A
Letter To Cindy Sheehan: Darkness Comes Just Before Dawn
By Danny Schechter
31 May, 2007
CommonDreams.org
It
was sad to read Cundy Sheehan’s letter of “resignation”
from the peace movement because she offered so much of herself-despite
all the personal pain she suffered from the loss of her son, the breakup
of her family, and all the vicious and insensitive attacks on her politics
and personhood.
I could feel her frustration
and exasperation with Democrats who patronized her only to end up supporting
the war in the end. I share her anger at elements of the “peace
movement” which is really a movement in pieces, often marching
in lockstep with Congressional Democrats and only paying lip service
to the grassroots constituencies and the many who have given and suffered
so much to oppose this bloodbath in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Cindy inspired the following
she did because she was a genuine convert to activism, an articulate
mainstream person who put her body on the line and spoke truth to power
with an unmistakable sincerity.
Her honestly and energy contrasted
sharply with the agenda-driven caution of those on the Hill and the
many organizations that think politics is about raising money on lime
to fund political commercials in the mainstream media or occasionally
taking symbolic stands.
It was not surprising that
she would burn up in anger and burn out in energy,
In some ways, she reminded
me of another “indigenous” leader in another movement years
back who I was blessed to know-Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer of Ruleville, Mississippi,
a share cropper turned civil rights activists who gave the movement
its soul and who ended up, years later, alone unknown and unappreciated.
Like Cindy, Fanny Lou gave
her movement its authenticity and its voice. She is remembered, in part,
for saying, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. ”
Cindy got sick and tired
too of all the cowardly deal-making and betrayals, She wrote bitterly
to Congress and then about herself:
“How can you even go
to sleep at night or look at yourselves in a mirror? How do you put
behind you the screaming mothers on both sides of the conflict? How
does the agony you have created escape you? It will never escape me
… I can’t run far enough or hide well enough to get away
from it.
By the end of September,
we will be about 80 troops short of another bloody milestone: 4000,
and MoveOn.org will hold nationwide candlelight vigils and you all will
be busy passing legislation that will snuff the lights out of thousands
more human beings.”
Personally, I know how she
feels. When I made the film, WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) challenging
the media role in the war, many anti-war groups paid lip service to
its message and then did little or nothing to promote it. Perhaps that’s
why some activists call MoveOn.org “Walkon.org” when it
comes to the issues of media deception or for that matter any issues
that also holds Democrats and corporate media institutions accountable.
It is so much easier and
emotionally self-righteous to attack easier targets like the Republicans
and Bush White House.
Lets face it, the media has
not really changed and nor have many Democrats. They believe in convenient
truths and don’t recognize the importance of demanding media integrity.
Don’t forget that most of the media coverage was hostile to Democrats
setting a timeline and many pundits pressured them to relent in the
name of “pragmatism,” patriotism, or getting the pork they
wanted for their own districts.
I don’t think Cindy
has really resigned from politics. But she is upset and has a right
to be. She has lost so much and is also apparently in debt—something
this director of the film In Debt We Trust can relate to
Sometimes I wish I could
resign from the media reform movement that I helped organize because
it has been so hard for us to get support for Mediachannel.org, our
fabulous media and democracy online network now in its 7th year. We
will have to close our doors in a month unless we can find the funding
to keep our modest operation alive.
Unfortunately, our movement,
like many others, has a hard time working together and prefers pricey
conferences, “events” and behind the scenes lobbying to
mass outreach, education and organizing. Again, it’s predictable
to bash Fox News rather than focus on all the biased coverage across
the spectrum.
We need help to keep going
even as some of our original backers suffer “funder fatigue,”
turning away from supporting long term movement-building work, and independent
journalism, in favor of celebrity-oriented events that get their names
in the paper.
Cindy, please don’t
leave us-understand that frustration, factionalism, fatalism and infighting
is part of the process of dissent and often it makes working for peace
or media change an ordeal.
You need a long-term perspective
and a willingness to fight like a warrior.
Your son Casey perished in
one war. Please don’t allow yourself to perish in this one. Understand
that it is a war, and in wars, you don’t win every battle. The
goal has to be-and I say this with love and respect— to live to
fight another day. It’s always dark just before the dawn.
News Dissector Danny Schechter
is “blogger-in chief” of Mediachannel.org,
His new film is IN DEBT WE TRUST: America Before the Bubble Burst (Indebtwetrust.com)
Comments to [email protected]
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