Almost from the beginning, I had mixed feelings about Cindy Sheehan. I say “almost” because back at the very beginning, before I read anything she said or wrote and only heard there was a mother of a fallen soldier protesting the Iraq Occupation, I thought, “Wow, that’s wonderful.”
But when I got more exposure to the actual person — through the press of course — I had my doubts. I felt I had met Cindy, and one-issue crusaders like her were the reason I got out of party politics. I found it much more fulfilling to work with individual candidates because at every party meeting, there was a Cindy or two who caused a complete and utter logjam with their inability to see shades of gray or look on compromise solutions as anything but defeat. Everything was a zero sum game to them.
I think all of our hearts go out to Sheehan for the loss of her son and for her determination not to back down. But admiration and liking are two different things. She’s a hard person to like.
Take, for example, her pity party today in which she both announced she’s quitting her protest of the Occupation and lashed out at every single American except herself.
I have spent every available cent I got from the money a “grateful” country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey’s brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.
That’s the kind of stuff, bordering on codependence, that made me tune Cindy out.
On the other hand, she’s right about a few things.
Casey died for a country that cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months…
Good-bye America… you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.
It’s up to you now.
Of course we’ll manage to go forth without Sheehan and I’m not trying to be snippy about that, only stating a fact. In the end, I feel the same way about her as I did almost at the beginning. What she said or did never moved me precisely because of the way she said and did it.
I imagine you don’t like her and her words bother you because you are one of the folks with the small minds that she is referring to. There are some things that are too important for compromise, like ending a war based on a lie.
I’m glad you took on the topic of Sheehan, Trish. I thought of it, but couldn’t come up with a way of approaching her legacy that wouldn’t sound totally negative. I, too, have had mixed feelings about Cindy Sheehan, though mostly on the negative side. Maybe I am small-minded, as Joy suggested, but I remain unwaivering in my opposition to the Iraq war and George Bush’s policies. But when I look back on what Sheehan accomplished, I see very little that will last past her pity party of yesterday. We paused for a second to consider what her efforts achieved, and, after a moment of reflection, consigned her to the dustbin of history where she was destined to from the beginning of her sad two years of “fame.”
Her “pity party?”
She lost her son, for Christ’s sake and immediately channeled her grief into trying to stop Bush’s illegal and immoral war.
That’s more than we’ve gotten from the Democratically-controlled House and Senate vis a vis Iraq.
Cut the woman some slack. How much more do you believe she must give of herself to an antiwar movement that is hapless at best and completely ineffective at worst?
I listened to her interview with Amy Goodman this morning. I have followed her work as closely as possible. She is certainly not blaming everybody but herself. She is very disappointed and hurt by the ineffectiveness of the dems to do any better with their new strength in elected office at the national level. I think that most of what she said is true, and she is seeing the world through her own lens. Following her through the SCLM would be seeing her through a distorting lens; they have no real sympathy for her because she shows them up. As for your attack on Cindy Sheehan, it strikes me as an echo of rush limbaugh. If you are working for the same end as she is, why didn’t you just say “thank you, Cindy,” and move on. Instead, you had to attack her. Why?
Cindy Sheehan is one of the few actual “patriots” this country has left.
Not only did she suffer for taking on GW and his butt licking gophers, she also suffered the loss of a son in an illegal and immoral war.
I wish Cindy the best.
i imagine the Anne Coulter’s and Michelle Malkin’s will have a field day.