Houston Democrats

Sweet!

Gary Hart
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

If democracy only works when there is open discussion
of opposing ideas and policies, and if the opposition
party, in this case the Democrats, has hand-cuffed,
blind-folded, gagged, and hog-tied itself to a failed
invasion and occupation in the Middle East, where will
the expanding majority of Americans look for a
representative, a spokesperson, a voice for their
anger, frustration, and distrust at being misled?

The circumstances suggest it should be a Senate or
House Democratic leader, a recognized authority on
foreign policy constantly seen on the Sunday talk
shows, certainly one of the many “leaders” lining up
to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination for
president in 2008.

Strangely, no one in any of those categories comes to
mind. Their voices are silent. Thus, both they and the
party they claim or presume to represent look
dumbstruck, awkward, pitiful, and timid. Where the
single greatest issue of the day, and one of the most
potent issues of our time, is concerned, there is no
courageous opposition.

Meanwhile, the caskets keep coming home…with no public
official to greet them or to respect them. They are
the forgotten dead and they represent thousands more
of the even more forgotten wounded.

But wait. There is someone to hold the emperor to
account. There is someone willing to look ridiculous,
to be mocked and made a fool of, to challenge the
conventional wisdom of the court.

She, unfortunately, is not a Senator. She is not a
party leader. She is not in the regular establishment
Rolodex of the Sunday talk producers. Yet, she holds
the highest office available in a republic, that of
citizen.

And to the embarrassment of both Republican and
Democratic establishments, she takes that office more
seriously than they—the silent “leaders”—do theirs.
When the last Marine leaves Iraq, dead or alive, she
can claim more credit than them all. Because of the
courage of one brave woman, she quite possible will
have had more to do with finally bringing this great
nation back to its senses... and to its principles.

Remember her name. It is Cindy Sheehan.

Thanks for posting this, Stan. I read it last night on Wes Clark's blog, and I was deeply moved. Was Gary Hart ever this eloquent back in his pre-Donna Rice days? Well, anyway, he sure captured why Cindy deserves to be called "the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement."

And thanks to you, too, Mike - for helping in our efforts to present our side to the local media.

I am in no way minimizing the deaths of over 1800 American soldiers, but I'd like to know why no one bothers to mention the 100,000+ dead Iraqi men, women and children who were innocent victims of Bush's bloody oil snatch. Are these victims any less important than American soldiers? I think not.

I respect what Cindy is doing in Crawford, however, she will sit in Crawford without ever having spoken to Bush until Hell freezes over. Bush is an idiot and a sociopath. He is incapable of feeling empathy for another human being. His cabal of fascist compadres couldn't give a shit less about Casey Sheehan or anybody else who's died in Iraq. They only care about their bottom line. Have you seen the price of gas lately?! It sure as hell isn't coming down now is it? Who do you people think is profiting from this little misadventure in Iraq? It sure isn't your average Joe Blow on the street.

By the way, why is anyone surprised that nobody in Congress save maybe Dennis Kucinich or Barbara Boxer (and I'm not sure they're saying much) has said jack shit about all the war dead (American and Iraqi)?! All the Rethugs in Congress are corrupt and probably 75%-85% of the Democrats are, too. They are bought lock, stock and barrel by corporations and they bow to the CEOs and shareholders of said corporations. You guys don't seem to get the picture here. We are living in a fascist nation. Our government is totally corrupt. Our government is full of spineless, sacless wimps who bend over for their corporate god. Good grief! What IS it going to take to get people to wake up?! Don't be surprised by the silence, people. If the price of gas keeps going up and the United States, Saudi Arabia, China and India are all competing for diminishing stocks of oil then we can all look forward to World War III! Every one of the countries I just mentioned is dependent upon oil to survive. The dipshit chimp and his band of murdering thugs aren't interested in alternate fuel sources. They're interested in all the folding green they can make off those high oil prices!!! We have former oil men in the White House, guys! Do you think they give a hoot about solar, wind, hydro or any other kind of energy or even about raising fuel efficiency and emissions standards on vehicles?! They couldn't give a good God damn! This so called war in Iraq will go on and you can bet your sweet asses the troops will be in Iran next and probably Syria and wherever ELSE oil happens to be in abundance.

In the future, you guys might want to include the deaths of all those innocent brown skinned Iraqis when you talk about the number of war dead. They are no less important than the deaths of American soldiers. Bush and his ENTIRE administration and our ENTIRE Congress are responsible for this bloody war and EVERY SINGLE DEATH that has resulted from it!!!

Actually, one of the main reasons that I respect Cindy Sheehan and the Gold Star families (and we posted about them on this blog way before they became trendy) is that Cindy and the other group members pretty consistently DO mention the dead Iraqis and the anguish of the Iraqi mothers. In an earlier post here, I linked to Cindy's CNN interview, where she included Iraqi mothers in her quest, and I know she did the same thing during her testimony to John Conyers's hearing on the DSM.

However, I could not agree with you more about the lack of outrage among many of our fellow citizens about the devastation we are causing in Iraq. At the beginning of the war, I was appalled at how few folks in our home town seemed to share my despair at "shock and awe." In fact, too many of our fellow citizens appeared then, and still do, to rejoice in killing "Arabs."

