Sheehan talks peace, economy in local speech

Cindy Sheehan sat Wednesday on the side of the sanctuary at First United Church on East Third Street.

The peace advocate kept quiet as the crowd took their seats. She flipped through a small notebook as Timothy Baer of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition
introduced her.

When it was her turn, she shuffled up to the podium, arranged her materials and cleared her throat. Cindy Sheehan had a cough.

“Do you need a cough drop?” said one woman in the front row.

“Yes, I do,” Sheehan said.

“Here,” said the woman, extending a cough drop to Sheehan. “It tastes nasty, but it works.”

“Does anyone have one that doesn’t taste nasty?” Sheehan laughed. Another woman in the same row raised her hand and took out her purse.

“It’s medicinal,” said the other woman. Sheehan took the cough drop and went back to the podium.

Through the coughing, Sheehan delivered a speech commemorating the 10th anniversary of the start of the United States’ war in Afghanistan.

She spoke on the topic of “The War Economy and You” and discussed rebutting traditional forms of governmental control as though she were chatting with a group of old friends.

“I just need this back. You guys look trustworthy though,” Sheehan said when passing around an email sign-up list. “The pen’s not that important.”

Her speaking style was one of tangential passion. She would often get distracted by the cough drop in her mouth, another thought or a joke to tell the audience and would spend time talking in a wild direction with the passion of a preacher.

“I have the Cindy Sheehan way of talking,” she said.

Sheehan argued that federal politics influence the economy in a way that hurts average Americans. She said the real problem is that there are only two classes: a robbing class of the governing elite and a robbed class, made up of Americans across the country.

“One of the biggest myths in our country is that there’s a middle class,” Sheehan said.
The 54-year-old activist received fame in 2005 for protesting outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex., after her son Casey Sheehan died in Iraq.

Sheehan has since been known for protesting not only the Bush administration, but also the continued campaign in Afghanistan.

Sheehan continues to protest and speak on the cause for peace. She said the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City are a step in the right direction and compared them to the protests in Egypt during the spring.

“There are occupations happening all over the country that are really exciting,” Sheehan said. “I don’t know how successful that would be in making systemic change.”

Sheehan advocated for more local engagement and rejection of federal politics. She said communities that participate in community gardens, local healthcare solutions and even local currency are on the right track to fixing national problems.

“The only responsible globalization is localization,” Sheehan said. “It’s our power. It doesn’t belong to Wall Street or D.C. It belongs to us.”