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Cindy Sheehan has traveled a great distance since April 4, 2004. In two short years she rose from relative obscurity, following the death of her son, Casey (KIA while serving in Iraq), to national attention as a symbol and voice of the growing peace movement. But, she admits, it might not have happened had one man simply opened his door to her:

"The most ironic aspect of Camp Casey was that it wouldn't have happened at all if George had met with me that first day. George is the one who really sparked the peace movement by his thoughtless and imprudent inaction in August."

Pilloried by the right-wing and attacked by those who misunderstand her motivations, Cindy exudes a quiet strength that frightens her foes (and, we imagine, George Bush) and energizes her supporters. In a recent online Q&A sponsored by the Washington Post web site, Cindy educates an ill-informed antagonist about protesting in a democracy: "Being against the government and being against the war is not being against America." She has become, in a short period of time, an important voice in the peace movement.

Her new book, Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey through Heartache to Activism, charts that rapid growth as a mother and an activist. "This book is a celebration of Casey's extraordinary life," she writes in the foreword. "This book is also an odyssey of one mom's journey from a place of pure pain to one of pain that is also infused with joy and hope. This is my story of how one person can, should, and must make a difference."

Anyone interested in making the world a better place for everyone (not just themselves, as Bush's supporters seem to be inclined) and wonders how they can "make a difference" can learn from Cindy's journey. What will it take to move you from inaction to action? When will you go from spending the weekend on the couch to spending a weekend protesting war, racism, incompetence, greed, or hatred? What will be your catalyst? For Cindy, it was her son's death and George Bush's insensitivity to the deaths that result from the Bush administration's decisions.

But, what we can learn from Cindy's book is not that we have to lose a family member to find our activism, but that she, like most of us, are regular, everyday people and that the road to activism doesn't have to be arduous or long. We're moms, dads, sons and daughters, doing regular mom, dad, son and daughter things. Moving from being regular to being an activist merely means opening your eyes and ears to the world around you and deciding to get off the couch and become part of the solution.

As Cindy recounts, the information is out there, you just have to be willing and ready to receive it:

"I'd never heard of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) until after my son was killed for its agenda....

"I did not know that when George Bush was still governor of Texas, he was telling his biographer that he wanted to be a 'great war president'...

"I didn't know that George Bush had been handed a daily intelligence briefing that specifically warned about an airplane attack in America ...

"What action would I have taken if I had informed myself and been aware of my surroundings? What would I have done if I knew all of the things then that I know now?"

Casey's death was the catalyst for Cindy to question those things that motivated her life, but it is her desire to be a better citizen, to rectify her inaction prior to Casey's death, and to help bring a lasting peace to our world that motivates her activism.

BuzzFlash first interviewed Cindy in October, 2004, following the airing of the Real Voices ad that ran during the run-up to the election that year. We have since published many of her articles and commentaries. As she states in an upcoming interview with BuzzFlash, she's not an "anti-war activist," but a "peace activist": "We had an anti-war movement in Vietnam, and when the war was over, the movement died. And I'm hoping that I will still be relevant to the peace movement, not just now during the regime of George Bush and during the occupation of Iraq, but afterwards, through the Camp Casey Peace Institute, to really advocate for true and lasting peace."

Cindy recounts in the book that she was told her son volunteered. But, as she found out later, often soldiers are involuntarily made to volunteer so that if they are killed, they can be labeled "heroes."

Heroes are not created on battlefields. They are created in homes, in towns large and small, by loving families who want only the best for their children.

Victims and martyrs are created by the war machine that only wants our heroes for profit.

I wish I'd know that before Casey was killed -- but I also wish that I didn't have to know it now.

We can learn a lot from Cindy's journey. Hopefully, it might be the catalyst that gives you the motivation to make the world a better place.


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