Last night a few local activists got together with Cindy Sheehan to raise a few to toast Ray McGovern's successful cardiac procedure.
We had that opportunity because Cindy Sheehan is doing a tour, promoting her new E-book, Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution. More info about the book and the tour is below.
The locale was the home of Vietnam vet against the war, Bill Perry, one of the local progressive heroes in the Philly area. Though, truth to be told, Bill is not just local. It's amazing how he gets around to Washington D.C., Crawford Texas and so many places in between, always with massive signs or street theater props like crosses or shoes representing those lost lives in wars started based on lies.
We talked about the book, about her radio show, her life. The concept of the Hero's Journey came up. Joseph Campbell described the universal myth in his book, Hero with a Thousand faces, in which the potential hero starts out in the ordinary world and gets a "call to adventure." Sometimes the call is rejected. Cindy's call came when her son Casey was killed in Iraq. But think of all the thousands of parents whose children are killed who refused to accept the call to speak out against a wrong war built upon lies.
In the hero's journey, the budding hero must cross the threshold to begin the heroic journey. But there are threshold guardians who block the threshold and intimidate the potential hero. I asked Cindy who her mentor were. "It's been a lonely journey," she replied, but then added that her readings of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Chalmers Johnson, John Perkins and Naomi Klein served as mentors on her journey.
When she crossed her heroic threshold, she quickly built alliances and started doing things to fight her good fight, Creating Gold Star Families for Peace, and Camp Casey, outside the home of war criminal George W. Bush. She described how a few days ago, she'd been to Bush's new home in Dallas, or as close as she was able to get to it-- a few blocks from the entrance to the gated community-- "about as close as we were able to get to him in Crawford," she described.
This summer's book tour, which will run in phases, from the beginning of June, into August, will visit 40 cities. This weekend, she'll make eight to ten stops in the Philly area.
CINDY in Philly & South Jersey, 8 Venues, 4 Days
Saturday, June 20
MAIN LINE Noon-2 pm Saturday
Penn Wynne Presbyterian Church, 130 Haverford Rd, WynnewoodCenter City Philadelphia 3:00-5:00 Saturday
Moonstone Art Center, 110A South 13th Street, 2nd floorCherry Hill, NJ 7:30-9:00pm Saturday
UU Church, 401 N Kings Highway, Cherry HillSunday, June 21
Princeton, NJ 2:00-4:00 pm Sunday
Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 50 Cherry Hill Rd, PrincetonNorth East Phila-Bucks County 6:30pm Sunday
St Lukes United Church of Christ, 11080 Knights Rd, NE PhilaMonday, June 22
Phila Community College (WaterMark Hall) 2:00-4:00pm
WaterMark Tower, 2 Franklin Town Blvd (between Vine & Callowhill, @17th)
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