The amount of media attention on Cindy Sheehan is amazing, and heartening. Six months ago a mom camped outside Bush’s home protesting the war would have been quickly removed, probably arrested, and it would have been ignored by the national media.
Not any more. She’s front page across the country. Bush’s spokespeople said she’d be arrested, but they’ve backed down. The public is now, more and more every day, vocally opposing this insane war.
Here in L.A., we in the ANSWER Coalition have gotten huge numbers of endorsements for the upcoming Sept. 24 nationwide antiwar march and rally, way more than we generally get, and Sept. 24 is still six weeks off. There are multiple regional organizing centers building for Sept 24 in L.A.; chartered buses are coming from Phoenix, Santa Barbara, and other cities; there’s a peace train coming Long Beach; and dozens of other groups are organizing and getting the word out too. We haven’t seen this kind of response since the huge antiwar protests right before the war started.
I’m the webmaster of the ANSWER LA website, and post new stuff every day, often multiple times a day, thus I can see first-hand and real-time how fast interest in Sept. 24 is building. “Something’s happening here”, let’s continue to build for Sept. 24. There will also be mass actions in S.F., Chicago, Seattle, and the big one, in D.C. at the White House.
Putting on a big demo like this takes literally hundreds of thousands of flyers and posters, thousands of phone calls, stage and sound rentals, permits, etc. ANSWER LA is the middle of a fund drive, whatever you can give via PayPal, from $1 up, will go directly to fund Sept. 24.
The neocons are nervous. Public opinion has shifted drastically on the war. Bush’s poll numbers are way down. The Vietnam War ended when enough people got in the streets and said ‘bring the troops home now.’ Let’s do the same on Sept. 24.
PS Tonight, 7:30 at ANSWER LA, “Iraq and the antiwar movement”, featuring Richard Becker, West Coast Director of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. Don’t miss it.