Cindy Sheehan resigns as "face" of the anti-war movement

In a Memorial Day essay, Cindy Sheehan wrote, in part:

This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.

From the comments here at HEP:

True prophets always run ahead of their time.

It takes time for the words of a prophet to come true.

In my experience, visionaries are enough ahead of their time that they are resisted every step of the way by the people in power. For reasons I do not understand, however, once the prophet stops speaking, something frees up and changes. I have lived this over and over, and I too needed to step back. Any of us is only called to speak out for a time.

You did it, Cindy. You were heard and what you have done has changed the situation. We may not see the true results of this for awhile.

But consider that most mystics and visionaries -- all through history and cross culturally -- were persecuted by their own people in their day. John of the Cross and Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, were both thrown into prison and wrote golden things from there. Now John of the Cross is considered a "doctor of the church" and King has a national holiday.

You have definitely not failed your son, or us, or failed at all, Cindy (and the spirit of your son knows this). It is the greedy and the arrogant (in any of us) that has failed. But the opera ain't over.

If you do not feel you have the words and energy anymore, then this calling is no longer on your shoulders. {Hallelujah, eh?} Thank you for carrying the torch for us, lighting up some wrongs, and for passing the torch when the time came.

Just go ahead and continue to be authentic. That's what got you into this and that's what got you out of this. Authenticity is good stuff. May you know in your own day the peace of seeing the fruit of some of your heroic efforts.

With Gratitude and Hope, listener in Vermont

Haloscan comment thread