{"id":389,"date":"2006-08-12T23:18:26","date_gmt":"2006-08-13T03:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/blog\/?p=389"},"modified":"2006-08-12T23:18:26","modified_gmt":"2006-08-13T03:18:26","slug":"peace-mother-sheehans-new-neighbours-hate-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/?p=389","title":{"rendered":"Peace Mother Sheehan's New Neighbours Hate Her"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back on July 29th, I blogged about Cindy Sheehan buying land in Crawford Texas and moving in<\/a>. Today Steve Janke points out<\/a> that on her blog Peace Mother Sheehan (PMS) has quite a few comments from local neighbours and there is not a single supportive comment. Every one of them is negative, and one even seemed to imply that she got a bunch of dead fish guts (or something like that) delivered to her new place.<\/p>\n

While reading the comments, there was a poem written by a Marine which I have reproduced below. I read it through and it really is quite touching. It really explains why we are taking it to the terrorists overseas.<\/p>\n

Monsters and the Weak<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sun beat like a hammer, not a cloud was in the sky.
\nThe mid-day air ran thick with dust, my throat was parched and dry.
\nWith microphone clutched tight in hand and cameraman in tow,
\nI ducked beneath a fallen roof, surprised to hear \u201cstay low.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

My eyes blinked several times before in shadow I could see,
\nthe figure stretched across the rubble, steps away from me.
\nHe wore a cloak of burlap strips, all shades of grey and brown,
\nthat hung in tatters till he seemed to melt into the ground.<\/em><\/p>\n

He never turned his head or took his eye from off the scope
\nbut pointed through the broken wall and down the rocky slope.
\n\u201cAbout eight hundred yards,\u201d he said, his whispered words concise,
\n\u201cbeneath the baggy jacket he is wearing a device.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A chill ran up my spine despite the swelter of the heat,
\n\u201cYou think he\u2019s gonna set it off along the crowded street?\u201d
\nThe sniper gave a weary sigh and said \u201cI wouldn\u2019t doubt it,\u201d
\n\u201cunless there\u2019s something this old gun and I can do about it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

A thunderclap, a tongue of flame, the still abruptly shattered;
\nwhile citizens that walked the street were just as quickly scattered.
\nTill only one remained, a body crumpled on the ground,
\nThe threat to oh so many ended by a single round.<\/em><\/p>\n

And yet the sniper had no cheer, no hint of any gloat,
\ninstead he pulled a logbook out and quietly he wrote.
\n\u201cHey, I could put you on TV, that shot was quite a story!\u201d
\nBut he surprised me once again \u2014 \u201cI got no wish for glory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you for real?\u201d I asked in awe, \u201cYou don\u2019t want fame or credit?\u201d
\nHe looked at me with saddened eyes and said \u201cyou just don\u2019t get it.\u201d
\n\u201dYou see that shot-up length of wall, the one without a door?
\nBefore a mortar hit, it used to be a grocery store.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut don\u2019t go thinking that to bomb a store is all that cruel,
\nthe rubble just across the street \u2014 it used to be a school.
\nThe little kids played soccer in the field out by the road,\u201d
\nHis head hung low, \u201cThey never thought a car would just explode.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs bad as all this is though, it could be a whole lot worse,\u201d
\nHe swallowed hard, the words came from his mouth just like a curse.
\n\u201cToday the fight\u2019s on foreign land, on streets that aren\u2019t my own,
\nI\u2019m here today \u2019cause if I fail, the next fight\u2019s back at home.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I won\u2019t let my Safeway burn, my neighbors dead inside,
\ndon\u2019t wanna get a call from school that says my daughter died;
\nI pray that not a one of them will know the things I see,
\nnor have the work of terrorists etched in their memory.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo you can keep your trophies and your fleeting bit of fame,
\nI don\u2019t care if I make the news, or if they speak my name.\u201d
\nHe glanced toward the camera and his brow began to knot,
\n\u201cIf you\u2019re looking for a story, why not give this one a shot.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJust tell the truth of what you see, without the slant or spin;
\nthat most of us are OK and we\u2019re coming home again.
\nAnd why not tell our folks back home about the good we\u2019ve done,
\nhow when they see Americans, the kids come at a run.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You tell \u2018em what it means to folks here just to speak their mind,
\nwithout the fear that tyranny is just a step behind;
\nDescribe the desert miles they walk in their first chance to vote,
\nor ask a soldier if he\u2019s proud, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll get a quote.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He turned and slid the rifle in a drag bag thickly padded,
\nthen looked again with eyes of steel as quietly he added;
\n\u201cAnd maybe just remind the few, if ill of us they speak,
\nthat we are all that stands between the monsters and the weak.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Talk about touching.<\/p>\n

ADDENDUM:<\/b>\u00a0 The term “Peace Mother Sheehan” was pilfered from one of my favourite blogs Peace Moonbeam Chronicles<\/a>.\u00a0 BTW, Peace Moonbeam is back!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back on July 29th, I blogged about Cindy Sheehan buying land in Crawford Texas and moving in. Today Steve Janke points out that on her blog Peace Mother Sheehan (PMS) has quite a few comments from local neighbours and there is not a single supportive comment. Every one of them is negative, and one even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,51,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moonbattery","category-politics-american","category-politics-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officiallyscrewed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}