Lincoln County will welcome Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan to Newport on Monday, August 22, accompanied by Oregon's Squadron 13 Veterans for  Justice with their Peace and Justice  bus. Their Newport visit is part of a “Revolutionary Communities Road Trip,” touring the west coast with stops through Oregon and California to showcase and film community activism at the grassroots level. 

Come for the “Welcoming Community” potluck dinner at 6 p.m., in the downstairs meeting room of Atonement Lutheran Church, 2315 N. Coast Highway in Newport (just north of the PUD building). The program will follow at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

The Immigration Information Response Team is hosting the Revolutionary Communities stop here, co-sponsored by Interfaith Community Peace and Justice, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and the Oceana Family Literacy Center from Lincoln City. The event will feature brief presentations by local activist groups, accompanied by films of Peace Villages in Newport and Lincoln City and drumming by Oceana students.

Sheehan, the mother of Casey Sheehan, a soldier killed in the war on Iraq, is a dedicated anti-war advocate who camped out for months for two consecutive years near the vacation “ranch” of former President G.W. Bush in Texas, seeking his answer as to why her son had died. The answer never came. In 2008 Sheehan ran for the US Congress against Nancy Pelosi. Her message for us about Recreating Revolutionary Communities will wrap up the presentations. 

For more information, visit http://revcoms.wordpress.com/, or call 541 563 3615.