Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan     (activist, COVID-19/Resistance)
Born	Cindy Miller 10 July 1957
Nationality	US
Member of	American Herald Tribune
American anti-war activist particularly known for her extended antiwar protest at a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch in 2005.

Cindy Lee Sheehan is an American anti-war activist particularly known for her extended antiwar protest at a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch in 2005.

Camp Casey

Her son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed by enemy action during the Iraq War in 2004. She attracted national and international attention in August 2005 for her extended antiwar protest at a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.

Sheehan has said she initially questioned the urgency of the invasion of Iraq but did not become active in the antiwar effort until after her son's death. Sheehan and other military families met with President George W. Bush in June 2004, about three months after her son's death.

For the presidential inauguration in January 2005, Sheehan traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak at the opening of "Eyes Wide Open: the Human Cost of War," a traveling exhibition created by the American Friends Service Committee that displays pairs of combat boots to represent U.S. military casualties. She also traveled with the exhibition to other locations and donated her son Casey's boots, stating, "Behind these boots is one broken-hearted family." Sheehan was one of the nine founding members of Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization she created in January 2005 with other families she met at the inauguration. It seeks to end U.S. presence in Iraq, and provides support for families of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Sheehan gained international attention in early August 2005, when she traveled to President Bush's Prairie Chapel Ranch, just outside Crawford, Texas, demanding a second meeting with the President. She told members of Veterans for Peace, "I'm gonna say, 'And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for.' And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy, I'm gonna say, bullshit. You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich.... You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy." She also vowed not to pay her federal income tax for 2004 because that was the year her son was killed.

Conscientious tax objector

In 2004, Sheehan became a a conscientious tax objector. "My son was killed in this bloody Empire’s illegal and immoral war in Iraq: I made a moral decision to refuse to fund the Empire's crimes, tortures and wars. I have not been hiding from anybody and am fully accessible and easy to find."

In 2012, Sheehan was sued by the federal government for failure to pay back taxes.

Sheehan appeared in court on April 19, 2012 and in IRS offices on May 9, 2012, refusing to provide information on the basis of the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment. The government dropped its case against her in February 2013.

Congressional election campaign

In July 2007, Sheehan announced that she would run against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for representative of California's 8th District, based on Pelosi's failure to attempt impeachment of Bush. Up until her run for the U.S. Congress, Sheehan lived outside Pelosi's district, in Dixon, California; however, she moved to San Francisco's Mission District after declaring her candidacy. Earlier, in 2006, she had spoken of ambitions to challenge Dianne Feinstein for her seat in the United States Senate.

Sheehan ran on a platform of single-payer health care, media reform, overturning all free trade agreements, repealing the Patriot Act, renewable energy, nationalizing oil and electricity, ending the War on Drugs, legalizing cannabis, ensuring all talks in the Middle East are fair to all parties, ending torture, closing Guantanamo Bay detention camp, overseas commitment to cleaning up Superfund sites, ending deregulation, ending No Child Left Behind, and legalizing same-sex marriage. Sheehan lost the 2008 election to the incumbent Pelosi. In a seven-way race, Sheehan came in second with 46,118 votes (16.14%) to Pelosi's 71.56%.

Covid

Sheehan has written against Covid and the Covid jab since the start in 2020.

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References

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