Elaine still filling in for Rebecca while she's on vacation. I've been trying to post closer to her time but that's not easy and tonight I had to go to a function for a colleague.
For Mike, I'll note Democracy Now!
More Military Families Join Cindy Sheehan in Texas (Democracy Now!)
In Texas, more military families are heading to Crawford to join Cindy Sheehan in an ongoing vigil in Crawford where President Bush is vacationing. Sheehan has threatened to stay in Crawford until the president agrees to meet with her. Sheehan's son Casey died last year in Iraq. He was 24 years old. Military families from Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Missouri, Georgia and Arkansas are expected to join Sheehan at the vigil site. "He doesn't have any children in harm's way. You know, if there are more soldiers and marines killed today, it's not going to worry him if one of them is his daughter," said Sheehan. "I mean, he's insulated. He's safe. Nobody in this administration has to worry about their children. And if I have to stay out here all month in this heat, it's nothing compared to what our soldiers are going through or what the people of Iraq are going through."
I hope everyone's paying attention to Cindy Sheehan. Tomorrow's the day she's been threatened with arrest. I asked Billie how hot it was in Texas and she said it's pretty hot. Over the weekend, and Billie's a little north of where Sheehan is, they did hit one hundred degrees. Billie says that's not at all uncommon for August in Texas. She said today was semi-cool for a few mid-day hours because there was a brief (less than twenty minutes) rain. Billie's planning on going there tomorrow to show her support for Sheehan. She's put in for a vacation day to do so.
That's not to make anyone else feel guilty. I'd love to be there but I can't drop my patients. What I can do is get the word out and call my local paper to ask why they aren't covering this. (Their response? They ran an article this weekend. Not good enough and I expressed that to them.) That's something we can all do. But we don't need to depend on the mainstream media to do our work for us which is why Mike has been saying (and C.I. as well) that we need to get the word out to everyone we know. (Kat also had a great thing on that.)
Movements do not happen overnight. This one has been a long time coming but the people are behind it. The questions Cindy Sheehan wants answered are questions that many are already asking. Her bravery means something to those of us who know what she's doing but don't assume that everyone already knows about it. Or that if they know about it, they've gotten the facts on what's happening. Cindy Sheehan is being attacked by the right wing echo chamber.
I don't think that honestly hurts. I think they're overplaying their hand the way that they did with the Terry Schiavo issue. People are recoiling from the attacks from, for instance, Bill O'Reilly.
But this is up to us. Don't count on the mainstream media. Even if they could grasp what's going on, that doesn't mean they'd push the story. I really don't think they grasp very much. I'm coming it at from my profession and it's rare that someone writes on my field in the mainstream press without making a major error. Reporters aren't trained in everything they cover. They are trained in how to cover and sometimes they forget what they were taught but even when they remember, they still make mistakes.
So don't count on them. If you believe in what Cindy Sheehan's doing, be the media and get the word out.
And we can do more than one thing at a time. So let's also try to pay attention to what's going on with Kevin Benderman. Sherry sent an article to C.I. for me. (Remember, if you want to e-mail, e-mail to common_ills@yahoo.com and C.I., Ava or Jess will forward it to me.)
"Homegrown Resistance" by Stan Goff (CounterPunch)
On July 29th, Sergeant Kevin Benderman was sent to prison for 15 months for filing a conscientious objector application with the Army. This did not come out in his court martial because the court ruled early on that not one word was to be spoken in his defense that relied on his moral objection to the war in Iraq and--for Benderman--all wars of aggression. Because the court could not convict Benderman directly for conscientious objection, a right guaranteed by federal law, they rejected his application without showing adequate cause and forced him to refuse--in accordance with his stated moral objection to the war--redeployment to Iraq. They then multiply charged him with preposterous accusations--including larceny and desertion--in an attempt to intimidate him with the possibility of seven years in prison. At the end of the day on July 29th, only one charge stuck--intentionally missing movement--for which they gave him a stiff 15 months at the Fort Lewis, Washington stockade. The missing movement charge itself had to be trumped up with a series of shifting statements from a senior NCO about the verbal content of a 45-minute meeting. Even the normally timid Amnesty International has publicly acknowledged that Kevin Benderman is "a prisoner of conscience."
Monica Benderman, Kevin's life-partner, has been an active and articulate political-partner throughout this drama--a drama that, despite the Pentagon's efforts to spin, conceal, and minimize, has only served to highlight the dignity of exercising real freedom from within a cell and the utter decadence of those who never cease talking about freedom as an abstraction while they try to bomb and imprison their way out of another resistance.
Neither the administration nor the Pentagon wants anyone to understand this paradox of freedom--real freedom, the existential kind, not that bombast flowing out of Rove's beleaguered office like an overflowing toilet.
Soldiers and soldier's families are constantly instructed on something called courage. People can only hear that word so many times before they begin to actually reflect on what it means; and the briefest reflection reveals something much deeper than the pumped-up physical bravado required to engage in gunfights with strangers.
Keep Kevin and Monica Benderman in your thoughts and try to follow what's happening with his appeal. I think "rail roaded" may be too mild a word for what was done to him. "Screwed" is more fitting.
"Peace Quotes" (Peace Center)
The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
Steve Biko
