Cindy Sheehan brought a message Sunday to 1,000 supporters on the New Haven Green: George Bush will rue the day he declined to meet with her outside his estate last month.
Sheehan, a grieving 48-year-old mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, galvanized the antiwar movement this summer when she refused to leave Crawford until Bush would agree to meet with her.
Since leaving Crawford, Texas, at the end of August, participants in the Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour —-” anti-war family members of soldiers and anti-war vets —”- are visiting 28 states and speaking at 200 events in the lead-up to the anti-war mobilization in Washington, D.C. this coming weekend.
Sheehan, a grieving 48-year-old mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, galvanized the antiwar movement this summer when she refused to leave Crawford until Bush would agree to meet with her.
Local speakers warmed up the crowd Sunday. Roger Vann, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, said America must deal with all its “gulf wars” —” the gulfs between the rich and the poor, straight and gay, and those on opposite sides of the abortion issue, and said the only way to deal with those gulfs is to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and force a conversation about foreign and domestic policy, and about how we distribute our resources. He added, “There’s another war in this country, a war on dissent. This is America, y’all. We have a Bill of Rights that should guarantee our rights to free speech and assembly.” He said Americans must speak out forcefully against the infringement of those rights.
Then half a dozen speakers from the bus tour spoke personally about their loved ones.
Tammara Rosenleaf identified herself as “a soldier’s wife.” Her husband is scheduled to go to Iraq in November. She’s been with Sheehan since early August, and she said people often ask her how she can spend this precious time away from her husband. “My only answer is, —ÀúHow could I not?’ because it’s not just my husband I’m trying to save. I’m trying to save all of our soldiers, all of our sailors, all of our marines, all of our air force. But more than that, I’m trying to save the soul of this nation.”
Al Zappala is the father of Sherwood Baker, who was killed in Iraq in April 2004. Zappala said of his son, “He was providing security for the Iraqi survey team that was supposedly looking for weapons of mass destruction. This was long after they already knew there were no weapons, and yet our soldiers were still put in danger. This was after President Bush was heard joking around, looking under his desk and asking, —ÀúAre there any weapons of mass destruction here?’ and he and his cronies had a good laugh about it.”
The bus tour speakers stood next to each other on stage, and as each one finished speaking, he or she returned to the line and was embraced by the others.
Cindy Sheehan, despite the media glare that has focused on her for the past six weeks, looked like an unassuming middle-aged, middle-class woman when she emerged from the door of the RV that pulled up on Elm Street behind the stage on the Lower Green, while local TV camera crews lasered in on her. She spoke only a few minutes, and this was her biggest applause line: “George Bush and his administration are always talking about unintended consequences. He didn’t anticipate an insurgency in Iraq. They couldn’t anticipate the levees breaking, although they’d been compromised for decades. But you know, when George didn’t meet with me on Aug. 6, this is his unintended consequence: You know what now, George Bush? Instead of one person wanting these answers, we have millions of Americans who want these answers, and we’re not shutting up until you give them to us.”
Sheehan talked about the sacrifices others had made, giving up their summer to come to Camp Casey and go on tour with her, and called them “true American patriots.”
Cindy Sheehan said she plans to devote the rest of her life to working for peace, but a few people in the crowd were not impressed. Linda DeAntonio of North Haven said she’s opposed to Sheehan’s call to bring the troops home.
“I have to believe that those guys died for a reason,” she said, choking back sobs. Her son survived one tour of duty in Iraq, but he may be called back. “People have to understand,” she continued, “if you’re supporting these guys, support them all the way. Don’t say, —ÀúOh yeah, we care about you, but we don’t believe in what you’re doing.’ Don’t do that to them.”