[Mb-hair] Language of the Heart By Cindy Sheehan

[Michael Butler]

    Language of the Heart
    By Cindy Sheehan
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Friday 23 December 2005

    I have been in Europe for 2 weeks now. I have been toasted by the Mayor
of London, Ken Livingston, and greeted by Foreign Ministers, a Vice
President and members of the various Parliaments. Those stories are for
another article.

    My highest honor both here in the States and in Europe now is meeting
with the families of children murdered in George Bush's War of Terror
against the world.

    No matter if we all speak differently accented English, Spanish, or the
heavy Glaswegian accent of my Scottish sister in sorrow, Rose Gentle - whose
gentle-giant son, Gordon, was killed by Blair and Bush in Iraq in July of
2004 - our hearts all speak the same idiom of pain, and we sing the same
lament of futile loss.

    In Scotland, as we were meeting with Ministers of Parliament and urging
them to stand up to the government in London and withdraw Scottish troops
from Iraq, I met a woman named Sue Smith, whose son Philip was killed in
Iraq this past July. Her voice vibrated and fluctuated with incalculable
loss as she spoke of the betrayal that she felt at burying her son too early
and for the lies of her Prime Minister: a co-war criminal with George Bush.
The wound in her heart was fresh and openly bleeding. In her wounded eyes I
saw my heart as it was about a year ago.

    At the International Peace Conference in London, I met Shaun Brierly's
dad, Peter. Shaun was in the British Army, and he was killed in Iraq in
March of 2003 in the very early days of the war. Peter lugged my heavy
satchel around London with quiet good humor. In his heavy Yorkshire accent,
he tried to describe to me what losing his son has done to him and his
family. We drank a pint in a pub to our boys and to our hurt but especially
to our hearts' resolve to end this war and expose the villains who mislead
our countries so shamelessly. Through our blinked-back tears we promised
each other we would stay strong.

    Also at the Peace Conference were Reg Keys and John Miller. Reg's son
Tom was KIA along with John's son, Simon. We attended a few events together,
and I teased them about the suits they were wearing, and they teased me
about my "gym" clothes. Reg stood against Tony Blair for Prime Minister of
the UK last year and made a respectable showing. John and Reg are hanging in
together with their pain. It is so hard for Dads. It is easier for us Moms
to express our heart pain as the Dads try to head their heartache off at the
pass. I also met Ann Laurence, who described her beautiful English
countryside home to me and showed me pictures of her handsome son, Marc. She
had a quiet voice and eyes filled with heaviness and tears ready to overflow
at any moment.

    In Spain, I met two women whose sons were callously murdered by the
policies of our two governments: governments and leaders who hand in jaded
hand took our countries to an impossible and immoral invasion and occupation
of an innocent and mostly defenseless country.

    Maribel Permuy is the mother of slain Spanish cameraman Jose Couso. Jose
was murdered in the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, along with other
journalists. With new evidence coming out that George Bush wanted to kill al
Jazeera journalists, and with the targeting of Giuliana Sgrena and her
rescuers, I find it so hard to believe that Jose's murder was an accident.
In fact, a Spanish magistrate has indicted the three US troops who fired a
missile at the hotel. The one who should be indicted, though, is George
Bush. Maribel speaks not one word of English and I speak very little
Spanish, but our hearts are connected in sorrow and also hope. I am called
"Madre Coraje" (Mother Courage) in Spain and Latin American countries.
However, Maribel is Madre Mas Coraje. She has steely and uncompromising
resolve to see justice done for her son Jose. Her unconditional and undying
love for Jose and her other children gives her the strength to fight against
her government and mine. We laughed and cried so much together, I wonder how
we could have communicated any better if we spoke the same language?

