Wednesday , March 27 2024
Cindy Sheehan is once again alone in her grief.

Only In America

Cindy Sheehan had very little company at her book signing. A sparse few from the antiwar camp were in attendance; no one in support of the war showed up to protest.

This illustrates just how merciless, manipulative, backhanded and outrageous many Americans really are regardless of anything else they do or say. It wasn’t enough that antiwar protesters, feigning support, carried Sheehan along like a horrified and pregnant teen – only to drop her off at the first signs of labor. Now that she’s delivered in the form of a book that, among other things, chronicles the loss of the son she did bear, war supporters are rearing their ugly heads with a resounding “I told you so” from afar to include pictures, judgement, and spite. While searing the antiwar movement for using Sheehan to promote their agenda (something they most decidedly did, until they got tired, I guess), war supporters are now deliberately standing on top of Sheehan’s failure and once again leaning on the loss of her son to prop up the ridiculous and ongoing rhetoric about freeing the Iraqi people.

It might help if war supporters would remember that not everyone fighting this war is a conservative, votes Republican, is a registered voter, and thinks this whole thing was/is a good idea. A significant number of people are just doing their job.

Everyone fighting this war is a military employee. That’s it. Nothing more. Nothing less. Their political and/or religious affiliations, belief or lack of belief in the war, and preferred presidential candidate – if any – has nothing to do with the war. They haven’t asked to be nor should they be subjected to being placed under an umbrella of patriotism or treason as defined by those who do nothing more than pay the taxes that provide their incomes, if that. Patriotism has nothing to do with what anyone on either side of this issue is talking about on any given day. It simply means not bailing on your country when it calls on you. That’s it. No more, no less. For the record, nowhere in the government’s definition of the word “treason” will you find the word “disagree.”

It might help if antiwar protesters would remember all that and more. The peace crowd failed to stop this war from getting started and have failed miserably in the effort to end it. Antiwar activists have wasted their money, time and energy, having not spent it to get Sheehan the help she needs or to comfort and support those for whom they claim to want to bring home.

All that pro-war/anti-Sheehan posturing, all that antiwar protesting, and not one bit did any service member or grieving family member a damned bit of good. You have a child in the war? You have even less excuse for saying anything derogatory about Sheehan. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with her or not. Her child died and your child is fighting for the same thing. She’s defined it all very differently than many military moms and has called for the return of your child before he/she is killed. This is her right, the same constitutional right you use to lambaste her. Sure, let’s take away her right. Yours will go right along with it.

Is Cindy Sheehan misguided? Maybe. But I’ve yet to hear her speak ill of even one other military mother of a living or dead service member. The very idea of ending up in the same shoes Sheehan wore the day she found out her son was killed must sound very appealing to you. Why the hell else would you be so defensive of a grieving, hurting mother whose only agenda is to stop others from suffering her plight? If you do end up in her shoes, carrying a flag around might be all good and well — today. What about tomorrow?

Cindy Sheehan went to sleep in a country that appreciated her sacrifice and with the knowledge that her child was still alive. She woke up the next day to the news that her child was no longer alive. When she spoke her mind, the country yanked that appreciation back so fast it’s a wonder she doesn’t have rope burn. To shame her is to shame yourself.

If your child is in harm’s way, even if you support the war, you have something in common with Sheehan. Both of you share a love for your children. Both of you know the empathy, knowledge, and familial desire for the safe return shared by all military families. You differ, today, in that her child is dead. Is this what makes her “they?” Does it really help distance yourself from the possibility of losing your own child to belittle someone else having lost theirs?

Sheehan was no less public the day President Bush offered her his condolences. For all the trashtalk about her being in the limelight, it’s worth noting that not one of you was by her side that day. Was the limelight just not bright enough for you antiwar protesters? How about you war supporters? She’s as alone now as she was then. Fickle bastards.

Every one of you catapulted your rights of free speech and assembly to depths of hell previously unknown to the most evil people this Earth has ever seen. Not one of the mass-murdering screwballs in history ever picked one person out of the crowd to publicly humiliate using their name, address, family, and the nature of their loss. None of those screwballs set the weight of their entire agenda on the shoulders of one person and then denounced them with their absence. They at least maintained the anonymity of their victims. Their excuse? They didn’t care.

The adulterating manner with which you’ve used your rights and freedoms is appalling. The hypocrisy with which all of you have spoken about Sheehan should weigh your heads down with shame, but it is a profound lack of conscience that allows your head to float weightless on shoulders that neither carry or have ever offered to carry your fellow human being, much less your fellow American.

It isn’t an issue of what Sheehan is doing or even why. Her son died in America’s name doing American work. In her grief, she has taken a stand. At what point exactly did she fall off the edge of America and end up in a country that would so energetically condemn her for speaking her heart and abandon her with what can only be described as a fear of commitment?

She didn’t hurt anyone. She didn’t sell drugs to teenagers. She didn’t kidnap, rape and kill a child. She hasn’t robbed, burned and pillaged. She’s made no attempt to overthrow the government. All she did was disagree. In so doing she sent one side running scared for their pens and poster board while the other side camped beside her until their Kampgrounds of America permits ran out.

Lame.

haben Sie einen guten Tag meine Mitamerikaner.

About Diana Hartman

Diana is a USMC (ret.) spouse, mother of three and a Wichita, Kansas native. She is back in the United States after 10 years in Germany. She is a contributing author to Holiday Writes. She hates liver & motivational speakers. She loves science & naps.

Check Also

Sunrise, Sunset, and the Burning Bush

The other day, we observed the winter solstice. The day with the fewest hours of …