The accidental activist

A mom from Flint, Mich., tries to 'wake America up.'

	[AP file photo]
	Lila Lipscomb, second from left, and husband Howard pray with son Howard Lipscomb Jr. at a service for another of Lila's sons, Michael Pedersen (photo right), who died in Iraq. An appearance in Fahrenheit 9/11 has made Lila Lipscomb a powerful voice in the war debate.
	[Lions Gate Entertainment]
	Lila Lipscomb, in her kitchen with the filmmaker she says transformed her life: "Because of Michael Moore having courage, he's allowed me to have a little bit of courage." She now is a sought-after speaker who connects with audiences as Everymom.

MILWAUKEE - The crowd at the peace rally began to chant moments after she arrived.

"Lila! Lila! Lila! We love you Lila!"

Lila Lipscomb picked up an American flag and joined the activists in a march to a nearby park, where someone led the crowd in a cheer.

"Give me a B! ... Give me a U! ... Give me an S! ... Give me an H! ... What's that spell?! LIAR!"

Lipscomb told the crowd that her son, Sgt. Michael Pedersen, was killed in Iraq and that God had called her to "wake America up."

Here she was - a mom from Flint, Mich., the product of a military family, always taught to obey authority - shouting into a bullhorn about her anger at the president of the United States:

"We will take our country back!"

Practically overnight, Lipscomb has become a national celebrity and a powerful voice in the debate about the war.

Her appearance in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 left many moviegoers in tears. In one powerful scene, she reads a letter her son wrote home a few weeks before he was killed. The film also shows her visiting a park across from the White House. She doubles over and sobs, "I need my son!"

The Los Angeles Times said she provides the movie's "emotional center." The New York Times said she gives the film "an eloquence that its most determined critics will find hard to dismiss. Mr. Bush is under no obligation to answer Mr. Moore's charges, but he will have to answer to Mrs. Lipscomb."

From a letter Lipscomb wrote her son March 24, 2003. It arrived after he was killed:

Hi Baby -

I sometimes look at what I write - "Hi Baby" - and I think, his name is Mike, why then do I say "Hi Baby"?

Because always you are my son, my Baby. When you get to be 70 you will still be Baby to me . . .

I see on the news a need for eye drops and HandiWipes. I am putting a box together for you and looking at sending it next week - not sure when you will get it - but at least it will reach you where ever you are in all that desert . . .

I love you and continue to pray for your protection. I know many angels of your ancestors are with you, my son.

God Bless You,

Mom

Lipscomb is a compact woman with light brown hair, manicured nails and a soft voice. She is deeply religious and flies an American flag in front of her house every day. An executive assistant at a career center in Flint, Mich., she greets people with hugs instead of handshakes. Friends and coworkers call her Sunny.

She is 50, born in California, one of eight children. Her father left home when she was 6 months old. She knows little about him except that he served in the Army.

Growing up in the 1960s, it seemed all the men in her family had been in the military - her uncles, cousins and her three older brothers.

"We were poor," she said during an interview in her office in Flint last week. "We didn't have money to send people to college to get out of the draft."

Her mother worked as a waiter, maid and short-order cook; she was active in the American Legion Women's Auxiliary.

Surrounded by military people for so much of her life, Lipscomb always required her children say, "Yes, sir" and "Yes, ma'am." She directs her staff to answer the telephone "as if the president of the United States might be calling." Her return-address labels feature a photograph of the White House.

In addition to Pedersen, she has three children, a stepdaughter and seven grandchildren. She has been married to Howard Lipscomb, who goes by the nickname Pops, for 26 years. He drives a forklift at a tool and die company.

Pedersen, who was born in Lipscomb's first marriage, was a quiet boy who loved basketball. After graduating high school in 1996, he worked as a fry cook at Long John Silver's. Needing a better job to provide for his newborn daughter, he joined the Army.

"That day I was sooo proud of him," Lipscomb recalled. "He had made his first manly decision."

He served seven years, mostly as a helicopter mechanic and crew chief; he was planning to re-enlist for another seven when he was sent to Iraq.

Although neither Pedersen nor his mother supported the war, and although he told her "I'm really scared this time," there was no doubt he would go. He was a soldier; duty called.

His first letter home made his mother cry. It included his will, detailing his life insurance, how he had put his belongings in a storage unit in Savannah, Ga., and what she should do with his money.

She sent him care packages of Rice Krispies Treats, beef jerky, Pepsi, Bazooka bubble gum and Stephen King novels. She included a small Bible "so he would have the Word in his pocket."

