Today is Carlos Arredondo's birthday and the day he found out his son Alex died in Iraq

Two years ago today Carlos was waiting to get a "Happy Birthday Poppy" call from Alex in Iraq. Instead he got the van pull up to his house to tell him the news his very special son Alex had died in Iraq.

Two years ago today was a day that changed me forever. Even as I type this I have a really bad feeling in the pit of my soul. Two years ago - everyday we would hear how many have died in Iraq. It was soul killing to me. And then, Carlos blew up the van. I thought at the time his actions would awaken the people into fighting for life. Not their own life but the lives of the ones we decided to put in place of all of ours. We traded the lives of the military hero's for our own when when we were told "were going to fight them over there so they don't come here to get us". It's like trading one set of people for another. Except...the fear that has all been instilled in us is vented in the wrong direction. The ones who want to kill and destroy us are not in Iraq. Today, I feel the ones who want to kill and destroy us live in the White House. They killed Alex and so many other. They don't care who they kill~ In New Orleans or in Iraq. 2 years ago, I really thought Carlos's actions would awaken people....but it didn't.

Today is a day I wish to celebrate Carlos's birth and not Alex's death. Life should be celebrated ~ It' is so precious. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND! I wish to God you didn't have to spend the rest of your birthdays this way. So much hurt has been brought on to us for no good reason except for the love of money and power but the PNAC who is in control of our government

Learn more about Carlos and the day that changed him forever by clicking here.

May peace be inside all of us,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLOS!
your friend always,
Cindy

Geoffrey Millard from Camp Casey - Veterans Welcomed Home

                       
Veterans Welcomed Home to Camp Casey
    By Geoffrey Millard
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Thursday 17 August 2006

    Crawford, Texas - Last August, Cindy Sheehan erected the tents of a nation's peace movement, setting up Camp Casey in order to ask President Bush a simple question. A year later, as I drove into Crawford and was greeted by the face of our president and the first lady on the "Welcome to Crawford" sign, my stomach turned, and I was forced to keep down a bit of vomit. However, upon seeing the face on the next "Welcome to Crawford" sign gracing the gate of the now permanent Camp Casey, I had to smile, seeing Cindy looking back at me with a loving smile only a mother could give. As an Iraq Veteran Against the War, I have found very few places that truly feel like home, but somehow when I see that welcome home sign at Camp Casey I know it is not the empty rhetoric of those support-the-troops magnets I see all over the cars in cities where VA hospitals close with little noise.

    Today at Camp Casey, CODEPINK built a garden that was, as co-founder Jodie Evans put it, "for all of the women and children killed or otherwise affected by the war." In a land where the dirt is often the most flattering color around, a garden of pinkflowers lights like a beacon of hope and relief for those ships looking for any port in this storm. The Iraq war has seen its share of civilian deaths, though one could not find this out by attention to any mainstream media - nor could one gain this information by seeing the daily actions of the average American, who continues life as though the war were over. This garden is a sign of the war's everlasting effects on civilians, but the veterans were the true focus of the evening's innaugural celebrations.

    Overlooking the seemingly endless field of crosses reminiscent of Santa Barbara's Arlington West, a circle of supporters gathered to pay homage to veterans, both living and fallen. As Kathy Murphy of Gold Star Families for Peace stated, "Camp Casey has been likened to a table with four legs, those legs being Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace." This circle, too, could be likened to that table, as members of each group addressed the crowd of about fifty people. Everyone who spoke told of the home-like feeling evoked by Camp Casey, but the most striking testimony of the evening came from the members of MFSO and IVAW. Tamara Rosenleaf, of MFSO, spoke through her tears as she told the tale of a wife whose husband is in Iraq, and Lisa Leitz, also of MFSO, let the tears stream while telling of her husband's inevitable deployment to the war against which both have worked so hard.

    The night, though, seemed to come to a head as IVAW members told of firsthand experience in the war. As I laid the boots I wore while in Iraq at the memorial to all veterans being dedicated this evening, only the sound of tears could be heard. The ominous silence of tears falling to this now sacred soil streamed steadily as Cloy Richards of IVAW read a letter he wrote in support of Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the lieutenant who has refused orders to Iraq and will begin his trial this week at Fort Lewis, Washington. After Cloy and I laid a wreath at the country's newest veterans' memorial, taps played and the crowd dispersed with a clear remembrance of why we all come to Camp Casey in the first place: an answer ... For what noble cause, George? For what noble cause?

