Those who came to see Cindy Sheehan, the suburban soccer mom turned George Bush basher, got at least half of what they came for.
Speaking before more than 300 people at Cotton Auditorium Saturday night, Sheehan”s harshest words were for Democrats, including Congressman Mike Thompson and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Sheehan is now running against Pelosi as a third-party candidate.
“The Democrats used the anti-war movement to get into power last November,” she said. “And when they got into power, they betrayed us.”
Her message was one of universal responsibility for “our” government, not one of finger-pointing. She challenged local peace activists to take positive action and not fight amongst themselves.
Sheehan had a super-busy Saturday, hosting a media event on the opening of her new campaign headquarters in San Francisco, then driving to her speech in Fort Bragg, arriving a half-hour late. The campaign headquarters is located in a former X-rated business in the Mission District. She amused the crowd telling how dance poles, stalls and black wall paper all had to be removed.
Sheehan, 50, grew to worldwide fame after she began to question the president about the death of her son, Casey, in the Iraq War. Sheehan portrayed Bush as so much a pawn for global corporations that the president couldn”t have responded to her had he wanted to. In fact, she told the crowd, when she says the name Bush, she actually refers to his regime, past, present and future, not to the president alone.
Those who attended the event said Sheehan dispelled much of the mythology that has arisen about her.
Sheehan”s candid passion, her speech and demeanor all made her seem the “every-mom” she claims to be. She was more the iconoclast than the conspiratorial figure sent by liberals she is often portrayed to be by her least favorite network, FoxNews and other right wing outlets.
“My understanding of her as the aggrieved mom and tireless anti-war advocate didn”t do her justice. She understands how sold-out the country is and what a longshot it is to try to get it back,” said Mitch Clogg, a coast resident who has chosen to challenge Thompson for his seat in Congress.
Sheehan has become a political everywoman figure like the mythical “Mr. Smith goes to Washington” portrayed by Jimmy Stewart or the real-life Lech Walesa, the ordinary Polish electrician who started a worldwide union movement against the old Soviet Empire.
David Smith-Ferri, Poet Laureate of Mendocino County, read a poem he wrote in Sheehan”s voice in which she was the predator and Bush the prey. She liked the poem but said she didn”t see herself that way.
She said she is sorry to admit she was a Democrat prior to her son”s death, although being a Democrat made her pretty far out to the left in her conservative burg of Vacaville.
While her language was sometimes rough, such as calling Bush a “boil on the ass of democracy,” her message was in the intellectual progressive tradition, blaming the democracy, not just the boil.
She said Democrats and Republicans are two branches of the same party and reminded the crowd how Bill Clinton supported NAFTA and created sanctions on Iraq that were fatal to Iraqi people.
“So-called free trade is nothing of the kind,” she said. “It”s not about freedom. It”s about making the rich richer and the poor poorer, not just here, but around the world.”
She asked the crowd to believe in a world where single-payer health insurance would be possible, instead of solutions offered by big insurance corporations. She said both parties support a “corporate, fascist, elitist” culture in which much is talked about but nothing ever challenges corporate rule.
“Mike Thompson is part of it. Nancy Pelosi is part of it,” she said.
She told the crowd to put away the fantasy that the current cast of conservative Democrats would end the Iraq War and clean up the environmental mess left by Bush.
“Hillary Clinton will continue the Bush agenda of total global corporate hegemony,” she said.
She dared the crowd to name a Democrat in the presidential field who would represent true change.
“Kucinich” came the hopeful call from about eight people in the crowd. No other name was proffered.
“Dennis Kucinich is the best of the Democrats,” admitted Sheehan, “although there are better Democrats who are not running for president, such as Barbara Lee.”
She said if Ohio Congressman Kucinich had been truly dedicated to real change, he wouldn”t have endorsed John Kerry three years ago.
“Her nailing Kucinich for being a Kerry supporter was a pleasant surprise for me,” Clogg said.
For those who want to vote for the Democrats, she said doing so would only be wrong if they simply voted and then fell back asleep.
“It is our job to make sure our votes count,” Sheehan said.
She said if everyone who claimed these candidates were great, but not viable, would vote for them, they would become viable. She said taking action is mostly a matter of getting started.
“When Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was off the table and she wouldn”t put it back on the table, I freakin” moved [to San Francisco] so I could run against her,” she said.
Sheehan thanked the Mendocino County Veterans for Peace, who gave her a ride to Crawford, Texas, to begin her protest. The flowery old bus they used, the White Rose, was parked in front of Cotton Auditorium as Sheehan spoke. Also present was a trailer full of crosses, one for each of the American military war dead, who now number over 3,800.
Ten-year-old Mendocino Grammar School fifth grader Celeste Fox Kump read a poem, fittingly for the coast, casting peace as rain.
Faith Simon, of Mendocino Parents for Peace, the group that organized the event, spoke, as did the new president of the Mendocino County Veterans for Peace, John Pitts. Parents for Peace was the backer of Measure Y, which 80 percent of county voters endorsed, calling for an immediate end to the war.
The crowd for the free Sheehan event was large for a December Saturday night, mostly filling the ground floor of Cotton Auditorium. But it was much smaller than the paid turnout at Cotton for another top activist from the left, newswoman Amy Goodman whose “Democracy Now” program airs nationally on public radio and television.
Fulfilling a promise to Yoko Ono, Sheehan called for a moment of silence for John Lennon, as her speech was on the anniversary of his death.
She said later she wasn”t going “all hippie” and simply imagining peace.
“Bringing peace is really hard work,” she said.
Zac Zachary, a member of Veterans for Peace, said he was inspired by Sheehan”s challenge and called for a meeting on Tuesday to find more ways to take positive, local action.
“There is much to be done and the sooner we start taking action, the sooner we will see results,” said Zachary.
Although Mendocino County voters are 46 percent Democrat, outnumbering Republicans nearly 2 to 1, it was hard to find a defender for the Democratic Party in the audience.
“What I took away from Sheehan”s talk might be what the local Democrats took away,” said John Fremont, who has been involved in several anti-war protests.
“The uninspired, timid, shilly-shally of Pelosi and Thompson, the reprehensible complicity of Feinstein and Clinton, should make the local Dems ashamed to support such sorry politicians. I”d be curious as to what they took away from Sheehan”s speech,” Fremont said.
Nancy Milano, the only leading local Democratic Party activist this reporter saw at the event, wasn”t in the mood to defend mainstream Democrats.
“I don”t think I”m the ideal” Democrat to be asking this question: I, too, am tough on Democrats,” Milano said.
“Partisanship aside, I think that most of the things she said rang true,” Milano added. “I really liked her endeavors to get people involved ? Whether it be healthcare issues or peace or lobbying; whatever you want done, you cannot depend on somebody else to do it for you.”
Tom Wodetzki of the Alliance for Democracy said he was impressed at how Sheehan did not mince words about how Democrats have failed in their mandate to end the war.
“Like the Republicans, they depend on the giant corporations and super rich to fund their reelection — I”m sure that offended many local Democrats, but there is no denying that her criticisms are dead on,” Wodetzki said.
