Kyle Snyder, Cindy Sheehan and more
Thursday. Almost Friday, but not quite. Kyle Snyder's where we'll start because it's where independent media can't seem to go.
If you've been following the story, you know that Snyder served in Iraq and then self-checked out in April 2005 and went to Canada. He's a war resister opposed to the illegal war. He decided to come back to the United States. He came back Saturday, turned himself in at Fort Knox on Tuesday and then found out the deal worked out wasn't for real. So he checked out again.
There's a story there, there are about 50 stories there. But where is the independent media?
That's the question to ask and C.I.'s been asking it for some time. "War in Iraq bad." That's what independent media says but they don't cover it. They don't cover the war resisters.
Kyle Snyder is the story of today's military. He comes from a troubled home where his mother was beaten and he was as well. He was placed in foster care. The recruiters came to pounce. They promised him the world and delivered nothing.
He thought he was going to be doing reconstruction in Iraq and was trained for that but there was no reconstruction in Iraq, just construction of US bases and the US embassy.
He saw an Iraqi shot by a buddy who was serving. And the Iraqi shouldn't have been shot. So he reported it and it was ignored. No investigation. The message was that the military can do whatever it wants to Iraqis.
In the meantime his girlfriend lost their kid, his grandfather died and the war was all one big lie. So he self-checked out.
Where's the media? I guess it's self-checked out as well. Did you see C.I.'s answer to Zach's question in "Other Items"?
Dona's already asked that I talk about the Goodmans' new book for The Third Estate Sunday Review. Readers of TTESR don't want to wait until after the election for book coverage so we'll be discussing an art book and I'll address the Goodmans' book -- the good, the bad, the typos. On the latter check out page 53 (if I'm remembering correctly). (I was asked because no one else has read it.)
Dona's actually been asking that all week. She learned it was a go when she read "Other Items." :D Well, when you can't cover Kyle Snyder, you piss C.I. off. I'm not expecting C.I. to go to town on the book but I am expecting to hear about some serious flaws so I'm really looking forward to this edition. Nobody else read it. The days when we would get all excited faded in the heat of the summer when Goodman & co. couldn't find Iraq with both hands. C.I.'s the only one who regularly listens to the show. Dona says she thinks C.I. wouldn't be discussing the book at all this weekend if Democracy When had bothered to cover Kyle Snyder. He didn't even rate the one-day-baby-cried-the-day-the-circus-came-to-town coverage the others got. Democracy When has been too busy doing voting drives to cover Iraq. I also know from Jess that C.I. was outraged by a deaf member. He wrote to C.I. because he was furious that the Galludet students were ignored until after the fact. If C.I.'s always on the road, it's not always possible to catch Democracy When so C.I. wasn't aware of that but checked it out and it is true. That was why there was such a hug gap between the two entries. C.I. came across that e-mail right after posting "Kyle Snyder self-checks out again after the military tries to burn him again" and looked to see if the program had ever offered anything more than a headline here and there? While C.I. was looking through the program's archives, everyone was getting quizzed about whether or not they remember any stories on Galludet? No one did. It was like Abeer all over again.
Back on October 22nd, the core six wrote "The students of Gallaudet University are standing up" and that was supposed to have been covered the week before. There were too many problems with the website to do it then. The core six worked on it because there was something else we were all doing together and C.I. said fine but if we stay up until 6:00 p.m. we are writing about Gallaudet. That's one of the places C.I. had talked with students and then C.I. wrote about what was going on there for Polly's Brew the first Sunday of October. The deaf and hearing impaired members of the community really responded to that and were e-mailing to say how it just seemed like there was time for everything in the world to be covered by independent media except Gallaudet. So C.I. was trying all month for that feature. I don't even remember what got traded. But I know C.I. pitched in with at least one story that otherwise would have been written without. And when it couldn't make it into the October 15th edition, C.I. was very clear that it would be covered the next week.
Which is how you have to be because we're all working at once during the marathon session and there are times when we really have to start cutting out pieces because there's not time or making them for the print edition only because there's not time to polish them. So if someone forgets something, someone else has to remember or it gets forgotten.
By the way there's a site I just heard about and it's www.warslavery.org which sounds pretty cool. If I don't write about it by Tuesday, somebody remind me.
So I'm looking forward to the book discussion and I'm also reading a book so I can be ready. No, not the Goodmans' book. I don't need the headache. I'm reading Cindy Sheehan's Peace Mom which I think everyone else has already read. It's really a great book, which doesn't surprise me, but it does surprise me how strong it is. It really speaks to you.
I'm up to the part where she's responding to some Congress guy with "King" in his last name. I think that's the half-way mark. My only suggestion would be for some pictures. :D
Seriously, I wondered what Casey looked like out of his uniform (she holds a picture of him in his uniform in the cover photo) and what Andy, Carly and I forget her other daughter look like. The part where she goes back to work a few weeks after Casey dies is probably what stood out most to me so far. The drive back after the first day of work and I don't want to spoil it for you.
But she's Cindy Sheehan and when I say that I mean she's just putting it out there, not trying to pretty it up, just telling it like it is. There are probably fifty books I have from C.I. that I haven't had time to read and when I decided to grab a book, I was actually thinking I would grab something else. But I was going through the stacks and that one just said "Read me" for some reason. I'm really glad that I listened because it's really a powerful book.
If I'm rushing the entry tonight it's because I want to get back to reading it. I probably won't have time tomorrow. Fortunately, I read fast even though I type slow. :D
If you haven't read the book yet, you should but if you're not sure, check out the book discussion Sunday at The Third Estate Sunday Review and I bet you'll be going, "Okay, I've got to read this." By the way, check out Rebecca's "dear john."
That's it for me tonight. Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
[Apologies to Mike, we've sent this six times and it will not hit the site. C.I. said pull the snapshot and see if it does.]
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