Happy Birthday Alex Arredondo - he would have been 22

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX

August 5, 2006 ~ Alex would have 22 candles on his cake..instead his family is having a hard time dealing with him being missing from their lives.

I went away for the weekend. We took out kids on one last little weekend at the beach before they go back to school. I wanted to post this before I went away. With my new business, back to school and just being mom I got busy and forgot to let you all know about Alex. He wasn't forgotten in my thoughts, only on my blog.

I wish I knew Alex. From what his friends and family say, he was a hell of a kid. Always had a smile, always joking. This is a letter he sent home. I try to honor him last year and this year by sharing one of his letter with you.

May PEACE be inside all of us, for Alex....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX
Cindy

Mom & Dad,

Today is Sunday, January 19, 2003. I've been out at sea for three days now and I'm starting to feel better. The first two days I was completely sick from seasickness and some virus. So far everyday I come outside the skin of the ship and write letters, whale watch, (which isn't that great cause I haven't seen any but there are plenty of dolphins that swim along side the ship), watch the horizon and sunset, etc. This seams so unreal to me. I've never seen water this BLUE before, I've never looked 360 degrees around me and seen nothing but water, clouds, the sun and a Fleet of Battleships surrounding me. Tomorrow is one of my many , many training days on ship to prepare me for my mission. I will also be training a short time in Kuwait. This is hard for me to comprehend. It seems like my whole life changed in an instant. Yesterday I was in a classroom learning about trigonometry and history. I graduated, went to boot camp, went to school, graduated as a GRUNT. I was sent across the country to train. Now I'm being sent across the world to fight. Today I am in a classroom learning about Tactical Urban Combat and Nuclear, Biological and chemical warfare. In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on my way to experience 1st hand what I am learning about. I am not afraid of dying. I am more afraid of what will happen to all the ones that I love if something happens to me. Soon enough I will be in the desert, outside in the city of Bagdad, in full combat gear, ready to carry out my mission. Wondering how this all happened so fast, Wishing I was back home going to school, dating Shelia, taking care of my family. Although I think this way now I am almost certain that if I didn't walk this path I would be wondering to myself "why didn't I make the other decision. Why didn't I walk the path of a proud warrior, a marine." Just because I wonder "what if" doesn't mean I'm not proud, it doesn't mean I feel like I made the wrong decision. It doesn't mean I have any regrets. I'm still proud to be fighting for mycountry. I feel like, If I'm not helping one way I should still do all that I can to help (OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM). I'm on a time back now. I need to send this letter in the next hour for it to get to you by Tuesday or Wednesday. I love you both very much and I wish I could keep writing but I got to go. LOVE YOU. PFC ARREDONDO/ UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

A note to Brian his brother:

WHATS UP BRIAN, I feel so lucky to be blessed with the chance to defend my country 6 months after I joined the military. Some Marines have been in for over 20 years and still haven't seen combat. I'm also lucky to have such a wonderful family. I know how much you love me and support me and that keeps me going along with a few other things. Is Jeanette babysitting for Mom? LOVE YOU BROTHER Your Big Brother - Private First Class Arredondo USMC

August 25, 2004

Lance Corporal Arredondo served as Fire Team Leader during the Battalion's attack into the old cith of Najaf. As the Platoon attacked to clear a four-story hotel, it was heavily engaged by enemy machine gun and sniper fire from three different directions. Lance Corporal Arredondo returned fire exposing himself to great risk to ensure the members of his team were safe. After fearlessly exchanging fire with the enemy snipers for more than three hours, Lance Corporal Arredondo fell mortally wounded as he moved through the rooms to inspect the Marines' defensive position.

Judges order in parking and camping ordinance in Crawford

Judge orders county and Sheehan attorneys to compromise on parking and camping ordinances

By Cindy V. Culp

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Based on a federal judge’s order, McLennan County officials will evaluate whether they should change ordinances that prohibit parking and camping along the roads to President Bush’s ranch.

At a hearing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. ordered the county’s attorney to confer with attorneys for an anti-war group led by Cindy Sheehan to see if they could reach a compromise in regard to the ordinances.

