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"Writing this book is the second most difficult thing I have ever done, next to burying Casey."
On April 4, 2004, Cindy Sheehan learned that Casey, the eldest of her four children, had been killed in Iraq, where he was serving in the United States Army. After struggling through crippling grief for three weeks, she came to an epiphany: "I will spend my life trying to make Casey's sacrifice count for peace and love, not killing and hate."
Peace Mom is the heartfelt and profoundly moving story of Cindy's journey to activism. She recounts the dark days following Casey's death, when it seemed her life would never have meaning again. She tells of her June 2004 meeting with President Bush, and how that encounter ultimately set her on a path that would take her to hearings in the Capitol, test old friendships and family ties, and culminate outside Crawford, Texas, in a monthlong peace action that would draw thousands of supporters and worldwide attention.
Here are the stories Cindy has never shared before about her own experiences at the center of a media firestorm, the life-altering events that were sparked by her simple act of defiance one hot August day in Texas. Going behind the headlines and sound bites, Cindy writes candidly about the toll her activism has taken on her own life and her family, as well the unforeseen rewards her quest for peace has brought. Through days of rage, despair, laughter, and tears, Cindy has found ways to celebrate the life of her son Casey and give meaning to his death. Her story points the way to a future of peace and justice for the world and for our children.
Heartrending and powerful, Peace Mom is at once an honest account of one woman's triumph over loss and a clarion call to all those who wonder if they can make a difference.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Foreword
I read a poem about a tombstone once. the poet described how the engraved birth date and death date tell about only two brief moments in time of the departed one's history.
According to the poet, the living happens in the dash between the dates.
This book is the story of Casey Austin Sheehan.
May 29, 1979-April 4, 2004.
This book is about Casey's dash. About his short but meaningful life and how it has inspired his mom to a lifelong quest for peace and justice, and how Casey's dash has inspired thousands of people to give meaning and fulfillment to their dashes.
This is also a story about my dash.
Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan
July 10, 1957-TBD
This book is the heartbreaking story of how my son Casey inspired me to give my dash meaning and to make him as proud of my life as I always was of his.
Casey started screaming the minute his head popped out of my birth canal at 1:01 a.m. on May 29, 1979. Looking back with hindsight, I know he didn't want to enter this "vale of tears," but he had to. He had a mission.
On May 29, 1979, I gave birth to my son. My darling boy. The old soul with the wise eyes that could penetrate my soul from the time those eyes opened.
I gave physical birth to Casey on that glorious day in May. On April 4, 2004, Casey died. He was killed in Iraq in an ambush by the al Sadr resistance fighters. He died going to rescue his buddies. He was shot in the back of the head while he was riding in the rear of a trailer in Sadr City, Baghdad.
I didn't know it then, but I know it now. When Casey died in that back alley of Baghdad, five days after he arrived "in country," he gave spiritual birth to his real mom. The real mom who was hiding behind her ignorance, faith, marriage, family, and comfort began to emerge on April 4.
As I lay in a crumpled heap screaming on the evening of April 4 after the merchants of death and doom came to my house to tell me my son was dead, something snapped. Something had to. No one can take that kind of physical and psychic pain without snapping.
The angels didn't take me that day. I now know as I was screaming "No, no, no! Not Casey, oh God, no!" over and over again, I made a choice and an agreement with the universe.
I had to decide something in my heart and soul. Would I stay here and fall into a depression of grief and regret? Would I voluntarily leave and join Casey through suicide? Or would I stay and fight? At that moment, my soul chose to stay and fight.
How else can I explain the source of strength and courage that has poured into me and through me beginning with the awful moment I learned that he had been prematurely taken from me and our family?
Casey's life was and has been a source of that courage and strength.
This book is a celebration of Casey's extraordinary life.
This book is also an odyssey of one mom's journey from a place of pure pain to one of pain that is also infused with joy and hope.
This book is a story of one mom's journey from being a "normal" mom to one who went to the seat of power and challenged the king and triumphed and who meets and is lauded by heads of state and also vilified and hated by other heads of state and much of the American media.
This book is a story of one mom's journey from believing that her son was a "war hero" to believing that her son died as a victim of the war machine.
This is a book of one mom's journey from ignorance of history (even though, ironically, she majored in history) to being an active participant in making history and having an effect on social change.
This is a book of one mom's journey from trusting her leaders even when they so brazenly take our country to bogus war, to one of pacifism and nonviolence at all costs.
I hope you enjoy my book because, above all, this is a book about my journey from being an apathetic consumer of physical comforts and the American way to being an activist who struggles against physical comforts and the American way for violence and the military-industrial complex.
This book is also the love story between Casey and me and our love for humankind and peace. How our lives became intertwined with some amazing and good people, but how we also became enmeshed in the dark world of some very bad people.
This is my story of how one person can, should, and must make a difference. This is the incredible story of how I went from being Mom to four to being the "Peace Mom" to thousands.
The journey is in the dash.
I hope Casey's story and my story inspire you to expand your dash and infuse it with meaning, laughter, dancing, hope, love, and, most of all, life.
Copyright © 2006 by Cindy Sheehan
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