VARepublicman at the Flaming Duck weighs in on the Cindy Sheehan sideshow. Others have commented on it:
Always On Watch
In the Middle of America
Gindy.blogspot.com
are just a few, and all have caused me to think about this whole situation.
First, let me preface my comments with this. Ms. Sheehan has a constitutional right to protest whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Make no mistake about where I stand on free speech, it must always be protected no matter how ludicrous the message or the ideology.
That said, I think it is deplorable how the left has taken a probably decent lady in a weak moment of grief, and exploited it for political purposes. I also believe it to be equally sad that she has allowed herself to be manipulated into this political, media circus.
It has been reported that her husband has filed for divorce and other family members have not supported her endeavor to exploit the death of her son. But if I were a family member, my question to her would be, "how would her son feel about it?". Would he be proud that his mother joined forces with those that give aid and comfort, to the very enemy that killed him and still try to kill his buddies? Would he want her to keep picking the scab of her wound, over and over again, so that it may never effectively heal? Or, would he want her to move on with her life, living it fully and completely with his father as she had planned, before his death?
Grieving is a dynamic process that must proceed in phases. Many people handle it differently, but some do not allow the stages to pass naturally. Cindy seems to be one of those individuals.
But there is one thing that both she and the leftists she has associated herself with fail to consider in their arguments. Her son was not drafted and forced to serve, he voluntarily enlisted. I am not sure when he enlisted, but my guess is, it was well after 9-11. And anyone that enlisted after that date of infamy, had to have a reasonable understanding that they could be sent to a hostile zone; and they assumed that risk the moment they raised their right hand.
I am not personally connected to her, but I would like to give a little advice to Cindy, as one parent to another. Go home, save your marriage, and keep the memory of your son alive in your heart and soul, not in the media. Grieve in a healthy way. Allow yourself to complete the healing process and do not allow those with a political agenda, to destroy your life for a moment of media exposure. Fifteen minutes pass quickly. Life is for a lifetime.
5 comments:
Well said.
I have been criticised on my blog for simply posting the story about her impending divorce. I made no real comment, only asked the question, "Is it worth giving up your family over political activism?" Without knowing the end of the story, it looks like Cindy has chosen her activity over her family.
Divorces do not occur suddenly. Instead, it takes many, many incidents before one decides that it is better to seperate than continue on in the marriage. My guess is that the poison that now divides this couple has been building for a long time and it may or may not be directly tied to her very political actions now.
Was the loss of her son the last straw? Is her son's death only made worse because it was in a war she never believed in? Does she feel that there is anything worth dieing for? Or could other factors, totally unrelated to the war be at fault?
I don't know. I only wish her well as she works through this time in her life.
Grieve is a motivation for political activism in this case. It is understandable. The problem is that terrorists use such emotion.
LA, I could not agree with you more. I wish Ms. Sheehan well, but I think that she is headed for a very unhealthy future.
Some of her statements are just too far over the top for me. Grief is one thing, and I understand grief, having already buried most of my family (No kids, but I'm the baby of the bunch by many years, so many are long gone now). The worst was my cousin, also an only, and we were so close. But I didn't go around blaming the beef industry because he choked on a piece of steak; he should not have been smashed and trying to chew without his dentures in.
Not the best analogy, I know. But it's the closest I can come to trying to understand Sheehan.
She's being used by those with another agenda, and one day, she may deeply regret her 15 minutes of fame. These lefties don't care about her. It's disgusting.
Well, now she has packed up her road show and gone home to tend to her mother, who just had a stroke. I hope that her mother's stroke wasn't brought on by Cindy Sheehan's recent mission in Crawford. Maybe I'm reaching here, but I'm just expressing how I see it.
You said it well, LA: "Grieve in a healthy way. Allow yourself to complete the healing process and do not allow those with a political agenda, to destroy your life for a moment of media exposure."
I like the following excerpt from a comment by Michael Graham: She’s suffered what, for me, would be an unimaginable, unbearable loss. The real news in the Cindy Sheehan story is that there aren’t 1800 more of her standing outside the gates in Crawford.
What I find incomprehensible is that 1800 other mothers and fathers somehow found the strength to bear their loss with dignity and respect for the legacy of their sons. That is a story worth commenting on.
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