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Originally posted by Warham
Only 35% of Americans approve of Cindy Sheehan anyway, according to up-to-the-minute polling data.
She's a miserable failure to the DNC. They need to get another story.
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Only 35% of Americans approve of Cindy Sheehan anyway, according to up-to-the-minute polling data.
She's a miserable failure to the DNC. They need to get another story.
.
Really? That's an interesting definition of failure you have...
CRAWFORD, Texas – Hundreds of candlelight vigils calling for an end to the war in Iraq lit up the night Wednesday, part of a national effort spurred by one mother's anti-war demonstration near President Bush's ranch.
The vigils were urged by Cindy Sheehan, who has become the icon of the anti-war movement since she started a protest Aug. 6 in memory of her son Casey, who died in Iraq last year.
Sheehan says she will remain outside the president's ranch until he meets with her and other grieving families, or until his monthlong vacation there ends.
Bush has said he sympathizes with Sheehan but has made no indication he will meet with her. Two top Bush administration officials talked to Sheehan the day she started her camp, and she and other families had met with Bush shortly after her son's death.
On Wednesday, more than 1,600 vigils were planned from coast to coast by liberal advocacy groups MoveOn.org Political Action, TrueMajority and Democracy for America. A large vigil was also set at Paris' Peace Wall, a glass monument near the Eiffel Tower that says "peace" in 32 languages.
As the sun set in Crawford, about 100 protesters lit candles and placed them in plastic cups to shield them from the breeze. They gathered around a wooden, flag-draped coffin at Sheehan's growing camp, about a mile from the Bush ranch.
In San Francisco, about 200 demonstrators showed up in a cold wind in front of the federal building to hold a vigil. A flutist played a tune as commuter traffic sped by and demonstrators huddled to keep their candles lit inside small paper cups. Some of the protesters held signs that read "Meet with Cindy" and "End the Iraq war."
One of the demonstrators, Anne Roesler, of San Jose, has a son who returned from a deployment in Mosul about four months ago.
"The only thing our troops are doing over there now is keeping themselves alive," she said. "It's time for George Bush to listen to people like Cindy."
Nooshin Razani, a 31-year-old Iranian American from San Francisco, said Bush needed to answer important questions like why the United States went to Iraq. Razani's 19-year-old brother died while serving as a medic for the U.S. Army in Iraq.
"I never want you to experience what my family experienced over the last year," she said.
In Concord, N.H., about 150 people stood shoulder-to-shoulder Wednesday outside the Statehouse holding candles and signs supporting Sheehan.
"My son is 26. It could've been him," said Karen Braz, 50, who held a pink votive cup and a sign reading "Moms for Peace."
A few hundred people gathered near Philadelphia's Independence Hall, straining to hear remarks by the parent of another soldier killed in Iraq.
"This war must stop," said Al Zappala, 65, whose 30-year-old son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, died in an explosion in Baghdad in April 2004. "There are over 1,800 families that have heard that knock on the door."
Some critics say Sheehan is exploiting her son's death to promote a left-wing agenda supported by her and groups with which she associates. They say scores of Americans, including relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq, support Bush and his plans to keep troops there.
FreeRepublic.com, which holds rallies to support troops and to counter anti-war demonstrations, planned a pro-Bush rally Wednesday night at the same time and same Washington, D.C., park as a candlelight vigil there.
"For us, the organizers of the vigil are phony-baloney, betraying the sacrifices that those, men and women make in Iraq, by demanding that we pull our troops out now and leave Iraq to go to hell," said Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the group's Washington, D.C., chapter. "This is a publicity stunt."
Some 200 people joined a peace vigil in Cincinnati's Fountain Square. Many carried candles, but were told not to light them because of potential harm to the downtown landmark. Demonstrators softly sang "Give Peace A Chance" and lined one side of the square with signs, drawing honks of support from some passing motorists.
A banner bearing the name, age, rank, hometown and date of death of all Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was unrolled at a vigil in Charleston, W.Va. – stretching the length of a city block.
"Our pastors and preachers need to hear from us," said one of the speakers, Mary Ellen O'Farrell. "Ask your pastor to preach it from the pulpit. This war does not meet the criteria for a just war."
Along with candles and flags, some of the 300 people who gathered at a park in Nashville, Tenn., brought signs and banners of protest. One banner read, "Thank you for your courage Cindy."
About 200 people attended a rally and candlelight vigil on the south-side steps of the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. Marie Evans said it was a chance for those opposing the war to let their voices be heard.
"There was no question in my mind that we needed to make a statement in Oklahoma, which is a very conservative state," said Evans, who carried a sign that read "Their blood is on your hands."
In Hawaii, Kalihi Valley resident Charmaine Crockett invited scores of people to her hilltop house to light candles in sympathy for Sheehan.
"I'm very moved by one person making a difference," Crockett said. "This isn't an anti-war protest. The beauty of it lies in its silence ... And I never expected it to get this large."
Outside the state Capitol in Madison, Wis., Carol Berglund, 56, had a sign attached to the back of her bicycle reading: "It's time for peace. Stop the war."
"I don't think we ever should have gone there," she said. "I think it's immoral to be the starters of a war, to be the aggressors."
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