No vacation for protester

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of Casey, a young soldier who was killed in Iraq last year, is spending the month of August in Crawford, Texas, vacation home of our president (“President passes protesting mother,” Aug 13.) He is on the 50th vacation of his presidency. She is not on vacation. She is working to get answers from our leaders – answers about the war.

It seems clear that the administration is hoping she will not be noticed by the people of the U.S. or the news media, and she will give up and go home. So far, they are wrong. The world is watching, and she is not going to be pacified by the same tired rhetoric that we have heard now, for years.

Our president is not a king. He is answerable to the people. Ms. Sheehan’s questions must be answered. If he is such a strong leader, what can he fear from this woman? How much longer will we tolerate this war? How many more excuses will we tolerate? How much longer will the people allow themselves to made fools of and how many more people – what is the magic number – have to die?

Patty G. Elliot
Spokane, WA
The Spokesman-Review