By Missy Comley Beattie, Gold Star Families for Peace, 12/7
The plan was to attend a dinner party Friday night with my
husband. On Thursday, I received an
e-mail from Dede Miller, Cindy Sheehan’s sister, saying Cindy wanted me to
deliver her message at the Bush Step Down Rally in DC on Saturday. I called my husband at his office and he
said, ‘Go. It’s important.’
Cindy e-mailed her statement. She knows I’m an uncomfortable public speaker
so we did a back and forth of cyber sentences in which she encouraged me.
The words Cindy
wanted me to read to the crowd told the story of her arrest just minutes before
the State of the Union address when she exposed her T-shirt printed with the
words: ‘2,245 Dead. How Many More?’ Her
article, ‘A Capitol Offense’ was in newspapers and on internet sites for the
world to see. In it, she spoke of all
she’s lost(her son Casey and her 1st Amendment rights. She ended her message with:
I
am taking my freedoms and liberties back.
That’s why I
am not going to let the Bush Administration take anything else
away from me. They already took my son away.
That was
more than enough.
I’m sure many of you have read this and felt as outraged as
I did when I heard she’d been jailed for four hours.
I took the train to Baltimore
where I was going to stay with my best friend. Another friend, Victor Lapides, who
had driven me to the September peace rally in DC agreed to drive me again. When he picked me up, he was wearing the
shirt that Chase’s father, my brother Mark printed with Chase’s picture and his
birth and death dates, the same shirt I now wear when I speak about my family’s
loss. I wear it under a sweater, Chase’s
face next to my heart. With several
washings, the shirt has faded slightly.
The face on Victor’s shirt is still vivid.
Debra Sweet, National Coordinator of The World Can’t Wait,
introduced me. She said:
Missy
Comley Beattie is a member of Gold Star Families for Peace.
She
lost her nephew Chase just six months ago.
The last time he called
his
grandparents, Chase said he was counting the days until he returned.
He
had 73 left. Missy’s friend Victor is
with her and he wears a shirt with Chase’s picture for you to see. Cindy Sheehan asked Missy to read her
statement
today.
Victor and I stood there together as I delivered Cindy’s message. The crowd roared.
And then I made my own declaration: ‘The world can’t wait for George Bush to
care. He never will.’
Juan Torres, another member of Gold Star Families for Peace,
spoke about the death of his son, Juan Torres Jr., killed in Afghanistan. His voice was filled with pain as he talked
about his heart-shattering sacrifice and his wife’s tears as she visits their
son’s grave each day.
The 94-year-old activist, Doris
‘Granny D’ Haddock took the stage and said, ‘America’s
values lie in tatters as a result of President Bush’s sociopathic behavior.’
Despite the rain, the crowd grew. Despite the wind, the
crowd stayed. Speaker after speaker
demanded an end to a regime that has eroded our rights by using fear.
So many people believe the world can’t wait for George W.
Bush to step down. In his State of the
Union address, the president said one of his priorities is ridding the world of
tyrants. There would be one less if he’d resign, two
less if Cheney left with him, three less
if Rice departed and four less if Rumsfeld joined them. Let’s also add Karl
Rove to the exit ramp.
The world can’t wait.
We can make this happen. We have
to.