A Mother's Open Letter to President George W. Bush

November 4, 2004

Dear George,

You don’t mind if I call you George do you? When you sent me
a letter offering your condolences on the death of my son,|
Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in the illegal and unjust
war on Iraq,| you called me Cindy, so I naturally
assume we are on a first name basis.

George, it has been seven months today since your reckless
and wanton foreign policies killed my son, my big boy, my hero,
my best-friend: Casey. It has been seven months since your ignorant
and arrogant lack of planning for the peace murdered my oldest child.
It has been two days since your dishonest campaign stole another 
election…but you all were way more subtle this time than in 2000,
weren’t you? You hardly had to get the Supreme Court of the
United States involved at all this week.

You feel so proud of yourself for betraying the country again,
don’t you? You think you are very clever because you pulled the
wool over the eyes of some of the people again. You think that you
have some mandate from God…that you can “spend your political
capital” any way that you want. George you don’t care or even
realize that 56,000,000 plus citizens of this country voted against
you and your agenda. Still, you are going to continue your ruthless
work of being a divider and not a uniter. George, in 2000 when you
stole that election and the Democrats gave up, I gave up too. I had
the most ironic thought of my life then: "Oh well, how much damage
can he do in four years?" Well, now I know how much you have
damaged my family, this country, and this world. If you think I am going
to allow you another four years to do even more damage, then you
truly are mistaken. I will fight for a true vote count and if that fails, your impeachment. Also, the impeachment of your Vice President.

The only thing is, I'm not politically savvy, and I don't have a
Karl Rove to plan my strategy, but I do have a big mouth and
a righteous cause, which still mean something in this country, I hope.

All of this lying, fooling, and betraying must be “hard work” George.
You really think you know what hard work is?

George, let me tell you what “hard work” really is.

Hard work is seeing your oldest son, your brave and honorable
man-child go off to a war that had, and still has, no basis in reality.
Hard work is worrying yourself gray and not being able to sleep for
2 weeks because you don’t know if your child is safe.

Hard work is seeing your son’s murder on CNN one Sunday
evening while you’re enjoying the last supper you’ll ever truly enjoy again.

Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few
hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son
your first born…your kind and gentle sweet baby.

Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday.
Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body
of their big “baba” into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the
grave with him and having the earth cover you both.

But, Dear George, do you know what the hardest work of all is?
Trying to digest the fact that the leader of the country that your family
has fought for and died for, for generations, lied to you and betrayed
your dear boy’s sense of honor and exploited his courage and exploited
his loyalty to his buddies. Hard work is having your country abandon you
after they killed your son. Hard work is coming to the realization that your
son had his future robbed from him and that you have had your son's
future and future grand-children stolen from you. Hard work is knowing
that there are so many people in this world that have prospered
handsomely from your son's death.

George, I must confess that I and my family worked very HARD
to re-defeat you this time, but you refuse to stay defeated. Well, we
are watching you very carefully. We are going to do everything in our
power to have you impeached for misleading the American people
into a disastrous war and for mis-using and abusing your power as Commander-in-Chief. We are going to scream until our last breath to
bring the rest of our babies home from this quagmire of a war that
you have gotten our country in to: before too many more families learn
the true meaning of Hard Work. We know it is going to be an uphill
battle, knowing how Republican Congress is, but thanks to you,
we know the meaning of Hard Work and we’re not afraid
of hard work at all.

The 56,000,000 plus citizens who voted against you and your agenda
have given me a mandate to move forward with my agenda. Also, thanks
to you and your careless domestic policies, I am unemployed, so this
will be my full-time job. Being your political downfall will be the most
noble accomplishment of my life and it will bring justice for my son and
1125 (so far) other brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent
Iraqis your lies have killed. By the way, George, how many more innocent
Iraqis are your policies going to kill before you convince them that you are
better than Saddam? How many more of their cities are you going to level
before you consider that they are liberated? If you really had any moral
values, or if you were an honorable man at all you would resign. My son
was a man who had high moral values and true courage. Humanity lost
a bright light on April 04, 2004. I will live the rest of my life missing
Casey desperately. Thank you for that, George. Have a nice day.

God Bless America!! We surely need it!

Cindy Sheehan
Broken hearted mother of a True American Hero:
Spc Casey Austin Sheehan,
KIA 04/04/04
Sadr City, Baghdad

Gold Star Families for Peace

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way
of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and
murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end,
they always fall - think of it,
always."

- Gandhi -