The Seattle Times, By Nicole Brodeur, 10/1/06
Patricia Brooks can’t talk very long without her mouth going dry.
I listen while she sips water and explains why she hasn’t eaten
since Sept. 11: The war. The president. And the hundreds of names. Some
of them soldiers, some civilians. All gone. “This isn’t a bunch
fumbling around, who have some passing lunacy,” Brooks said of the
current administration. “This is an incredibly dangerous group who is
going about taking power of the whole world without a conscience or a
heart or soul among them.”
I nod, for my mind turns the very same things over and over, like
one of those rock tumblers that can make a dull stone shine – but
doesn’t here.
At the same time, I want to tell her to stop. The world won’t
change, the war won’t end because a 68-year-old grandmother in
Coupeville, Island County, is refusing to eat.
Make some tuna and start a letter and phone campaign, I want to say.
Get your grandchildren to help. Become a big, fat pain in the butt.
But I have no right to tell someone how to act upon the frustration
that rises every time they read the paper, watch a White House briefing
or see another face lost to the war.
“What [Brooks] is doing is a moral response to the immorality of the
world,” explained Cindy Sheehan, who sparked controversy when she
camped in front of President Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch after her
son was killed in Iraq.
“You can’t advise people,” she said. “They make these decisions with their own hearts.”
Sheehan will appear at Town Hall Seattle on Tuesday in support of her new book, “Peace Mom.”
She considered a hunger strike to protest the war, “But I don’t want
to die,” she said. “And I don’t think the people in power would even
care.”
Brooks has heard that already. One friend told her that if she starves to death, she will be one more war casualty.
“And I have said that as soon as I am convinced that this
steamroller is going forward with a self-sustaining momentum,” Brooks
said, “I will stop.”
Juice first, she told me, and then a few cinnamon rolls from the
bed-and-breakfast down the street. (I would be happy – relieved – to
deliver them.)
But I get it. There are many of us who cannot sit by quietly
anymore, who feel the need to make a statement against this war, but in
support of those in the thick of it. There are many ways to do that
without needing a cane to keep your balance, like Brooks.
On Thursday, millions of people are being urged to walk out of
school and work and participate in a series of rallies organized by a
group called The World Can’t Wait/Drive Out the Bush Regime (www.worldcantwait.org).
I told Maggie Lawless, who is organizing the Seattle protests, about Patricia Brooks.
“We’re not going to say to her, ‘Don’t do it,’ ” Lawless said. “I do
think there are times when things become so odious that people are
driven to do something like a hunger strike.”
In other words, she understands, as does Sheehan.
“God bless her,” Sheehan said. “But it seems like it might be a good woman dying for some bad people.”
Nicole Brodeur’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.
She honks at the War Ladies on 23rd.
Copyright © 2006 The Seattle Times Company