Thank you, Cindy

Cindy Sheehan, now a candidate for Congress, was in Charlottesville during my recent visit and I was invited to extend a welcome to the community on behalf of FOR at an event where she was speaking. David Swanson, member of Charlottesville’s Center for Peace and Justice had invited Sheehan to join him at last weekend’s “Building a New World Conference” at Radford University in Radford, Virginia.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Cindy Sheehan for speaking truth to power, calling in to question the commitment of political leadership to their public promises to act to bring the occupation of Iraq to an end and to stop the killing. She has stepped in to the space of citizen leadership herself by running for public office.

The event in Charlottesville provided a safe space in which Cindy could find energy, encouragement, and economic wherewithal for her journey. We should create similar spaces of energy and encouragement for the prophetic voice to call us back to our basic values and beliefs from every Church, Synagogue and Mosque, from the offices of the presidents of colleges and universities, from the editorial pages of newspapers and journals, from the voices of poets and artists; from leaders of cultural institutions committed to the human spirit and well being, from corporate leaders whose decisions and behaviors have a profound impact on the quality of life and social justice throughout the world.

We should have the same expectations of all these leaders as stewards of a public trust, as we do of our elected officials and of our own actions. They need to hear and know that in addition to doing what is right, they can count on us to affirm their voices with our solidarity.

And our shared solidarity must be clear, comforting and courageous on behalf of our extended family of Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Ba’hai, and others whose sacred texts and religious beliefs and practices are unfamiliar to many but still peace centered. On behalf of those neighbors in our communities quietly providing basic services in manual labor, agriculture and manufacturing without the benefit of legal protections or recognitions. On behalf of those emerging from prisons where they should never have been incarcerated back into a society hostile to their needs and complicit in their suffering.

These were the words I offered in deference to Cindy Sheehan’s presence and path. She is plain spoken, focused, good humored, challenging; she reminds us that politics are best when they have a first person clarity and a local rootedness. That seems to characterize the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice’s work as well.