We Lost a Great Leader Yesterday

Cindy Sheehan has been beaten down until she has quit the peace movement. What is wrong with people that they have to smear and spew hatred when faced with a message they don't like. Al Gore is so right when he writes that reason and honest debate is missing in our society now. The last straw appears to be when so called liberals joined in the chorus.

Here's the heart breaker quote:

. . . no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”

We lost a great leader yesterday.

When I've participated in peace demonstrations here in my hometown, I've noticed an aggressiveness in comments from people who don't agree but I thought the number of them had decreased. A friend who participated in this last weekend's "Women in Black" demonstration said that the aggressiveness has reached new depths -- aggressive cursing, yelling of their death, being called crude words -- that she's thinking of staying home. One man had a sign that said "God Bless Bulldozers". How does someone muster that much hatred?

The radical in me says "If we go home, they win" but I understand the intimidation. These aggressive comments come almost exclusively from men. Women are raised and learn to be on alert and avoid aggressive people, especially men. It takes tremendous courage to stand up to aggressive men. I'm going to miss Cindy Sheehan. She is an inspiration.

The other side doesn't win when Cindy Sheehan and the Women in Black stay home -- we all lose. We lose honest civil dialog. We lose the possibility of growth and peace. We become a community of bullies and the bullied.