And now, the much ballyhooed appearance by Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan at the gates of an American military base apparently has been axed.
Cindy Sheehan says she will not be near Ramstein Air Base or participate in a protest march from Landstuhl to Ramstein on Saturday if she goes through with a planned trip to Europe.
Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq and the woman who protested the war last summer outside President Bush’s ranch in Texas, said in an e-mail Wednesday to Stars and Stripes that “everything is up in the air at this point.”
Sheehan is due to arrive in Frankfurt on Thursday. Despite uncertainty clouding Sheehan’s visit, protesters and counterprotesters still plan to gather outside Ramstein Air Base on Saturday afternoon.
Sheehan was arrested Monday in New York City outside the U.S. mission to the United Nations when she and other protesters attempted to deliver a petition calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Her condition raises doubts as to whether she will make the trip to Germany and France.
“If I am there, I won’t be anywhere near the air force base … or participate in the march,” wrote Sheehan on Wednesday. “I was brutalized in New York the other day by the NYPD (New York Police Department) and I need to go to the doctor today (Wednesday).”
When asked why she would not protest near the air base, Sheehan replied: “I don’t want the soldiers to feel we don’t support them, and soldiers can’t redeploy themselves.”
So, which is it, Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan? The brutality you suffered through at the unmerciful hands of the NYPD or your support of the American military personnel who, surprisingly, are not at liberty to write their own orders?
I think that this is a case where Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan’s handlers — and that is what they are — have decided that it is best to continue to use her notoriety and name but not her presence.
After all, Confederate Yankee‘s Bob Owens visually and clearly demonstrates that any police brutality accusations are a complete crock.
Methinks instead that Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan’s handlers think it’s best that her image not come up in blatant contrast with the military Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan claims she supports — as will be the case in Germany.
Please, Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan, I beg and plead that you press charges of brutality against the NYPD. Please speak truth to power, Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan, about how the New York coppers kept ya from standing up to the Man in Germany.