It Takes A Mother

Cindy Sheehan began as a news item, was speedily inflamed into a controversy, and is fast becoming a phenomenon, maybe even a legend.

Before all of that, she was a mother---the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. That seems to be the center of her power over the American imagination at the moment.

The American penchant for the cult of personality can be disquieting, contending forces inflating virtues and flaws with equal vehemence. But even with that caution, that sense of unease, this phenomenon is amazing.

This is not a celebrity. This is not another pretty face. But this achingly real person is becoming the central symbol in a still expanding national drama.

She is the center of a storm of strong feelings on both sides, and despite contending pundits and bloggers, the real difference right now is that the usually anonymous American public is becoming part of this.

Just the past 24 hours illustrate this: a presumably angry opponent of her protest drove over a number symbolic grave markers with a pickup truck---wooden crosses with the names of Americans killed in Iraq---that was part of the Camp Casey protest site outside Crawford, Texas. And shortly after that, a farmer who owns a larger piece of land nearby offered its use to Cindy Sheehan so Camp Casey could be relocated. He is a veteran and had supported her silently, until the crosses were run down.

Materials for shelters there are being supplied by renegade soldiers at nearby Fort Hood, apparently where Casey Sheehan was trained or posted. Dealing with the heat as well as the growing corps of media is the constant challenge.

Meanwhile the number of protestors in Crawford grows every hour, and George Bush is stuck a few miles away at his ranch, because to leave before the scheduled end of his vacation several weeks from now would be to admit defeat.

Among the expected arrivals is another Gold Star mother, whose son was killed in Iraq. More may follow. Those reporting from the scene say that many participants have lost loved ones in Iraq, or have loved ones there now.

Demonstrations in support of Cindy Sheehan have occurred already in New York, San Francisco and elsewhere. Move On is sponsoring candlelight vigils in cities and towns all over the country for tonight (Wednesday). Information can be found here.

Code Pink, which is a principal sponsor of this rolling event, is involved in organizing antiwar demonstrations in Washington in late September.

This is an unprecedented event, awesome if for only that reason. Nothing like this happened all the years of Vietnam. Whether the Rabid Right sensed this might happen, or their quick barrage of vicious character assassination helped create this phenomenon, the fact is that one American mother has become the symbol for the revolt of the usually voiceless, united with others heartfelt in their opposition to this war.

But as much as the Bushhead apologists would like to shift the focus onto favorite targets, what they must fear about this is the participation and leadership of families who have so far silently given up their young to a war begun by the arrogant and powerful, who sacrifice nothing and expected to reap the spoils.