Peace Takes Courage By Cindy Sheehan

[Guest guest]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042606A.shtml

 

 

 

 

Peace Takes Courage

By Cindy Sheehan

t r u t h o u t | Perspective

 

Wednesday 26 April 2006

 

I have a new friend. She is a 15-year-young peace activist named

Ava Lowery. She is disgusted with the war and with the Bush regime,

and she has started to use her talents for animation to make cartoons

that oppose Bush and the war in Iraq.

 

She first came to my attention when I read an article about all of

the ugly hate mail she is getting on her site for a particularly

poignant and brilliant animation she has called: " WWJD. " It is a

heartbreaking piece that has a child singing " Jesus loves me, " and

during the song she shows pictures of dead, wounded, bloody and

screaming Iraqi children. She wanted to show how Jesus loves Iraqi

children also, which is apparently a frightening concept to the people

who practice Bushianity.

 

For this inspired bit of courageous matriotism, Ava has been the

object of intense and horribly ugly hate emails and not too subtle

threats to do her bodily harm. As soon as I heard about her troubles,

I emailed her, and she phoned me right away so we could talk.

 

Even before I went to Crawford last summer, I was the object of

these attacks by many people who touted themselves as Christians doing

God's work. The attacks are rabidly obscene and horrible in their rage

and just downright meanness. There are entire web sites dedicated to

assailing me and my character and where such comments as " Someone

ought to do the world a favor and shoot the bitch in the head to shut

her up " are common. During Camp Casey, we had to refer more than one

death threat to the FBI.

 

One particularly wicked threat was sent to me the night before I

testified at Congressman Conyers's Downing Street Memo Hearings in

June, I got an email from a man who said that he hoped that my other

three children would die. I think these people level pretty harsh

punishments at other people who are only exercising their freedom of

speech, when the person who is responsible for killing American

soldiers and executing innocent Iraqi children and making them orphans

is touted as a fine Christian man.

 

God help anyone who speaks out against the anti-American Bush

regime that condones torture and use of chemical weapons of mass

destruction. God help anyone who refuses to be silenced in the face of

our government that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The individuals who call 15-year-old girls and Gold Star Moms vile

names and threaten our lives are the lowest denominator in our

society, and these people are the ones who need to be marginalized and

stopped. Open and honest discourse in our society is welcomed and

encouraged, and our differences are only eclipsed by our

commonalities, but obscene and destructive assaults on fellow human

beings only adds to the violence in our already all too-violent society.

 

Ava is not calling for a violent overthrow of our government, nor

is she the one who is being obscene. Ava is not the one who sent our

troops into harm's way, thus condemning the innocent people of Iraq to

death and heartache. Ava is only showing the images that have been

brought to the world by BushCo, and the people who crassly try to

intimidate a 15-year-old girl are threatened by the truth and should

be ashamed of their support of the disorganized crime mob in DC and

ashamed of the way they talk to a young lady who is doing her best to

make the world a better place.

 

How many scandals will it take for the 32 percent of the

population who still support murder and mayhem dressed up in suits and

ties to wake up and honor people like Ava and not trash them?

 

Ava is one tough and compassionate cookie, and she needs our

support and love. Please go to her site, PeaceTakesCourage.com, and

drop a note of support to our little sister in peace. Her type of

behavior needs to be encouraged, emulated and rewarded, and I can

guarantee you, she will be one of the first recipients of a Camp Casey

Peace Prize for young activists.

 

I honor Ava and I am proud to be her friend. She is a true

American who wants to grow up in a country that is honorable and just.

This is her right, and she is properly claiming it. I hope she

inspires you to do the same.

 

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Cindy is the founder of Gold Star Families for Peace and mother of

Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, who was a victim of the Bush Regime's war

of terror on 4/4/04. She is the author of Not One More Mother's Child.

 

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