Being tear gassed, arrested, shot at with a long-range acoustic device and, more recently, chaining herself to the White House fence, Cindy Sheehan, otherwise known as the “Peace Mom,” seems to have no limits in expressing her disagreement with America’s government and policies.
Friday night, Cindy Sheehan and Lt. Col. Robert Bowman spoke at First Congregational Church in Asheville to approximately 60 people about current wars, peace and how they think our nation is controlled by corporations.
Veterans for Peace chapter 099, based in Mars Hill, hosted the speech. According to their pamphlet, the VFP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the eradication of war.
“We want to highlight the fact that the peace movement is a generational struggle, recognize some of those who came before us and challenge the rising generation to work for peace,” VRP member John Heuer said. “It’s your world. We older folks are just borrowing it, and our stewardship has been abysmal.”
Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq five years ago.
“I would have crushed my son’s signing hand instead of him signing those (enlisting) papers. It’s not natural to bury your own child, ” she said.
Since the loss of her son, Sheehan has become a peace activist. Last week, she chained herself to the White House fence in an attempt to bring attention to her dissatisfaction with President Obama’s foreign policy.
“I don’t like Obama’s foreign policy any more than Bush’s,” she said.
Sheehan also ran against Nancy Pelosi for her congressional seat in California this past November, but lost. Although she said she valued the experience, Sheehan does not recommend anyone running against Pelosi.
Sheehan, a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, just published a new book last March entitled Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution.
“Myth America is about a system of myths that we are raised on that keeps us hanging on,” she said. “We are the robbed class. If they [the government] keep us afraid or fighting each other, and watching meaningless television, then we don’t get together to talk about these issues. They strategize like this because they want us divided and know there are 150 million adults who are sleeping giants and don’t want us to rise up against them. They can’t resist the power of the many.”
The corporations that control the government are the robber class, according to Sheehan.
Lt. Col. Bowman served in the U. S. Air Force for seven years and spoke about all the profits and wealth that go behind the war and how corporations are running our government.
“The greatest evils going on at the moment is the war’s use of our sons and daughters as hired killers for the corporations,” he said. He spoke about how the government has grown away from the Constitution and how Americans have lost many of their constitutional rights.
Bowman said he thought corporation-owned media controls the voting in America, determining how people vote.
“We must attack the media, electoral and banking systems,” he said.
Sheehan said the government feeds citizens many myths, such as one person cannot make a difference. She said the government projects problems as too complicated for the average person to make a difference.
“Presidents and white dudes are the only people who can make a change,” Sheehan said about a misconception she learned while attending college.
The greatest myth, according to Sheehan, is America’s superiority complex. She said Americans have a false understanding of other countries.
Another myth in Sheehan’s book is one of Hispanics coming to America for a better life because America is a better country.
Hispanics have trouble making substantial money in Mexican agriculture because corporations like Monsanto have patents on seeds, which forces them to leave their country in search of new work, according to Sheehan.
“My revolution is very peaceful, creating a community, localizing everything and rebuilding communities that have been hurt,” Sheehan said.
Sheehan and Bowman are in the midst of a national speaking tour which travels regionally to Statesville, Charlotte, Wilmington and Raleigh next week.
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