A flame of hope

I won't be at the closest candlelight vigil for Cindy Sheehan tonight. For one thing I don't like crowds and it's too far into unfamiliar terrority to drive alone at night. But I'm holding my own private ceremony.

I'll be lighting one for her and leaving it on my front porch. Probably no one in my neighborhood will even notice, except for the little wild creatures that lurk around my yard, but I feel certain its light will reach to Crawford.

That, I think, is the best way to support Cindy tonight and every night as long as her vigil lasts. USA Today reports that she is becoming concerned about her private action being co-opted into a huge public event.

“The media focused more on me and not the message,” she says. “I'm not the only one that wants answers.”

Indeed. She asks for me as well and for thousands of supporters who can't be in Crawford. But maybe it is time for the supporters to quiet down and step back. Perhaps only the families of the fallen should now go to the ranch and hold vigil with Cindy in hopes of meeting with Bush. There's well over 1,500 families who didn't get their 20 minutes to cry with The President. They should be there.

For the rest of us, it seems more fitting to the spirit of the vigil if we bring the message to our own communities in the same gentle manner that Cindy employed at the beginning of her quest for answers. I urge every reader who is moved by Cindy's plea to light a candle tonight, and keep it burning, in hope that the truth will be revealed through a mother's faith.