Cindy Sheehan Hopes to Make a Peaceful Splash

The Boston Herald has reported that peacenik Cindy Sheehan is hopping on the Obama vacation bandwagon. The activist, who made headlines when she protested in Crawford, Texas, throughout former President George W. Bush’s month-long vacation there in 2005, arrived at the Vineyard three nights ago to share her anti-war message with Obama and the media.

Contacted by phone from a Boston hotel while she got ready for her journey to the island, Sheehan said it doesn’t matter who’s in the White House - she’s not going anywhere. “First of all, I oppose the policies of the U.S. government in the Middle East. I have since before my son was killed,” said Sheehan, who lost her son in the Iraq war in 2004. “I opposed it when Bush was president and I oppose it now when Obama’s president.”

Sheehan, who has never been to the Vineyard before, said she is disrupting her own vacation for the trip, which will involve press conferences, peace vigils, and sailing excursions on what she’s dubbed, “SS Camp Casey.” Sheehan recently wrapped up a four-month, 36-city book tour for her 100-page Myth America and had planned to take the whole month of August off. “But I decided that this would be a very good way to cut my vacation short,” she said. “To demonstrate to the world that there are still people in America who care about peace.”

Sheehan said she hopes her stay on the Vineyard will put the issue back in the spotlight. “No matter who’s president, we still have to keep our end of our democracy going,” she said. “Even though Bush is no longer in office, these policies are still continuing. In many areas, they’re escalating - the occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and now the horrible fightings in tribal regions. The killing of innocent people in the name of corporate welfare, or whatever this war is for, is certainly not about freedom or democracy or keeping us safe here at home.”

So what does the activist think about the president’s August vacation? “I think taking vacations is fine,” she said. “But what this country has to realize and what the Obamas have to realize is that while he’s taking vacation, devastation and heartache don’t stop. And also that so many people around the world and in this country can’t afford vacations, even if they have jobs.”

Sheehan said she wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a one-on-one with the president. “I never got the answer to my original question to George BushGeorge Bush,” she said. “What noble cause? And I’d like to ask Obama the same thing. You didn’t start these occupations, but what noble cause are you continuing them for?”