The directive came after Smith listened to nearly two hours of testimony to support requests from both sides for a temporary injunction.

Sheehan and her followers want to stop the county from enforcing two ordinances that they claim limit protest activities. One prohibits parking along portions of 14 county roads around Bush’s Prairie Chapel ranch. The other bans people from residing, erecting shelters or erecting portable toilets along county roads.

The county sought a temporary restraining order to keep the protesters from violating those restrictions. The ordinances were passed in September, shortly after Sheehan and her supporters left the Crawford area last summer.

Attorneys for Sheehan’s group assert that the ordinances violate the Constitution because they effectively limit protests. They say they understand the need to maintain safety and agree with county officials that the situation last August was undesirable. But they say the ordinances are too broad.

During the hearing Thursday, the head attorney for the group, David Broiles of Fort Worth, said his clients weren’t there as “absolutists under the First Amendment.” They simply want the ordinances narrowed so parking and toilets could be erected on portions of the roads where it would be safe, he said.

“We recognize the county’s interest in having traffic flow, we recognize the county’s interest in having orderly protests,” Broiles said. “But we didn’t exactly get to pick the spot because that’s where the president lives.”

Broiles went on to say most of the protest activities this summer won’t be on the roadside anyway since Sheehan recently purchased a five-acre tract of land in Crawford. But due to the symbolic and emotional nature of Sheehan’s original roadside camp, protestors still want reasonable accommodations there, he said.

“Cindy and her tent have become an international symbol,” Broiles said.

Representing the county, Waco attorney Mike Dixon countered that the ordinances are only meant to protect health and safety.

As part of the case, he filed multiple affidavits from landowners near the protest site outlining what they experienced, he said.

Among the examples of wrongs Dixon recounted were school buses having to wait for protesters to move vehicles in order to pick up or drop off children and residents being blocked from entering their property.

“In one case, a lady was sleeping in the middle of the road at 10:30 at night because she was afraid of snakes in the ditch,” Dixon said.

Legally, the ordinances don’t restrict free speech, Dixon said. Erecting a portable toilet or parking an air-conditioned vehicle may make protesting more convenient, he said, but such activities are not conduct protected under the First Amendment.

“There is no barring of expressing a message,” Dixon said. “You just don’t need to live in the right-of-way.”

After listening to the testimony, Smith ordered the two sides to try to work out compromise. He told them to meet Thursday afternoon and report back at 3 p.m.

The attorneys complied, but since any changes to the ordinances would have to be approved by county commissioners, and since commissioners can’t discuss county business outside of a public meeting, nothing was finalized Thursday.

Dixon plans to brief the commissioners in executive session during their meeting Tuesday. He will then confer with Broiles. If a compromise cannot be reached, Smith could issue a ruling as soon as Wednesday.

“We’re negotiating in good faith and in according with the court’s instruction,” Dixon said late Thursday afternoon.

Broiles said he is encouraged by the opportunity to possibly reach a compromise. He has written numerous letters to county officials asking for such a discussion but never got a response, he said.

cculp@wacotrib.com

Won't You Please Come to Camp Casey

 Won't You Please Come to Camp Casey
    By Cindy Sheehan
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Wednesday 02 August 2006

So your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair,
Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing.
In a land that's known as freedom
How can such a thing be fair?
Won't you please come to Chicago for the help that we can bring.
We can change the world
Rearrange the world.
It's dying - to get better!

- Chicago, Graham Nash

    This song was written almost 40 years ago when it also seemed that our world was in flames and dying. Thousands of people heeded the call to head to Chicago to demonstrate at the DNC. I can remember, even as an 11-year-old, watching the TV in horror as members of the Chicago PD ferociously beat protesters with their night sticks and I was revolted when my friend Genie's mom, Maxine, yelled: "Hit the goddamn hippies harder!" I can also remember thinking that the people who were there were extremely brave and they must have cared deeply about ending the war in Vietnam. When I travel the country and talk to people in the anti-war movement, many of them say: "If there were only a draft, people would get off of their butts and protest the war like we (they) did during Vietnam."

