Laura Flanders is back on RadioNation with Laura Flanders. (She may have been back earlier, the NYC protest and other things have us running behind schedule.) (But then what exactly doesn't have us running behind schedule?)
The America Is Purple tour took her to Marfa, Texas. No surprise, it was a show worth listening to. (We hope Don heard the musical guest in the last hour but, in case not, we'll do a heads up e-mail to him next Saturday morning.)
What stood out to us? A guest who always stands out: Cindy Sheehan.
Sheehan's in DC with others holding a vigil. In fact, let's note CODEPINK on that:
Declare peace on Mother's Day with CODEPINK! We will be gathering in Washington DC for a 24-hour vigil outside the White House on May 13-14, and will be joined by amazing celebrity actresses, singers, writers, and moms, including Cindy Sheehan, Patch Adams, and Susan Sarandon! Bring your mother, children, grandmothers, friends, and loved ones. We will be honoring the mothers of the fallen by sending them organic roses. Click here to send your rose! We're also writing letters to Laura Bush to appeal to her own mother-heart, turning them into a book, "Letters to Laura." For event info click here, read our blogs and check out our online store for gift ideas.
When Sheehan spoke to Flanders, Patch Adams had just finished speaking to the "hundreds of mothers and fathers here" and Sheehan tied in the vigil with Julia Ward Howe's (who created Mother's Day) own actions during the US civil war in response to "the destructing and the killing" going on around her.
What needs to be done now? Sheehan offered, "We just have to realize that our children are only used to help the corporations for their colonialism all over the world. When us mothers realize that . . . that's when war is going to stop."
Flanders asked her what she thought of John Murtha's prediction that the elections in November would mean a shift in power and troops brought home and Sheehan replied, "I've been saying for a long time that I think they'll be hung by the end of this year." She pointed to the polling numbers on the war and on Bully Boy noting "this popular uprising in this country and over two-thirds of the country doesn't support George Bush."
What's going on is the adminstration's facade of lies is "falling apart and we just have to keep helping that happen."
On the subject of Mother's Day, Sheehan noted that children are raised "to use their words" instead of resorting to violence and that children need to be educated. About what?
"I didn't know this was the way it was," she said. "I knew our country did somethings that I wasn't proud of . . ."
She spoke of how recruiters promise the ones signing up the moon and then fail to deliver. Her son, Casey Sheehan, was told he would be an assistant to a chaplain.
Educate your children, she advised, on that and "watch the recruiters, the recruiters lie to them."
RadioNation with Laura Flanders airs Saturdays and Sundays (seven to ten p.m. EST). It airs on XM satellite radio and across the nation on stations that carry Air America programming.
Among Sunday night's guest are actress and activist Margot Kidder, Charlie Savage who's been following the Bully Boy's signing statements for The Boston Globe, and Mike and Wally's favorite writer, Dave Zirin.
If you miss the broadcast, Saturday and Sunday broadcasts are condensed to an hour broadcast that's available at RadioNation with Laura Flanders.