Worthy American Values: Justice and Peace

author : Lou Plummer topic : Cindy Sheehan | Iraq occupation

by Lou Plummer

Cindy Sheehan's eyes showed no fear, only fierce determination. The co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace stepped forward and a crowd of nearly four thousand people slowly began to follow her up a steep hill and into the nation's consciousness. The mother of Specialist Casey Sheehan, a soldier who now lies in a grave in Vacaville, California, traveled all the way across the country to Fayetteville, NC, the town outside of Ft. Bragg. She came to grieve and to add her righteous anger to a growing sentiment among military families and veterans that the war in Iraq is wasting the lives of yet another generation.

A young man in a red beret and a desert camouflage jacket walked purposefully behind her. The banner he helped carry read "Iraq Veterans Against the War." Joshua Despain served in Iraq with Ft. Bragg's 82nd Airborne. A friend died in combat. Questioning the reasons for that sacrifice, Despain refused to return to Iraq after being granted leave in the U.S. The Army quietly discharged him rather than allowing his case to draw attention to the growing discontent among its ranks. Now he along with nearly 150 other men and women from across the country are raising a collective voice against the war they fought in. Many of them were in Fayetteville for their first national meeting.

As the march moved forward, wives with husbands deployed to Iraq walked beside the fathers and mothers whose sons and daughters also serve. Military Families Speak Out, with a membership of over 2,000, has been a leader in the current movement to end the war. Kara Hollingsworth of Ft. Bragg, whose husband isn't due to return from his second tour of duty until November, carried her four-year-old daughter and looked not the least bit intimidated by the weight of representing the thousands of local families with loved ones in harms way.

At Fayetteville's Rowan Street Park the marchers were greeted by hundreds of police officers. A few dozen counter-protesters held thoughtful signs, including my favorite, "Osama is Yo Mama." This small but obnoxiously vocal group perched unmolested on a grassy knoll overlooking the park as the groups of students from Quaker colleges and the parents of slain soldiers had their backpacks searched and their bodies gone over with metal detecting wands. Still, the enthusiasm of the crowd grew instead of abating as Ralph Baldwin, a Vietnam veteran with some serious musical talent, kept them entertained during the nearly hour long search process.

Pat Elder of Bethesda, Maryland, drove to the rally with his daughter to deliver 100 coffins and 100 American flags. As those carrying the coffins finally entered the park, a series of speakers unlike any assembled in this war took the stage one after another to captivate the crowd as they drove home the point that war has a human face.

Michael Hoffman, a Marine Lance Corporal assigned to an artillery battery during the invasion, told those assembled about the near-impossibility of receiving medical benefits from the overloaded and under-funded Veterans Administration.

Kelly Dougherty, an eight-year veteran of the Colorado National Guard, spoke of how her feelings for the Iraqi people had changed as she served as a military police officer during her year in Iraq.

Michael Berg, whose son Nick, a contractor, was killed last year after being taken hostage, explained that his family wants peace, not vengeance. So did David Potorti, co-founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, whose brother, Jim, died as the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

This war is an obscene reality to the people whose lives are forever changed by it. In a military community it is sometimes difficult to counter the flag-waving stereotype by objecting to the lies and broken promises emanating from Washington. Those who depend on the military for their housing, medical care and their very livelihoods are to be commended for risking all of that by speaking out. Those from the communities of faith and conscience who support them are also to be commended.

What happened in Fayetteville on the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq should end forever the notion that the military community and the peace movement are destined to always be at odds with one another. Months of planning and cooperation between grass roots activists and veterans and military families from around the country resulted in a nearly flawless example of the power that real people have when they unite.

Their message was clear. Real support for the troops means bring them home now and taking care of them when they get back. Soldiers who resist the call to participate in senseless violence will be encouraged and welcomed by a nation that sees that resistance as a real American value.

Lou Plummer, of Fayetteville, NC, is member of Military Families Speak Out and the Bring Them Home Now! campaign. He can be reached at lou.plummer@mac.com.