Cindy Sheehan
I'm was a little behind in the Cindy Sheehan story because of my vacation, but now that I've read up on it I've got a few thoughts. The first is that clearly August is a slow news month. People have been protesting the war since before it began. Only a slow news month explains her sudden stardom or maybe we've just reached the tipping point where a majority of America is ready to hear the other side, I don't know.Thanks to God's goodness, I've never lost anyone in my immediate family so I don't know how I'd grieve. Yet, Cindy is clearly grieving. She wants to meet with the President, but he won't have any answers for her and it won't bring her son back. President Bush could be more compassionate about her situation, but even if he meets with her nothing satisfactory could possibly come of it.
Most importatnly, I guess I'm disappointed with how this tragedy has become a national political circus. Cindy made the same point today. Because the anti-war crowd has adopted Cindy as one of their own, she has all kinds of troops rallying behind her. She is now the ANTI-WAR mother who lost a son. Moveon.org and Michael Moore have rallied around her. DailyKos and other liberal websites have adopted her as their poster girl without a lot of concern about her family or her grieving process.
This, of course, means that the Right and Republicans can't let the grieving woman alone. They have to roll out their PRO-WAR mothers who have lost a son. This overlooks the most important part...mothers who have had to bury their sons.
When/if that didn't work, they sicked their attacks dogs on her. Cindy Sheehan has been smeared like many others before her that challenged President Bush. Some commentators have even rejoiced that her family is imploding and Mr. Sheehan is filing for divorce.
All this media circus doesn't mean that Cindy Sheehan doesn't have a fine point...“What was the noble cause that [my son] died for?”
posted by Expat Teacher @ 9:05 AM
