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In reply to the discussion: Cindy Sheehan [View all]WilliamPitt
(58,179 posts)For two reasons.
1. She was brave enough to do what she did in Crawford. I was there, and it took no small amount of courage for her to do what she did. On three separate occasions, the Secret Service and the local police did high-speed night-time runs through the encampment, and if you don't think that was meant to intimidate, well, you weren't there.
2. A large contingent of the mainstream DC political press were stuck in Crawford with Bush at that time, because there always has to be press wherever the president is. They didn't have jack shit to report on down there except mud and fire ants, so their attention turned to Cindy and her action. Almost overnight, those bored national reporters turned her into a household name, and in doing so, put a face filled with anguish on a war that had, to that point, been little more than a TV show to most Americans.
August 2005 is when the worm turned on the Iraq occupation, and all our marches and protests and letters to the editor didn't do as much as that one woman and her decision to demand an explanation for the death of her son.
Whatever has happened to her activism in the intervening years - and I do not disagree with the contention that her activism went off the rails at some point - she will stand forever in my mind as one of the most important people in the fight against Bush and his splendid little war.
Cindy Sheehan is a hero. Period, end of file.