[Mb-civic] I Have Arrived; I Am Home

[Reeeees at aol.com]

Published on Monday, October 10, 2005 by  CommonDreams.org  
I Have  Arrived; I Am Home 
by  Cindy Sheehan
I was honored and humbled to be in the  presence of holy man, Thich Nhat 
Hahn, today at MacArthur Park in a very  Hispanic neighborhood in Los Angeles.  
Tha^y, (teacher) as he is known, is a  Buddhist monk who was active during 
the Vietnam War years bringing peace  and reconciliation to the countries of 
North and South Vietnam. He was  nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin 
Luther King, Jr. He walks  with an aura of peace and acceptance radiating from 
him.  
Every day we do things, we are things that  have to do with peace. If we are 
aware of our life..., our way of looking  at things, we will know how to make 
peace right in the moment, we are  alive. Thich Nhat Hahn.  
In a speech I delivered at the Riverside  Church in NYC on the one year 
anniversary of Casey's death, which was also  the 37 th anniversary of MLK, Jr's 
death, I said: We must all do one thing  for peace each day. I now know that is 
not enough. We must live peace and  embody peace if we want peace on earth. 
Our entire lives must be for  peace. Not just one activity a day.  
Every step is peace.  
That was the theme for today's walk in Mac  Arthur Park. Tha^y reminded us to 
be in the "present" and take every step  in peace and know that we are 
walking on the earth in peace. He lovingly  admonished the hundreds of people who 
came to hear his witness to do  everything in peace: eat, walk, talk, breathe, 
sleep, work, play, etc. No  yelling, no angry words, no harsh statements. This 
admonishment struck me  to the bone because I have been so "strident" in my 
criticism of the  Bushies in their quest for power, greed, and destruction. 
There must be a  better way now if we truly want our country to live in eternal 
peace and  not eternal war.  
I have arrived. I am home.  
This was the first sign we passed as we  started on our walk. Tha^y told us 
we should say those phrases with every  other step. I have arrived. Every 
second we live is a new arriving in the  present. I see so much conflict and 
struggle in our world because we don't  live in this second. We are worried about 
the next second and mourning the  past second. Camp Casey taught me to live each 
moment in the arrival  moment. One of the reasons I have been able to remain 
so calm in the face  of an onslaught of troubles and evil is because I 
realized in Camp Casey  that I could not struggle against the current of my life and 
change my  destiny any more than I could bring my son back from the land of 
the dead.  Each second of each day is our precious arrival and we should honor 
each  moment. Another holy man, Jesus Christ said: Why worry about tomorrow?  
Today has enough worries of its own.  
I am home.  
I met a new friend today named Jewel whose  son was a medic on the front 
lines in Iraq and has tried to commit suicide  three times since he returned from 
the desert of pain. The distraught  Mother who is beside herself with worry 
said if something isn't done about  it and if her boy doesn't get help, he is 
dying. His superiors will not  allow him to be diagnosed for PTSD so he can't 
get the treatment he so  desperately needs. Jewel is Buddhist and I told her: 
"You realize your son  died in Iraq." She replied to me: "We have all died 
because of this war."  She is right. On April 04, 2004, Cindy Sheehan died, but 
Cindy Sheehan was  born. The dead Cindy Sheehan lived for her home and family. 
She kept a  neat and tidy house, often cooked meals, did everyone's laundry,  
entertained friends, laughed more than she cried, worked at various jobs,  and 
her family meant the entire world to her. She lived an insulated life  filled 
with Thanksgivings and Christmases and Birthdays and other  celebrations. The 
Cindy who was born on 04/04/04 still adores her family  above all things but 
now knows that the human family is worth struggling  for too. The lifelong cause 
of peace with justice is worth leaving her  home (which is just another shell 
to keep your soul's shell warm and dry)  and travel around from home to home 
and being there and being home  wherever she is. I pray for Jewel and 
especially for her son that he  realizes that he died in Iraq but he can be a much 
better "he" than left  his loving home and mother. Unfortunately, and tragically, 
Jewel and her  son's story is not uncommon.  
In order to rally people, governments need  enemies. They want us to be 
afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them.  And if they do not have a real 
enemy, they will invent one in order to  mobilize us. Thich Nhat Hahn  
While looking up sayings by my new friend,  I came upon the above. This has 
been one of my feelings and themes for  months. I know during the terrible war 
that Tha^y fought against the enemy  was "Communism." Now in this evil war 
that we are struggling against the  enemy is "Terrorism." I just saw a poll that 
only 13 percent of Americans  fear a terrorist attack. The war machine and the 
people who serve it in  our government are getting a little afraid themselves 
of not being able to  keep the industrial military complex rolling in the 
bloody dough, so  George and friends have come up with a new enemy whose 
atrocities also  can't be contained to borders and that doesn't wear a national 
uniform:  The Bird Flu. What kind of person who doesn't bow before the warmongers  
and war profiteers calls the military as his first plan of action when a  
health threat is supposedly brewing? Instead of calling out the National  Guard 
(who by the way are still fighting, killing, and dying in Iraq), do  you think 
his first call should have been to the CDC? Or to his Surgeon  General, and not 
his military Generals? These people do not walk on this  earth anywhere near 
reality or peace. Our new enemy of the state will be  Birds who may be ill and 
we shall be very afraid every time we sneeze and  pray that our government 
saves us from more imaginary threats. While we  are praying, the war profiteers 
are laughing at us on our knees as they  are counting their stacks of wicked 
and immorally gotten gains.   
Last week, George Bush got in front of the  nation and said things were going 
to be far worse in Iraq in the next few  months. Why do we let him get away 
with it? The other night George Bush  likened Iraq with WWII. Why do we let him 
get away with that? Why do we  allow our "leaders" to sacrifice our young to 
the war machine? War will  stop when we as parents, educators, religious 
leaders, brothers, sisters,  husbands and wives refuse to allow our loved ones to 
be taking to a war of  choice and killed. I wish I had refused to allow Casey 
to go to Iraq. I  wish I had knocked him out and taken him to Canada…or 
anywhere far enough  away from the war monster. It is too late for us, but not for 
you.   
Some people think it's a miracle to walk on  water. I think it is a miracle 
to walk on the earth in peace. Thich Nhat  Hahn.  
If we don't learn how to do this, we as a  people are, well, screwed. We have 
done a good job of identifying the  problem of the criminally insane war in 
Iraq. Now how do we as a people  who want to walk on our earth in peace go 
forward? I am committing my life  and Casey's life to peace. We don't need an exit 
strategy from Iraq. We  just need to get out. We need to realize that Iraq is 
not the 51st state  of the Union and let them live in peace. How do we do 
that? Let's walk  each step away from the killing, eternal wars and walk each 
step in peace  towards the answer. Join us in working always for peace, in peace: 
be  peace.
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