Is anti-war effort flagging?
Karen Meredith speaks on Cindy Sheehan's departure, peace movement's next steps

by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice Staff

Nationally recognized Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan may have shocked many last week when she publicly
resigned from the anti-war scene, but it didn't surprise Mountain View's most well-known Gold Star mother,
Karen Meredith, who said Sheehan had been considering it for a year.

In a Voice interview, Meredith explained why she thought Sheehan stepped down, and her opinion of the anti-war
movement in general, which has been criticized recently for its lack of effectiveness.

"Unfortunately, the burden for the most credible message falls on the Gold Star families," Meredith said. "When
Cindy was anointed it put a lot more pressure on her. You have the media looking to you for a voice ... expecting
answers -- and sometimes there are no answers." (Gold Star mothers have lost a son or daughter in a U.S. war.)

For her part, Meredith still seems to have plenty of energy for the anti-war effort.

"Maybe it's time for non-violent civil disobedience," she said. "I don't have an arrest record now and I don't want to
have one, but what do we have to do to get people to understand that the war needs to end?"

She said people will probably ask if Sheehan's resignation signals the end for the anti-war movement. But in
Meredith's view, "It won't affect it at all."

May 30 was the third anniversary of the death of Meredith's son, Lt. Ken Ballard, who was killed by small arms
fire during a firefight in Najaf, Iraq in 2004. He had been scheduled to return home weeks before. "It wasn't
supposed to happen," Meredith said at the time.

Last month, a few days before May 30, Congress passed a hotly contested $120 billion bill that will pay for the
continuing war effort without setting a date for withdrawal from Iraq.

"That was a real slap in my face," Meredith said. "For me that was the anniversary of Ken's death. I was pleased
that many of the Bay Area legislators did vote 'no.'"

Meredith said that the local anti-war group, Mountain View Voices for Peace, is hoping local residents can talk to
relatives or friends in states where congressional representatives did vote for the bill, so as to put pressure
where it counts. While the problem may seem so huge that nothing can be done, Meredith said, what drives her
is the knowledge that for every day the war is shortened, an average of four fewer soldiers will die.

On a recent visit to her son's grave in Washington, D.C., Meredith said there were rows and rows of soldiers'
gravestones that hadn't been there a year ago. Families were grieving, and she saw small children who would
never meet their dads.

In the wake of the May 24 passage of the war spending bill, Meredith noticed only tepid protests from anti-war
activists on Memorial Day weekend, causing some people to wonder why today's protests are so quiet
compared to the Vietnam era.

Meredith said she has frequently pondered that question.

"I used to think it was the [lack of a] draft. Now I don't know what the answer is," she said. "Recently I've been kind
of upset with the younger generation. It's their peers that are being killed and they will inherit this mess. It's not
going to go away. I don't understand why there is not more outrage."

One theory blames modern communication such as e-mail, which results in fewer people gathering physically
on street corners or coffeehouses.

"Some days you just have to look at people in the eyes," Meredith said.

In a recent meeting with a congressional staff member, Meredith said, she put a picture of her son's headstone
on the table and asked, "Has your boss been to Section 60? I suggest they do that before they make the next
decision on Iraq."

"You can't send that message in a text message," she said.

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Is anti-war effort flagging?