He wrote his next letter about three weeks before he was killed.

Hey Momma,

Well sorry I haven't been able to call. They took the phone seven days ago . . . We are out here in the middle of the desert, and they can't even dial the numbers we need.

. . . How is everyone? I am doing fine. We are just out here in the sand and windstorms waiting. What in the world is wrong with George (trying to be like his dad) Bush? He got us out here for nothing whatsoever. I am so furious right now, Momma. I really hope they don't re-elect that fool . . .

I really miss you guys. Thanks for the Bible and books and candy . . . I love and miss all you guys.

Love,

Mike

Lipscomb voted for Bill Clinton and Al Gore. A conservative Democrat, she doesn't agree with her party's support of abortion rights and its liberal positions on other social issues, but she likes the party's compassion.

"Republicans are very self-centered," she said. "Democrats believe in helping everybody."

Her family benefited from that compassion. She and Howard lived in public housing when they first moved to Flint, and they took advantage of a government program that helped them buy their first home.

She has not been politically active until now because she put her energy into her job, her children and her church. Fahrenheit 9/11 transformed her into an instant force in the election-year debate.

She is angry with Bush not because he went to war, but because she believes he lied. He justified the war with claims about weapons of mass destruction and links with al-Qaida, claims that have been discredited. She said Bush "has no integrity."

From a letter Lipscomb wrote her son March 30, 2003. On the envelope, she drew a smiley face clinging to the flap and wrote, "Hang on and hang in!" It arrived after he was killed.

Hi Baby -

Spent the day with the girls yesterday, Lauri, Crissa and Michelle. Guess I have to plan a day with just the guys when you get home - what a great day that will be!!

We keep hoping to see a glance of you. Do you have CNN or any camera crew by you? Would help to know a little better if there was a specific channel we could watch.

I have to agree 100% with you on our President ... I pray continuous for your protection and peace.

God Bless You Baby,

Mom

Dad sends his love

A few years back, Lipscomb saw an advertisement for the movie Black Hawk Down and found herself crying for no apparent reason. Now she believes it was a premonition.

Flipping channels on April 2, 2003, she had stopped on MSNBC. "Black Hawk down in South-Central Iraq," she heard. That's where her son was supposed to be.

She worried that he was on board. The next day, someone from the Army came to her home for the visit that military families dread.

She knows little about how her son died. The first reports said the helicopter crashed in a firefight. Subsequent reports said the crash was "nonhostile." Details have been sketchy, possibly because his Black Hawk sometimes carried soldiers on secret missions.

Moore, the filmmaker, found Lipscomb from articles profiling families of war victims in Newsweek and the New York Times. He filmed her at work and at home.

Her appearance in the movie has been a turning point in her life, she said, providing her the courage to speak out against the war. Moore did not pay her, but after she volunteered to promote the film, he paid her travel expenses to the premiere and to conduct interviews. "I believe every American should see this movie," she said.

On Friday, a Japanese TV crew showed up unannounced at her front door in Flint. The next day in Milwaukee, a cab driver recognized her: "Oh my God! You're the one from the movie - Lila!"

She will make more speeches in the coming months. She has been so critical of the Bush administration that she wouldn't be surprised if her house is bugged. When she gets dressed, she sometimes acts as if they are watching and listening, giving a play-by-play as she dons her clothing.

"Look guys," she says. "I'm putting on my bra."

The mom from Flint has been transformed into a sought-after speaker who connects with audiences. She is Everymom.

After the rally in the park, she gave a speech to several hundred people at a peace conference at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. Lipscomb told the conference that she is no different from the nearly 900 other mothers whose children have been killed in the war. She said the mothers are "asking the same question: Why?"

Her family's poverty forced her son into the Army, she said, because "Pops and I didn't have enough money to send him to school."

Standing at a podium draped with a peace banner, she seemed out of place. She is no peacenik; she supports the military and believes it offers a promising career for young people. Still, the peace activists gave her two standing ovations and stood in line to get her autograph and give her hugs.

In her speeches and interviews, she tries to fulfill her son's wish that the "fool" not be re-elected. She criticizes Bush and says he should be voted out of office, but she has not endorsed John Kerry. She said Kerry appears to have integrity, but she wants to learn more about him.

The mother who always preached about the importance of respecting authority now questions it.

"What I've come to understand is that there is a reason that God put it on my son to write those words to me," she said.

"To be the mother of the soldier - the career soldier - that wrote those words that are possibly going to wake America up is an incredible opportunity. It is a gift that I shall not take in vain."

- Times researchers Kitty Bennett and Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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