Tour Update From Cindy

After spending the weekend with my family, and watching with amazement and horror the devastation of hurricane Katrina, I am preparing to rejoin the Bring Them Home Now bus tour and hope you’ll come out to support the tour when it passes through your community.

The news for the past week has centered on New Orleans - and rightly so - but we can't forget that the war and devastation in Iraq continues even as we face this tragedy here at home. In just the last week, 12 US troops were killed in Iraq, and countless Iraqi civilians. And in so many ways, the devastation of the hurricane and the disgraceful federal emergency response are intimately linked with Iraq -- the money that went to Iraq instead of to repair the levee; the national guard troops from Louisiana and Mississippi who are in Iraq instead of helping here at home; the botched relief operation that led to so many deaths.

We need to hold the Bush administration accountable for both of these failures. George Bush’s claim that he is making the world a safer place by his misguided and dangerous policies in Iraq have been exposed to be false and we need to continually emphasize and bring into sharp focus his lack of leadership.

The Bring Them Home Now bus tour has been making these connections for people in every city they travel to. Just yesterday, they were in Montgomery, Alabama; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They have also been doing their part to help the hurricane survivors --the "White Rose" bus of Veterans For Peace Chapter 116 of Mendocino County left the tour last Thursday to bring direct relief to the community of Covington, Louisiana. They set up Camp Casey Covington and have been providing food and medical assistance. To find out how you can support their efforts, see www.bringthemhomenowtour.org, or contact Gordon Soderberg atgordonsoderberg@mac.com.

I look forward to rejoining the bus tour tomorrow in Chicago and this weekend in Atlanta, and hope to see you there! Please check www.bringthemhomenowtour.org to find out if the tour is coming to your community.

And whether or not there is a stop in your city or town, PLEASE keep the pressure on your Senators and Representatives to end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home now. Join our "Meet with the Mothers" campaign by making an appointment to meet with your Senator or Representative before the big anti-war march on Sept. 24. Get them to answer the simple questions we were asking of President Bush at Crawford:

• President Bush has said that brave Americans like my son Casey have died for a "noble cause". "What is that "noble cause "?
• How many more lives are we as a country willing to sacrifice in Iraq?
• How many are you personally willing to sacrifice?
• What are you specifically doing to bring our sons and daughters home from this needless war?

To find out how to organize a local Congressional visit, see www.meetwiththemothers.org.

Thanks for all your love and support,
Cindy

P.S. Check out One Million Reasons and give YOUR REASON to end the war now! Your reason will be delivered to the White House on September 26th at the end of our mass mobilization in Washington D.C.