Kris,

I in no way disagree with you. However, this protest, this vigil by Cindy is personal to her, to me, to all of us who have lost a loved one. It's not about gas, it's not about Republicans and it's not about Democrats. We can use other platforms to protest all of those things.

At this time myself and other members of Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and the countless other thousands of people from around the world are focused on a very important humanitarian issue.

This is about bringing a swift end to the war, bringing America's sons and daughters home, and no more killing of anyone. It's about peace and it's about the deep, dark, unending hell hole called grief.

We have talked about the thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqi people who have died. We have talked about the countless soldiers and civilians who are seriously wounded, their lives changed forever.

A revolution starts one person at a time, one step at a time, one day at a time. First you have to have the desire. Cindy is stirring up the flames of justice, of revolution and, eventually peace. Cindy has finally been able to do what so many of us have not -- wake up the conscience of the American people. Oh, I might at that the MSM is taking notice as well.

In Peace & Solidarity, my friend,
Amy

Thanks to Marguerite and Amy for replying. Amy, you are right. This protest isn't about gas, Rethugs, or Democrats. It's about the senseless killing and maiming of thousands of people and about Cindy (and others) wanting answers from the squatter in the White House. Here's my point: The squatter in the White House is INCAPABLE of feeling empathy or sorrow or regret for anything he has done. Remember, this person is LOATHE to admit a mistake. The MSM is owned by corporate fascists; therefore, they are only concerned with their bottom line NOT about what is truly going on here in America and abroad.

I'm not sure the American people ARE ready for a revolution, Amy. The majority of them are too fat and dull witted to take notice of much of anything except where their next beer is coming from, what's for dinner and what time the next reality t.v. show comes on. They are absolutely drooling masses of flesh! I am truly convinced that this country is going to have to implode before people wake up and realize what has happened right under their collective noses. Do you realize that future generations of Americans are going to have a crappy quality of life because they are going to have to be taxed to death in order to pay off the massive national debt that the idiot has run up? The quality of life for several generations is going to be squat! People are going to get sick and die because they don't have the money for health insurance (in greater numbers than they already are!) People are literally going to starve to death because the price of gas and oil will be so high that trucks can't afford to deliver the food to grocery stores for us to eat as well as the fact that as gas prices go up so does everything else including groceries! People are going to be living in the street because they can't pay their rent or their mortgage!

In a nutshell, this entire country is screwed beyond belief! I understand and respect what Cindy and you and everybody else who has taken a stand in Crawford is doing, however, I'm not sure it's going to make a dent in the conscience (although I don't think this administration collectively has one)of the Bush administration and the entire U.S. Congress. Our congresspeople are too concerned with keeping their corporate donors happy to be concerned with doing what is good and honorable. The entire lot of the sorry s.o.b.'s needs to be turned out and horsewhipped! Bush and his cohorts in crime need to tried for high crimes and misdemeanors against the United States and Iraq in an international criminal court and anybody with any sense would find the whole bunch of them guilty. Then, they need to be thrown in the dankest, darkest prison on earth to rot and hopefully, starve to death! It's what they deserve.

I have been saying "Bring the troops home NOW! I keep saying it but nobody's listening!" Supposedly, we have to "stay the course" and clean up what we screwed up! There is NO cleaning up what we screwed up! How do you clean up all the death and destruction and make amends?! Short answer: YOU CAN'T.

So long as man has this insatiable hard on to control other people and their natural resources, wealth, goods etc we will continue to have bloodshed and mass annihilation. Man has been killing man since the beginning of time. I don't see it changing anytime soon.

Maybe you call that pessimism. I prefer to call it realism.

You call it realism... LOL Sorry, but I have to laugh. That's what my husband calls it too!

I have seen the absolute best in people since last Saturday, at a time when I was at one of the lowest points in my life. They have given me some faith that we can do something. We just have to keep the ball rolling.

Have a wonderful evening.

Yes Marguerite, Gary Hart was as eloquent pre Donna Rice.



Joe Trippi writes "A good political operative learns as much from his rivals as he does from his own campaign and as I watched Gary Hart, I was fascinated by his campaign. Every other candidate ran around Iowa speaking to as many large crowds as he could fit in - the way politics had always been done. But Gary Hart would pop into a town and look for that one key person. His pebble. Then he'd drop the pebble into the water. And leave. Let that energy ripple out to the other folks in town. He described it as the politics of concentric circles - the idea of waves spreading out from a single stone into the water. He'd concentrate his considerable charm and intelligence on one or two key people and genuinely connect with them. ... I never forgot Hart's strategy. What had seemed counterintuitive at the time began to seem brilliant to me, especially for an insurgency campaign, the idea that you could spread a candidate or a cause or an issue like a virus - starting with a small, key group of people and letting them run wild for you"



Source: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
remainder of comment removed by moderator

OK folks. So I decide to go on a road trip this weekend and you stop playing nice. Please remember that when you post a comement to this blog that you agree to refrain from making personal attacks.
I don't want to have to close this fantastic thread or remove comments from a robust discussion, but it has to stop.

Sorry folks. This thread is now closed. I have removed all comments that include what in my judgement are personal attacks. I will reopen a new thread for Cindy Sheehan.

Bambi - Please email me offline - lyn@houstondemocrats.com. The link to your typekey identity isn't working.