Posted on 08/19/2005 11:22:55 AM PDT by Millee
I need a spirit-guide. There is an interview I want to conduct, and I just won't be able to get it done without one.
I want to interview Army Spc. Casey Sheehan. It would be interesting, to say the least, to hear his views on his mother, Cindy, on what she has been doing for two weeks down at the president's ranch in Texas and, more importantly, on what he makes of the increasing attacks on her for doing what she is doing.
Ah, if such a thing were possible.
My hunch, given my experience the last two years with soldiers on the ground in the nastiness that is Iraq, is the first thing he would say is that he loves his mother very much. Soldiers often will tell you that before they even give you their first name.
Were he still alive over there, and if his mother was still standing in the Texas heat and dust and calling for George Bush to account for the war, there is little doubt he would be personally embarrassed by the attention his mom's actions would bring to him.
And when reporters like me found him and asked him about it, I have no doubt that Casey Sheehan would have looked around, thought a little, spat and replied:
"What the hell do you think I'm over here fighting for, if not at least for that?"
I believe deeply that this is how it all would have played out. And it would have been the most intelligent words uttered in the entire Cindy Sheehan saga.
That what she is doing has become a saga, that the influential and powerful in this country feel free to attack and belittle a woman who lost a son in the war and now refuses to remain silent in her grief, pretty much tells you everything you need to know of 2005 America.
She was a woman and a story that was supposed to just go away - maybe get a couple of days' headlines. But she hasn't, and the story hasn't.
Tell me again, Mr. President, the reason why my son had to die? This is mostly what she has been asking from the roadside.
It is a question the polls say at least 60 percent of us want answered. Have the reasons once again changed? Many fairly want to know.
In 2005 America, though, to pose such a question, particularly with the cameras and reporters' open notebooks arrayed before you, is clear license for some to attack and vilify.
I am still wondering how I know now that Cindy Sheehan is getting a divorce.
Spc. Sheehan and other now-dead soldiers like him, we've been told over and over, died in our country's noble quest to export freedom and democracy to an oppressed and brutalized Middle Eastern nation.
You cannot export elsewhere what you do not currently possess.
And doesn't whatever form of freedom and democracy that exists in 2005 America still give Cindy Sheehan the right to stand on the Crawford, Texas, roadside to confront our leadership?
Perhaps not, it seems.
I have been unfortunate enough to know women like Cindy Sheehan. I have seen them fall to absolute pieces when an Army general presents to them the American flag that seconds earlier had draped the coffin of their dead sons.
These women, dear reader, somehow keep on living. Many do so in silence. Cindy Sheehan, clearly, is not one of them.
I corresponded the other day with Vicki Bosley, the mother of a Manzanola soldier who'd befriended me in Iraq and was killed two months ago.
I asked her of Cindy Sheehan.
"I don't think what she is doing is very -'smart,' " Bosley said. "This is not the time to be causing friction in this country. We have enough of that already.
"Yes, I was (angry) at Bush after Justin was killed.
"But you know, today I take the attitude of my son: 'He is the boss, and we have to do what the boss tells us to do. That is our job.'"
No, Vicki Bosley said, she would never do what Cindy Sheehan is doing. It will not, she said, bring her son back home to her.
"I just want to concentrate on keeping Justin's memory alive, and that is altogether time-consuming, without even thinking of causing 'a scene.'
"I feel the day my son died was his chosen day, one decreed by God, no matter where he was or what he tried to prevent, that there is nothing we can do about it.
"All we can do is pray to God to give Bush guidance to do the right thing. Maybe he did mess up. Who knows?"
Of Cindy Sheehan, she says:
"If it makes her feel better, then go for it, girl. But I think she is wasting a lot of precious time, time that could be devoted to her family on coping with their loss.
"I just don't think this woman is worth getting all worked up over."
Had thousands of people across the nation on Wednesday taken to the streets to embrace Vicki Bosley's message, as they did to Cindy Sheehan's, would anyone have gone on national television or radio to disparage it?
Of course not.
Cindy Sheehan, like Vicki Bosley, ought to be afforded the same exportable freedom to express her views and beliefs as loudly or, perhaps, whacked-out, as she feels comfortable.
Yet in 2005 America, to our alarming detriment, way too many people disagree.
You were right about the barf alert. It sucks you in, because it's good until a third of the way down. Then, goes onto the anti-war stuff.
"These women, dear reader, somehow keep on living. Many do so in silence. Cindy Sheehan, clearly, is not one of them. "
There is a difference between grieving publicly and using your son's memory as a political soapbox and allying yourself with Lynne Stewart and the free Mumia MOVE crowd going so far as to publicly express your admiration and adolation for these "people" and appearing with them publicly. The MSM leads the sheep around by the nose by reporting the story without a full and unbiased background.
Ms. Sheehan, you've said that "America isn't worth dying for" well then perhaps you should find some country to emigrate to that is closer aligned to your politics and sensibilities. There are a few places I can think of that will be more to your liking.
You mean they arrested her??? Why am I always the last to find out?
Didn't touch it -- that's straight off of http://video.google.com/
There's so much leftist spin on this, I got nauseous just reading it!
Well, Casey isn't available for the interview, but his father and siblings are.
..."If your mommie is a commie
Then ya gotta turn her in!"
:oD
She should be immediately placed in Gitmo, sans trial, along with the rest of the terrorists she supports.
Nobody should be allowed to question the president or the US, especially during war time.
Another lefty author realizing that the "grieving activist" is no longer getting a free pass ala the Joisey Girls.
I need a spirit-guide.
"I got this far."
"Spirit-guides" imply American Indians. They had no problem dying for what they believed.
Unless you believe in the PC version of native Americans who were docile, nature loving hippies.
It is a good day to die.
Gitmo?!? Sorry, I have to disagree with you there. Of course, you have the right to express that opinion, well, I think you do, but the author of the article would not.
I really hate that 60% of the people are against the war crud. The AP skewed that poll and everyone in the media knows it. They sampled 49% Democrats and 39% Republicans. Still the MSM including FOX still uses that poll as valid.
Since when is exposing the facts and the truth considered an attack?
I love the flaming emails Ive gotten from DU loser lurkers who dont like the comments Ive made about Cindy the kooky.
She looks kinda like Miss Jane.
Spirit Guide. What a jerk. Fool has no idea as to the warnings in the OT. At any rate. I am your spirit guide:
I joined the Army to get away from the quack I used to call mother when I was young. When she wouldn't get off my case I decided to reup to be amoung men and women who serve with honor. I did my best to stay away from her. She would drive any sane person nuts. Besides, she hated with all here heart what I learned to hold dear. Honor, commitement, service to my country, respect for authority, tolerance of political affiliations. I served with honor till the day the good Lord decided to take me to HIM. Now I am at rest.
Illie weenie, chile beanie.
You cannot export elsewhere what you do not currently possess.
And doesn't whatever form of freedom and democracy that exists in 2005 America still give Cindy Sheehan the right to stand on the Crawford, Texas, roadside to confront our leadership?"
Oh, PUH-LEEEEEEZE.
What a Drama Queen.
So the fact that someone cannot "confront our leadership" means that America "does not possess" freedom and democracy??!!
Give me a break.
I have lived in Washington, DC since 1974, and I have never -- not once -- been permitted to go to the White House and demand to see Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, or Bush in order to "confront" our leadership. Never.
Bill Johnson ought to go see how easy it is to "confront" the leadership of any major (or, for that matter, minor) country. He'd quickly conclude that no country on earth has "freedom and democracy".
The guy's a loon.
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