    I don't believe in giving people an "out" by using the draft excuse. By 1968, 30,000 of our troops had been needlessly slain and countless numbers of unfortunate "collateral-damage" Vietnamese citizens had also been brutally slaughtered. College students who had their deferments were shutting down administrative offices to protest their schools' defense research and collaboration with the war profiteers. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy had already been assassinated and there were over 50,000 people who converged on Chicago to protest the "National Death Party" rubber-stamping another murderous four years of Lyndon Johnson's war. The draft and the burning of draft cards, most notably by the Berrigan brothers, was just one of the issues. Graham Nash wasn't about to be drafted when he wrote the song "Chicago": people just cared. While students were protesting to make the world better and soldiers were being ordered to go to Vietnam, against their wills, George was AWOL from the Alabama Air National Guard. He must have gotten tired of playing pilot -or maybe his codpiece was on too tight.

    Today, just a little more than 3 years into the bloody conflict in Iraq, 2,579 of our soldiers have been killed, and the collateral civilian damage reaches into the hundreds of thousands, with over 6,000 Iraqis slain just in the past two blood-soaked months. Our brothers are being "bound and gagged" and "chained to chairs" in Guantanamo, which, contrary to what George said about wanting to shut it down, is being expanded and renovated so the sadists can carry out new and improved forms of torture. Israel continues to receive US support in slaughtering Lebanese civilians to consolidate its power in the region.

Politicians sit yourselves down
There's nothing for you here,
Won't you please come to Chicago for a ride.

Don't ask Jack to help you
'Cause he'll turn the other ear,
Won't you please come to Chicago or else join the other side.

    In Vietnam, the National Death Party were the Democrats; it was after all, a Democratic war, and the students who came out to protest were also mostly Democrats who wanted their party to do better. In the occupation of Iraq, the Death Party (and certainly the executive branch) seems to be the Republicans - but I would argue that, with a few notable exceptions in both parties, the Death Party is bi-partisan. War is good business for politicians - and the war profiteers are great at greasing every one's blood-stained palms with the mammon of other people's flesh and bones.

    Recently, the Democratic leadership did come out and ask George for a "redeployment" plan for our troops from Iraq. Yes, they should be redeployed, but to their homes. Redeployment is good for most of our soldiers, temporarily, but it just means increased aerial bombings on civilians and death squads. We also have to think of our brothers and sisters who are chained to the violence and death in Iraq. Additionally, call me cynical, but after months of begging our "opposition" party to do something about the bloodbath in Iraq, could they be acting now because they see a political advantage? Thousands of people have died while they waited for the right politically-expedient moment to finally do something about it.

Somehow people must be free
I hope the day comes soon,
Won't you please come to Camp Casey show your face.
From the bottom of the ocean to the mountains of the moon,
Won't you please come to Camp Casey no one else can take your place.

We can change the world
Rearrange the world
It's dying - if you believe in justice
Dying - and if you believe in freedom
Dying - let a man live his own life
Dying - rules and regulations
Who needs them, open up the door.

    Camp Casey in Crawford is more important than ever, now. Not only has this administration, with the eager approval of Congress, committed genocide on a massive scale, they are taking away our civil rights and our right to be heard and counted. We cannot allow these same leaders who accuse the peace movement of a political agenda to use our soldiers and the babies of Iraq as political game pieces in the folly of elections when there is so much overwhelming evidence that our elections have been compromised, and while election after election is stolen, no one does anything about it. It is up to us all, nobody else.

    As long as we allow our leaders to continue killing innocent people to punish criminals, then the killing will never stop. As long as we sit on our butts on our couches and keep buying gas from Exxon, while we curse the insane and out of control war profiteers, then the killing will never stop. As long as we give our quiet consent to torture by not loudly speaking out against the inhumanity, then the killing will never stop. As long as we are silent about the crimes against humanity that BushCo is committing, then the crimes will never stop and the killers will never be punished.

    Won't you please come to Camp Casey - no one else can take your place.

    If we end it now, we won't be singing the same tune in another 40 years!

    For more information on Camp Casey 2006, please go to: Gold Star Families for Peace.

    To donate go to Camp Casey Donations.

    To volunteer to help, go to Crawford Peace House.

    The lyrics to Chicago were used with Graham Nash's permission and the piece was inspired by Vietnam Veteran Ward Reilly, who sang the new version, "Won't You Please Come to Camp Casey at Camp Casey Easter."

    Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan, who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is heading to Camp Casey on August 6th to be in Crawford on her new property while George is there. She would like to invite everyone who cares about peace, love, and justice to join her.