Zombie

by Cindy Sheehan

Another head hangs lowly,Child is slowly taken.

And the violence caused such silence,

Who are we mistaken?

But you see, it’s not me, it’s not my family.

In your head, in your head they are fighting,

With their tanks and their bombs,

And their bombs and their guns.

In your head, in your head, they are crying…

In your head, in your head,

Zombie, zombie, zombie,

Hey, hey, hey. What’s in your head,

In your head,

Zombie, zombie, zombie?

Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, dou, dou, dou, dou, dou…

Another mother’s breakin’,

Heart is taking over.

When the vi’lence causes silence,

We must be mistaken.

It’s the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.

In your head, in your head they’re still fighting,

With their tanks and their bombs,

And their bombs and their guns.

In your head, in your head, they are dying…

In your head, in your head,

Zombie, zombie, zombie,

Hey, hey, hey. What’s in your head,

In your head,

Zombie, zombie, zombie?

Hey, hey, hey, hey, oh, oh, oh,

Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, oh, ya, ya-a…

-The Cranberries

On the way home from Los Angeles yesterday, my daughter Carly, and I stopped in a store on the Grapevine to purchase some CDs for the longish drive (6 hours). One of the CDs we bought was a greatest hits album by The Cranberries.

It’s not me, it’s not my family. One of the songs is the above song, Zombie. The Cranberries were an Irish group that took on social issues like violence and drug addiction: serious problems in all societies, but especially their society in the 1990s. We were listening to the CD and after Zombie I looked at Carly and she was wiping tears off of her face. She said: “How can you listen to that song? You listened to it the day Casey was killed while you were cleaning the house.”

“It sure has deeper meaning to us now, doesn’t it?” I quietly replied as I started weeping.

Another mother’s breakin’ heart is takin’ over. I have been watching CNN this morning and I have learned more about the horrible family tragedy in Ohio and seen pictures of the flowers and cards left at the slain young pregnant woman’s home. I am learning of another tragedy in Utah where a prison inmate killed a police officer. There are fires in California. One news item that hasn’t appeared thus far is the 83 soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis who have been killed so far in Iraq in June because of George’s bloody surge. No one has mentioned the 20 American mothers who still don’t know their child is dead for lies. It seems that we news consumers can feel better about ourselves mourning a beautiful mother and her unborn baby killed by a callous murderer in front of their two year old son, then mourning thousands of people killed by the callous murderers in Washington, DC who care more about their corporate puppeteers than the lives they have destroyed.

It’s the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen: I was recently in Dublin and statues are erected to the leaders of the Easter Week Rebellion of 1916 when Irish Patriots rose up against a fateful British decision to forcibly conscript the Irish for the “Great War” effort. After the uprising the British Empire executed 16 Irish Patriots. However, I have a slight correction: it’s the same old theme since civilizations were formed. Imperial powers oppress, kill, demonize and marginalize people who dare to be in the way of their empires. In the 21^st century you would think that “civilized” countries would be finished with killing people for profit, but sadly, it seems that we have learned and will learn nothing from all of the death and destruction caused by callous murderers who put on the cloaks of “respectability” of their elective offices and can serially slaughter in the name of the people of their states. How and why can these immoral wars continue? Because we are:

Zombie, Zombie, Zombie: One of the definitions of a zombie is a person whose behavior or responses are “wooden, listless, or seemingly rote; automaton” (dictionary.com). As Carly and I were wiping our eyes and blowing our noses yesterday, enormous gas guzzling behemoths were whizzing by us on I-5 rushing from point A to point B. Some had “Support the Troops” magnets and some had “W” stickers. I wonder if any of them reflect (for even a second) on what support for W and his pre-meditated, pre-emptive act of aggression has cost some people and if anyone they whizzed by yesterday (in smaller, more modest cars) were weeping because of their robotic allegiance to a dangerous imbecile. Even more disastrously, the immense majority of our brothers and sisters who disapprove of BushCo and its foreign policy (”if you’re not with us, you’re against us”), are apathetic consumer-ing automatons that allow the carnage to continue. And the violence caused such silence.

Our lives have been fundamentally altered forever. We never know when the grief will strike or from what direction it will come. The only thing we can be assured of is that it will always be there.

On I-5 yesterday it came from Zombie.

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was KIA in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is a co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and the author of two books: Not One More Mother’s Child and Dear President Bush.