The “Experience of Being Wrong”

Cindy Sheehan
Photo by Luke Thomas

By Cindy Sheehan

August 26, 2008

Denver, CO — I did not watch Ms. Pelosi’s speech at the DNC. I was actually giving a speech of my own in another part of Denver, but I have read the transcript of Ms. Pelosi’s remarks and I have also read the criticisms of this speech on all of the Democratic blogs. Ms. Pelosi did not get high marks, to say the least. I have read some things I cannot repeat, but criticisms of “wooden,” “boring,” “uninspired,” and “hypocritical,” are some comments coming from committed and rabid Democrats. It does seem pretty hypocritical when such a public failure can claim that McCain has the “experience of being wrong.”

With Congress at a 9% approval rating, it is amazing to me that Ms. Pelosi can stand in front of anyone and claim “success” and claim that her leadership has taken this nation on a better path. Our economy is crashing; hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes despite the $300.00 “stimulus” check Ms. Pelosi sent them. Some Americans are being forced to choose whether to buy gas or food, despite the miniscule hike in the federal minimum wage, which affected a very small percentage of the population since most states already had minimum wages that exceeded the federal minimum wage. A true progressive “change” in that direction would be mandating a living wage, which differs from state/state and city/city; but based on the cost of living. It’s easier to push people of color or poor people out of cities like San Francisco by increasing the cost of living, while not mandating a living wage.

Some other of Ms. Pelosi’s “accomplishments” that she touted in her speech were:

Keeping toxic toys out of the hands of children.

(The toys that were put into our children’s hands by the “free” trade agreements she supports and the outsourcing of jobs that pay slave wages to countries that make our consumer goods and encourage cutting back costs so we can go to Wal-mart and get “low, low” prices).

We passed legislation to keep hard working American families in their homes

(According to Reality Trak, 1 out of every 194 homes received foreclosure notices in the first quarter of this year and Congress was more interested in bailing out Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and predatory lenders than keeping “American Families” in their homes.)

And, we enacted a new G.I. Bill to thank our veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by sending them to college.

(Ms. Pelosi did not mention in her speech that her congress has funded the war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan to the tune of over 400 billion dollars and since she became Speaker, over 1200 of our troops have been killed unnecessarily and hundreds of Iraqis/Afghans have been murdered or displaced from their homes. Ms. Pelosi should not be “thanking” our veterans, she should be apologizing to them for continuing to send them off to fight a war that has physically, mentally, or emotionally wounded tens of thousands of them for no reason at all).

Ms. Pelosi even said that Iraq was: “a catastrophic mistake that has cost thousands of lives of our men and women in uniform and trillions of dollars, as well as has weakened our standing in the world and our capability to protect the American people, Barack Obama is right and John McCain is wrong. Very, very wrong.” Well, if John McCain has been wrong and the occupation of Iraq (she says nothing about Afghanistan, and, in fact, she supports the Obama plan of redeploying troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to fight the “real war on terror”), then Nancy Pelosi has also been “very, very wrong.” One doesn’t pour funds to the tune of “trillions” of dollars into a “catastrophic mistake.”

Borrowing the rhetoric of the right, Ms. Pelosi wants to honor our troops that have made America the “Land of the free and the home of the brave.” Collaborating with the Bush regime to foist upon us a “Prevention of violent radicalism and homegrown terrorism law” and working with the City of Denver and the State of Colorado and Homeland “Security” to turn Denver into a fascist police state, would have made a person of conscience choke on those words. I certainly know that my son did not join the US Military and die in a “catastrophic mistake” to turn this nation into one that is looking more like a bi-partisan repressive despotic dictatorship every day. I have a radical idea for Ms. Pelosi! How about she honors our troops by obeying her sworn oath to “uphold and defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic,” the same oath our troops take.

Ms. Pelosi is famous for taking our constitution “off the table” and will go down in infamy as the Vichy-enabler of the Bush regime and along with her beloved “party” will be known as the party that killed the 4th amendment to the Bill of Rights (with her support of warrantless spying on Americans and immunity from the felonious breaking of the FISA laws) and the 8th amendment as the sanctioners of torture.

During her speech, Ms. Pelosi is giving evidence that her leadership will also further dissolve the separation between church and state that has accelerated during the Bush “catastrophic mistake” of a Presidency. She assured the convention goers and lapdog media that the Democratic path is one to the Christian heaven: “It is the path that renews our democracy by bringing us together as one nation under God.” Whose god? Bush’s god? Obama’s god? Pelosi’s god? Osama’s god? Olmert’s god? The god of the “two” party system: mammon? The very words, “God,” or “religion” do not belong anywhere near public political discourse. Obviously, not everyone worships the same god, or any god, or gods. We must end the rhetoric of “holy wars” and remember that we do not elect a Pope of America, but a President. I also have another question…how is democracy “renewed” by forcing us together as a “nation under God?” This was not only an un-American thing to say, but the rhetoric is as empty as the treasury of the USA.

The “successes” of Pelosi’s leadership look an awful lot like failures when we know that she mostly capitulated to the Bush regime and when her failures have been so catastrophically tragic.

In September, Ms. Pelosi, will have a few weeks left of her leadership position when she will go back to lead a congress that has that abysmal approval rating and has passed the least amount of legislation in the last 20 years. Congress will take up business for about three weeks in September and a good start will be to arrest Karl Rove on the first day for ignoring a congressional subpoena. On day two, begin to roll back the executive branch excesses of the last eight years and reclaim the separation of powers that were ensured by the founders before the next president takes over and takes the scepter of an empire and not the mantle of public service as only the “first of equals.”

There’s nothing more important for her to do.

Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan is the Nobel peace prize nominated mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, April 4, 2004. She has been on an international quest for peace and accountability since then. She has written three books and numerous published articles. Cindy is currently running as a "Decline to State" independent candidate in the 8th District of California against Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

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