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Cindy Sheehan breathes new life into U.S. anti-war
movement
DALLAS,—The grassroots
movement against the war in Iraq, led by activist
Cindy Sheehan, was well expressed by the 1,600-plus
protests against that war, according to Notimex.
Thousands of people gathered
Wednesday night in parks and plazas throughout the
United States to express their solidarity with
Sheehan and the cause she is defending, according to
the website of the organization MoveOn.org.
Since August 6, Sheehan, a
48-year-old California resident and mother of a
young soldier killed in Iraq, has been camping
outside of President George Bush’s ranch near
Crawford, Texas, demanding that he explain the war
to her and bring the troops home because the war is
illegal.
The grassroots
demonstrations were convened and organized in just
five days over the Internet by groups like
MoveOn.org, True Majority and Democracy for America.
MoveOn reported yesterday
that 1,625 vigils in all were held, including one
outside the White House in Washington, and another
at the campsite maintained by Sheehan and another
100 anti-war protesters near Bush’s ranch.
“This is an unjust,
unjustified war,” said María Cecilia Salisbury, a
Colombian immigrant who participated in a vigil in a
public park in Plano, a northern Dallas suburb.
Salisbury held up a sign in
Spanish demanding the return of the U.S. troops in
Iraq, and other demonstrators with her held candles
and placards demanding an end to the war.
The vigil in Plano was held
in silence, as were the majority of those held
simultaneously throughout the country.
In Crawford, the
demonstration led by Sheehan brought together 200
people.
Sheehan has stated that she
will abandon her “sit-in” near Bush’s ranch if the
president agrees to meet with her to explain why he
is maintaining the war on that Arab country.
If not, Sheehan has pledged
not to leave until the end of the president’s
vacation – which he is spending at the ranch – at
the end of August or the beginning of September, to
then take her protest to the White House.
“The level of people’s
frustration is growing,” commented Lon Burman, a
Texas state representative who leads the Dallas
Peace Center, a group that promotes pacifist causes.
“This situation can’t go on much longer,” he said.
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