    I also met Pilar Mahon in Madrid. Her son, Daniel, was killed in the
terrorist bombings of March 11, 2004. The day I met her would have been
Daniel's 22nd birthday. Her nose and eyes were red from a day of mourning
her son. She could barely speak, but when she did, her voice rose in anger
against George Bush and Spain's former President Aznar, who took our
countries to an unnecessary war based on the pipe dreams of the heartless
neocons who are even now holding tenuously onto their power base. The same
falsehoods of "fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them over
here" killed both Casey and Daniel. I get filled with outrage when I meet
people like Pilar who should be celebrating their son's birthday and
Christmas but who spend days weeping at their child's final resting place.
In spite of her constant longing for Daniel, Pilar is leading the fight in
Spain for the rights of the families affected by the March 11th terrorist
attack.

    There are so many people in this world who will be celebrating
sorrow-filled holidays this year. Christmas is so hard for us, not only
because our children are dead, but because we remember the Christmases past
that were filled with joy and happiness. It is so painful to remember the
Christmas mornings when the kids would get up before the sun came up and beg
Mom and Dad to get up so they could open what Santa had brought them. It is
too painful to get out the decorations and hang the one sock that will
remain empty for eternity. So most of us skip the traditional Christmas and
do whatever we can to support each other through the devastation that our
lives have become. Devastation that is so needless and avoidable. Our hearts
go out to all families who are experiencing the pain of loss instead of the
joy of togetherness this year.

    George Bush and the other purveyors of pain can take a day off from
spying on Americans without due process to celebrate the holidays with their
families. Dick "the Grinch" Cheney made a "surprise" visit to Iraq the other
day. His black heart feels no pain for the tragic loss of life that his
greed has caused. How dare he show his face in a country that has been
destroyed by his insatiable quest for black gold and his obscene lust for
profits for his company Halliburton and the other war profiteers?

    The pain that these people have caused the world is inestimable. The
people of the world want an accounting for the pain and they want the people
who seem to be getting off scot-free to be brought to some kind of justice
for the damage they have wrought on humanity.

    This Christmas, as you fill your children's or grandchildren's
stockings, wrap and unwrap presents, cook your holiday meals, light your
Menorah or dance around your Festivus pole, or however you celebrate your
holidays, please remember the families who will be trying to enjoy the
holiday season with a part of them missing. But most of all, please remember
the people (American and Iraqi) in harm's way in Iraq for the old lies and
the new lies that seem to surface with the same frequency as a Republican
corruption scandal.

    In conclusion, this is an excerpt of an email I received from a mother
in Iraq whose son Zaydoun Mamoun Fadhil Al-Samarai, a Shi'a insurgent, was
involved in the same battle in which Casey was killed. Zaydoun was later
killed.

    We, my friend, in the march of pain could work together, each from where
she is, toward putting an end to the blood shed and toward peace and love to
prevail, instead of war.

    We could, my lady, work together toward peace and toward putting an end
to the blood shed and give all mothers a hope for happiness because we
experience pain when we lost our sons. Because, he who did not experience
pain cannot understand happiness.

    I will be very happy when the war ends so we can celebrate in my town,
Samara, which witnessed the birth of my oldest son, Zaydoun, who I thought
would mourn me when I die, but, unfortunately, I mourned him one month
before his wedding.

    I am conveying his fiancée's greeting, who is still mourning him.

    At the end, please accept my deepest sympathies, from a mother who lost
her son to another mother who lost her son.

    I hope to be able to meet with you on the march for peace and love.

    George Bush, et al, have taught too many people in this world the
language of pain by their lies and their doctrines of pre-emptive killing
for profit.

    We need to learn a new language of peace and love that we can speak,
even shout, to our leaders who only understand the language of greed and
murder.

    Peace, shalom, paz, salaam.

 

    Go to Original

    European Tour: Cindy Sheehan Is Surrounded by People Who Want to Know,
    How'd That Guy Get Re-elected?
    By Samuel Loewenberg
    The American Prospect

    Thursday 22 December 2005

    Madrid - Cindy Sheehan blazed through Madrid this week like a rock star
or a political candidate, shuttling from peace rally to a day-long press
event to a private dinner with her supporters. Watchful handlers hurried her
from venue to venue, drawing her away from autograph seekers, though she
seemed always to have time to give her supporters a hug.

