Starving for Attention
Troops Home Fast: Day One
From: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070506A.shtml
Wednesday 05 July 2006
It is midnight of the 5th of July and 24 hours since thousands of us began the Troops Home Fast.
Some of us will be fasting completely until the troops come home; some will be on liquids only until the troops come
home; some will fast for 2 weeks, 2 days; or like me, until at least September 21st.
Hundreds of peace-loving and dedicated people joined us organizers of the fast outside the White House during the past
two eventful and event-filled days. The Granny Peace Brigade walked from NYC to DC in solidarity with the fast and with
the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and our soldiers who are suffering so profoundly under the US-led occupations.
People joined us from as far away as Texas and California in person, and thousands were with us in spirit from all over
the world. We are starting a historic and very meaningful action. We were honored by being joined by legendary fasters
Dick Gregory and Diane Wilson and historic whistle blower and patriotic giant Daniel Ellsberg.
Standing apart from our hundreds of supporters were about a dozen Freepers who were holding various signs (which is as
much their right as it is ours) with very "clever" messages on them. A few of the signs had the very pithy "Freedom
Isn't Free." Well, I'm sorry, but the very definition of freedom is that it is free. Freedom is a birthright of every
American, and we have the Bill of Rights to prove it. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that our young people have
to fight insane wars for greedy swine to earn anyone any kind of freedoms. If freedom wasn't free it would be called
"expensivedom."
I was particularly impressed by a very slick and professionally made sign that the Freepers had. It was a large pinkish
sign with white letters that read: Cindy Sheehan is Starving for Attention."
Yes, that is why I am embarking on this fast. It is not because our nation with the complacent, if not intellectual,
approval of most of our citizens is waging a war crime of mammoth proportions in Iraq. It's not because our soldiers are
committing atrocities on an innocent population who never asked for our lethal interference. I am not fasting because
our soldiers should not be dying or killing for Exxon and Halliburton. I am not sitting here with mild hunger pangs
because our leadership condones and orders others to commit cruelties on my fellow human beings in such brutal places as
Guantanamo. I am not fasting because the wrongfully, illegally, and immorally detained men in Guantanamo are going on
their own hunger strikes and committing suicide to call attention to the fact that they are human beings who do not
deserve to be tortured and tormented. I am not fasting so no other mother has to drop to her knees screaming in agony
because her child is dead for nothing.
On the contrary, I get plenty of attention and our troops are still in Iraq. I am doing it precisely for all of the
reasons above. Maybe people have to ascribe nefarious motivations to our actions because they can't conceive of leaving
their comfort zones for another member of humanity.
The people of Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering so miserably. Our soldiers want to come home. Our country wants them
to come home. The world wants them to come home. The people of Iraq want our soldiers to leave. Generals are
recommending time tables. We fasters figure that we can sacrifice something in solidarity with the suffering in the
Middle East. What we are giving up is so insignificant compared to what our soldiers and the people they are oppressing
are giving up. It's about time BushCo recognizes that staying a reckless and murderous course is inherently disordered
and they should turn around and order our troops to come home.
I encourage everyone in America to move away from the comfortable complacency that allows BushCo to kill people with
impunity. If we don't stand up and speak out against their offenses and for accountability, the crimes will continue
even into the next administration, whichever party is in power.
How can we not fast, or march, or write, or speak, or rally, or go to Camp Casey, or sacrifice something, anything, when the people of Iraq - and many of our soldiers - don't even have enough food to eat or clean water to drink? How
can we numbly go shopping for groceries when unsuspecting and undeserving people in Iraq are being killed when simply
going to the market to buy food for their families?
We have to fast.
Reflect and ask yourself: Why aren't I?
*************
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is also co-founder and President
of Gold Star Families for Peace and author of Not One More Mother's Child and Dear President Bush.