Cindy Sheehan is on the ballot!

cindy-sheehan-makes-sf-ballot-080808-300x238, Cindy Sheehan is on the ballot!, Local News & Views by Cindy Sheehan for Congress

On behalf of the people of San Francisco and all who dream of a better tomorrow, we are proud to announce that Cindy Sheehan is officially on the ballot as a candidate for California’s 8th Congressional District Representative to the U.S. House. Cindy is only the 6th Independent candidate ever to be listed on a California election ballot.

There has been an overwhelming and unprecedented show of support among San Francisco voters for the Sheehan campaign’s progressive agenda. Over the past few months, hundreds of volunteers and supporters rallied around getting their voices heard in November’s election. After collecting roughly 20,000 signatures, with at least 10,198 qualifying, the Sheehan campaign has proven its viability with flying colors.

Cindy’s access to November’s ballot is evidence of growing discontent among San Francisco voters with the U.S. Congress and its inability to end the war, hold the Bush administration accountable for unconstitutional acts, stimulate the economy, reform healthcare, reconsider trade agreements that harm American workers and the environment and cut ties to corporate lobbyists.

The Sheehan campaign is offering a new vision for San Francisco and the nation. Cindy believes in peace, accountability, freedom and well being for all. She believes that war should be a last resort for defense and not the handy policy tool that it is currently being used as. She believes that healthcare is a basic right in a democratic society and should not be based on ability to pay.

Cindy knows that it is essential to keep our representatives and leaders accountable to our Constitution and to democratic practices. She knows that we must retool our economy to be in harmony with the environment and its sustainability. Most importantly, Cindy understands that Americans are striving for a new type of politics that has meaning, puts people before profits and that challenges the divisive two party system.

After overcoming its first obstacle by achieving ballot access, the Sheehan campaign is in full gear and ready to achieve victory in November. Over the next few months, the campaign will be working hard to spread its message of peace, accountability and hope.

Thank you to all who have shown their support by volunteering, donating, advocating and being the change that we wish to see. Although Cindy is on the ballot, the most challenging part of the campaign is around the corner. We must spread our message more widely, recruit more volunteers, raise more funds and secure more votes.

As a grassroots campaign going up against a well oiled machine, we are fighting an uphill battle. Regardless, we have hope. We have hope because we understand the power of people to change society. The civil rights movement and women’s liberation movement within the United States is evidence that if we come together in union, regardless of the odds against us, we can overcome all obstacles.

The Sheehan campaign’s message to you today is that we can overcome! We can overcome fear. We can overcome the military industrial complex. We can overcome corporate domination of our economy. We can overcome environmental degradation. Let us create a society grounded in peace, love and humanity.

Onwards to victory! Let us elect Cindy Sheehan to the House of Representatives!

Greetings from Cindy Sheehan to youth rally in Bolivia

Dear young people of Bolivia:

I am very sorry that I could not make it to your July 29 Youth Rally in La Paz in Defense of Bolivia’s Youth and Sovereignty. My campaign for Congress in San Francisco, California, is doing better than we expected and I had to stay in San Francisco to fill out some important paper work to be able to go forward at this critical moment to defeat the corporate-capitalist Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

As you may know, I am running as an independent for the U.S. Congress against Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, because I believe our country needs someone in the Congress willing to speak out consistently against the policies of endless war and corporate greed promoted by both the Democrats and Republicans. Our country needs someone willing to use this independent Congressional seat to help build a powerful and independent movement for social change – much like you and your elected officials are doing in Bolivia today.

Me and my campaign are anti-war, anti-militarism, anti-racism, anti-imperialism, pro-peace, pro-worker, pro-humanity and pro-youth.

I would like to say a few words about your struggle in defense of the Evo Morales government against any and all the attempts by the U.S. government, the U.S. energy corporations and the rightwing oligarchies of the “Half Moon” departments to divide your country:

I wholeheartedly support your struggle to prevent them from taking the rich oil- and gas-producing regions of Bolivia out of the control of the national government in the name of “autonomy.” This would represent a lethal blow to the unity and sovereignty of Bolivia.

U.S. corporate control over oil is what prompted the war in Iraq that killed my son Casey and that killed more than 4,000 other U.S. soldiers and up to 1 million Iraqis, many of them youth like yourselves. U.S. corporate control over oil is what is driving the effort to privatize the oil resources in Mexico and to try to remove the Chavez government from power in Venezuela.

I join you in support for the Evo government in the referendum of Aug. 11 – so that the process of transformation begun with his election can continue, so that the “Agenda of October,” as you call it, can develop and prosper, so that the Bolivian people can be masters of their own destiny, owning their own resources, implementing a genuine land distribution for all the poor peasants who need land, recognizing the indigenous peoples’ rights and culture within the framework of a united Bolivia, and expanding the nationalized enterprises under the control of the people of Bolivia and their organizations.

I am supporting and working with the candidacy of my sister Cynthia McKinney who is running for president in America on behalf of the Power to the People campaign. She has a wonderful running mate who is Latina, and I promise you that theirs is a team worth supporting and working for, because they stand for the same thing we do.

Both Cynthia McKinney and I participated earlier this year in the Second Continental Conference Against the Free Trade Agreements and Privatizations, which was held in Mexico City, following in the footsteps of the First Continental Conference that took place in La Paz in August 2005.

Both Sister McKinney and I oppose the “free trade” agreements that are devastating the entire Western Hemisphere. We oppose U.S. intervention in the entire region, such as the U.S.-Colombian incursion into Ecuador in the name of the “fight against terrorism.” We support the rights of the peoples of the continent to self-determination, free from all U.S. government interference in their internal affairs.

I want to thank and honor the hard work of Monica from Revolutionary Youth for putting this rally together and I hope that my work will allow me to be there soon to meet with all of you and personally thank you.

I salute your work in Bolivia. You, the youth, are the future of our hemisphere and I hope that the young people of my country can join with you and me to make a better world not only possible, but probable.

Again, I am deeply sorry I could not make it, but deeply honored and pleased by your work in the struggle for everything that is good.

In solidarity and love,

Cindy