"Vigil"

Many years ago, my new age wife organized our family, (two kids and a dog) to attend a late night "vigil" in Malibu to await "the harmonic convergence" at sunrise. There we were, along with hundreds of people, sitting and watching the sun come up on this purportedly special day.

After the sunrise, there was a spontaneous gathering of all of the people who silently formed a huge circle while holding hands, and no one said a word. Cynic that I am, I must say that it was beautiful until a woman stepped into the middle of the circle and began to "organize" the moment:

"Those of you with guitars go over there, and if you have a drum stay in the middle, etc." As soon as she did this, the transient magic of the celebration dissolved, and all of the people drifted away.

Events like this can't be "organized" or "designed", yet people have a need to insert themselves and try to create their own agenda in place of the spontaneity that was to occur.

I received an email from moveon.org, suggesting that I participate in a "vigil" for Cindy Sheehan. Moveon is like the woman in Malibu. Things are going so well that they want to "fix" it.

Cindy Sheehan is a valiant and noble woman, and the "quality" of her position is astounding. The media has and will follow her and report on her indefinitely. All organizations wishing to support her should do so by staying out of it.

Cindy has done what moveon is incapable of doing, which is to shine a media light on her son's death and the futility of the war in Iraq. She is a grieving Mom with a question for the President, a question that he is unwilling and unable to answer.

I would hope that Cindy stays as far from "organized" support such as moveon as possible. She is doing just fine and all of the people who want to help her should just let her handle things herself. Support her? Of course you should. But do it as an individual American. If I was a right of center Republican, as soon as I saw that moveon was involved with Cindy, my hostility to the group could override my support for this woman.

Moveon speaks to the "choir" and America needs more then that.

Norman Horowitz

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