Cindy Sheehan -- whose tireless efforts to pursue meaning and justification for her son's death in Iraq made her the face of the peace movement -- stepped out of her active role in the anti-war movement on Memorial Day.

Cindy signed out of her campaign in a letter she posted in her blog at DailyKos.com. To prevent loss of this letter, I uploaded a .pdf version of it to our server. It can be found here.

This is a letter written by a woman who has been through hell and back. Cindy comes across broken and disillusioned; and she deserves our prayers and support.

I am not upset that Cindy is stepping down from her active role in the peace movement. People often burn out in justice work; even without having sacrificed so much. Cindy has given up everything to be a standard-bearer of peace and accountability. How many among the peace movement can really say that? Cindy has galvanized the timid and moved the hesitant. Now she deserves her rest.

The vitriol which Cindy had to put up with -- and which still gets slung her way -- is reprehensible. The peace movement we see today consists of coalitions representing diverse ranges of groups; not all of which are solely or even primarily motivated by the desire to promote peace. There are groups which pursue justice at a broader spectrum. Then you have groups which have their own particular causes, and which find the peace movement to be an unprecedented opportunity to attract attention to those respective causes. And, let's not forget the young anarchist, neo-hippie wanna-be groups who simply want an excuse for excitement and rebellion. Then there are groups of ordinary citizens who just want what Cindy wanted: either justify this war or end it.

Coalition work is always the hardest to do. You have to negotiate conflicting agendas and personalities -- not only of people, but of groups -- while sustaining a determined focus on the purpose of the coalition. Very often those coalitions break down. And people can become frustrated -- and, at times, embittered -- in the process of moving a coalition. I know community organizers who avoid coalitions like the plague.

In this case, I strongly suspect most of those from the so-called progressive community throwing the most vitriol at Cindy are those who had their own agendas and desires to attract attention to those agendas by attaching them to the peace movement. Cindy should let that be what it is and take time to recover.

I think the greatest contribution Cindy has made to the peace movement was to forcefully remind Catholics of our role in evaluating the merits of war and peace; and to promote justice. Prior to Cindy coming onto the scene, it was way too easy for those among the Falwell-isized circles of the American Catholic community to give lip service to the prudential judgment of our President and not take seriously our responsibility as American citizens to hold our elected government accountable. Cindy reminded us that the President's prudential judgment is accountable to the people -- and accountable to justice. (Cindy, by the way, is Catholic).

There are many sides to the debate around the Iraq War; some having more merit than others. I am obviously of the position that this war was illegitimate from day one; and that it needs to end sooner rather than later. I give Cindy my sincere thanks for being the standard-bearer in promoting peace.