moment, and it is a sign of hope for our nation. |
Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist
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