Activists take aim at Bush, Cheney

March 5 2007

By Sarah Hinckley Herald Staff

CASTLETON — Her late arrival and apparent exhaustion took little fire out of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's message before an audience of about 200 people at Castleton State College Saturday night.

Sheehan, the keynote speaker in an 11-town statewide "Town Meeting Democracy Tour," began her talk Saturday by responding to a young man's T-shirt that stated, "Go back to California."

"I would give anything to go back (home) and have my son with me," said Sheehan, whose son, Casey, died five days after arriving in Iraq in 2004. "I can't stop. I can't stop because people are dying."

The hour-long visit to Castleton also included speakers Dan DeWalt of Newfane and John Nichols, editor of the progressive weekly,The Nation. The event was hosted by a Rutland-based peace movement called SPARK.

DeWalt said they were late to Saturday's event — the final stop of the day — because they had had trouble earlier in the day digging out their car from the weekend's snowstorm.

Despite the delay, the crowd remained eager to hear what the speakers had to say.

Sheehan spoke of a man she met in Iraq who had been imprisoned in Abu Ghraib and now takes 26 medications. The man told Sheehan his son watched American soldiers beat him and rape his wife, and now wants nothing more than to kill Americans.

"This is what we've caused in Iraq," Sheehan said of the war that will reach its four-year mark on March 15. "We have created violence."

Sheehan openly mocked the current administration. Her name for Vice President Dick Cheney is "Doomsday Dick." When Sheehan mentioned President George Bush, she asked the audience to make air quotes whenever referring to the "President," claiming his actions as "illegal."

"He spits all over our Constitution; he spits all over our troops," said Sheehan, insisting that impeaching Bush for lying is the only way to rectify the country's current situation. "We are the detested laughing stock of the world. We belong to the world. We're part of the world. We need to start realizing that."

The other speakers on the tour, DeWalt and Nichols, also concentrated on the need to impeach the Bush. DeWalt is spearheading a statewide movement to impeach Bush; 27 Vermont towns have included a resolution to do so on their annual Town Meeting warning.

"Let them know the people of the United States know when they are being misled," said DeWalt, urging audience members to contact the state's congressional delegation after voting locally.

Nichols reports on business in Washington, D.C., and has written several books about politics.

"I'm not about Dick Cheney or George Bush. What I'm about is to cleanse the office," Nichols said. "The executive branch was never meant to have this much power."

An audience question-and-answer session followed the impassioned speeches by the three activists.

Contact Sarah Hinckley at sarah.hinckley@rutlandherald.com.

Five questions with Cindy Sheehan

Q: Do you think you are making a difference?

CS: I know we're making a difference. I think we're changing the mood of the country. We have a long way to go.

Q: What have you learned?

CS: I've learned so much. It's been a crash course in foreign politics, civil rights … I've probably learned as much since Casey died than I knew before.

Q: Other than your son who inspires you?

CS: Daniel Ellsberg (who released the Pentagon Papers in 1971 that showed how the government had misled the public about the war in Vietnam). I draw strength from people that just come up and give me a hug.

Q: How often are you home with your family?

CS: A few days a month … my kids are all in their 20s with work and school. We realize we can't be a normal family anymore, whatever a normal family is.

Q: What are your hopes for the new Congress?

CS: I'm hoping they start to become a true opposition party, which is what we voted for them to do.

— Sarah Hinckley