Mothers + Matriotism - Cindy Sheehan

We saw Cindy Sheehan at the Sacred Activism conference Friday night and she spoke about "Matriotism" the opposite of patriotism. She is a very persuasive speaker, casual and funny in delivery but really sharp and biting. She heavily criticized the democrats for being wimps about the war, especially hillary clinton.

Matriotism balances out the militarism of patriotism. Matriotism is a "commitment to the truth and to celebrate the dignity of all life."

"A Matriot loves his/her country but does not buy into the exploitive phrase of 'My country right or wrong' ... A Matriot knows that her country can do a lot of things right, especially when the government is not involved ... However, a Matriot also knows that when her country is wrong, it can be responsible for murdering thouands upon thousands of innocent and unsuspecting humans. A true Matriot would never drop an atomic bomb or bombs filled with white phosphorous, carpet bomb cities and villages, or control drones from thousands of miles away to kill innocent men, women and children."

"A matriot would never send her child or another mother's child to fight nonsense wars ... [while] Patriots hide behind the flag and eagerly send young people to die to fill their own pocketbooks."

"I know one thing from the bottom of my heart. My son, Casey, who was an Eagle Scout and a true American patriot, was not served well by his idea of patriotism. I will never forgive myself for not trying to counteract more the false patriotism he was raised on, with a true sense of Matriotism."

"I also know that the women of the world who don't have a voice, such as the mothers of Iraq who are struggling just to survive in their needlessly destroyed country, are counting on us women who do have voices to use them to end George Bush's manifestly idiotic doctrine of preemptive wars of aggression based on the justification that "I think that country might be dangerous to me and my pals."

War will end forever when we matriots stand up and say: "No, I am not giving my child to the fake patriotism of the war machine which chews up my flesh and blood to spit out obscene profits."