Cindy to Return to Camp Casey Tonight, Bush Sets Vacation Record

I received word today from Bob Fertik of Democrats.com that Cindy Sheehan will be returning tonight to Camp Casey, the encampment outside of President Bush's Texas ranch, of families who lost loved ones in the Iraq War. Cindy was forced to leave camp to tend to her mother, who suffered a stroke.

The families' sole request is, and has always been, to meet with the President, to ask him "what noble cause" their deceased loved ones died fighting for. While Camp Casey residents have been falsely labeled by the Bush Administration as anti-war activists, they claim they aren't necessarily against war.

The families are peacefully encamped, hoping for a few minutes of the President's time. They have questions, and they want answers. They don't have demands, requests or even suggestions. They only have questions.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon today ordered 1,500 additional troops to Iraq, bringing the US troop total to 139,500. And it was announced last weekend that the Army plans to maintain a significant presence in Iraq for at least four more years.

President Bush, who has not found time during this five-week vacation to meet for 15 minutes with these grieving families, broke Ronald Reagan's all-time record on August 19 for most Presidential vacation days.

The old record was 335 days, though Reagan took eight years to reach that mark. President Bush did it in nearly half the time. Last Saturday, Bush did find time to go bike-riding with sports celebrity Lance Armstrong.....while Camp Casey families of dead Iraq veterans waited outside in vain.

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As the Bush Administration continues to variously Swift-Boat slime and ignore Cindy Sheehan and the movement she has inspired, I am reminded of the prophetic words of Martin Luther King, Jr, who uttered.....

"It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America to return to her true home of brotherhood and peaceful pursuits. We cannot remain silent as our nation engages in one of history's most cruel and senseless wars. During these days of human travail, we must encourage creative dissenters. We need them because the thunder of their fearless voices will be the only sound stronger than the blasts of bombs and the clamor of war hysteria.

Those of us who love peace must organize as effectively as the war hawks. As they spread the propaganda of war, we must spread the propaganda of peace....We must demonstrate, teach and preach, until the very foundations of our nation are shaken. We must work unceasingly to lift this nation that we love to a higher destiny, to a new plateau of compassion, to a more noble expression of humanness. "

And King observed.....

"This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

Amen, Dr. King.

All quotes taken from "The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr" selected by Coretta Scott King.