    It was a mission to rally the faithful, amidst signs that Europe has
backed off from confronting America over foreign policy and is turning
inward to deal with domestic problems.

    The Madrid stop was the third and final leg of Sheehan's European tour,
which had taken her through England and then Ireland, where she met the
foreign minister, before arriving in Spain. The whirlwind tour had clearly
left her exhausted, but like a veteran candidate, AmericaR17;s most famous
anti-war protester always kept up a smile. "I always wanted to come to
Europe,R21; Sheehan told The American Prospect. "So I finally came but I
didn't get to see anything."

    The mother from California gained international fame for keeping up a
vigil in front of President George W. Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch after
the death of her soldier son in Iraq. For many Americans, it drove home the
horrible pain of war. It was something that until then many had seemed
oblivious to, unlike the millions of Europeans who protested in cities
across the continent in the months leading up to the U.S. invasion.

    Sheehan said she was surprised to find herself a cultural ambassador,
asked repeatedly by Europeans reporters to explain why Americans were not
more outraged about the war. "In almost every interview, people asked why
George Bush was reelected," she said.

    Her last rally in Spain, a protest in front of the heavily guarded
American embassy in Madrid, was particularly poignant because it was in
honor of José Couso, a Spanish television cameraman who was killed by an
American tank while filming the invasion from a hotel in Baghdad. At the
rally on December 20, she met with Couso's mother, Maribel Permuy.

    Sheehan does not speak Spanish, but she said it did not matter. "We
don't need to speak the same language, we have the same pain," she said.

    Permuy said that she had attempted to find answers from the U.S.
government for the death of her son, but had received nothing other than an
unsigned form letter from the Pentagon.

    A spokesperson from the U.S. embassy declined comment on both the Couso
death and the Sheehan rally.

    Couso has become a cause celebre in Spain, where placards bearing an
image of his face under the word "murdered" can be found hanging in cafes
and pasted onto students' notebooks.

    Still, yesterday's protest was sparsely attended. The 50-person crowd
was nearly matched in number by the security guards and police in front of
the embassy. The protesters were mostly Spanish but included a sprinkling of
Americans, who joined in the chants of "We want peace now" and "Bush is a
terrorist." The streams of passing cars and crowds didn't pay them much
attention, more concerned with the coming holidays and the shopping that
needed to get done.

    For the Spanish, as for many Americans, the war is something that has
grown increasingly distant. It's quite a change from the fierce anti-war
sentiment that drew millions here to street protests early last year. In the
wake of the March 11, 2004, terrorist bombings in Madrid, which were widely
interpreted as retaliation for Spain's participation in the war, the
conservative government that had been an ally of the Bush administration was
toppled from power. One of the new Socialist government's first acts was to
withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.

    The war in Iraq has ceased to be a Spanish problem," said Fernando
Vallespin, who heads the Center for Sociological Investigation, a publicly
funded polling organization in Madrid.

    At the time, the Socialists' abrupt troop withdrawal caused a serious
breach with the Bush administration; now, it seems, the Socialists are
trying to put aside their old disputes and repair their relationship with
the world's only superpower. A sign of this was during the recent hullabaloo
over the alleged CIA flights of suspected terrorists through Europe, many of
which stopped in Spain. Despite an uproar in the Spanish press, the
Socialist-led government kept a low profile and refrained from picking a
fight with the Americans.

    For the two mothers, though, the war in Iraq goes far deeper than
politics, and it is not something they are willing to set aside.

    We came together to fight for peace and for justice,R21; said Sheehan.

    We are mothers who have lost children because of the lies of
politicians," said Permuy. "We have to fight together to tear down their
impunity."

    --------

    Samuel Loewenberg is a reporter based in Madrid, Spain. He has written
for The New York Times and The Economist, among other publications.