Dear Cindy Sheehan,
In February 2003 my girlfriend and I left Tucson, Arizona and led a war protest/peace march to Washington DC. As we trekked through America spreading our message of non-voilence, we came up against exactly what you have voiced here. We hoped to prevent the war, then stop the war, then end the occupation...none of which happened. We hoped to attract media attention to our cause; that turned out to be a joke. We hoped to grow our march and end in DC with a large group demanding that we not go to/end this war/occupation; I was foolish and idealistic.
This experience has left us both radicalized and somewhat bitter. It has transformed our lives with the knowledge we gained. It has opened our eyes and our mind to the atrocities that are committed in our names every day around the world. For a while it was horribly deflating upon the evaluation that we had done all this work (such a drop in the bucket by comparison to you) and changed nothing.
When all was said and done, after much reflection and conversation, we came to realize that if we do not continue the struggle, if we just run away, we lose. The odds are insurmountable, but what other option do we have?
It is why I organize.
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