May she find peace there.
In case you have not been following the secular news, Cindy Sheehan is the mother of a gentleman named Casey Sheehan, who enlisted in the Army at the age of 21 in the year 2000 and became a specialist. After the September 11th Attacks, and the ensuing War on Terror, he re-enlisted for a second hitch. Assigned to fight in Iraq, he volunteered to go on a rescue mission in Sadr City in 2004.
On this mission he was killed. God rest his soul and honor his sacrifice.
Subsequent to this, Specialist Sheehan was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
President Bush met personally with Specialist Sheehan’s parents, Pat and Cindy, to honor their son. This was a rare symbolic event, as a president cannot meet with the grieving parents of most soldiers who have died in a war.
According to the Sheehans’ hometown newspaper:
"We haven’t been happy
with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has
changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven
false or an objective reached."
The 10 minutes of face time with the president could have
given the family a chance to vent their frustrations or ask Bush some
of the difficult questions they have been asking themselves, such as
whether Casey’s sacrifice would make the world a safer place.
But in the end, the family decided against such talk,
deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act. In
addition, Pat noted that Bush wasn’t stumping for votes or trying to
gain a political edge for the upcoming election.
"We have a lot of respect for the office of the president, and
I have a new respect for him because he was sincere and he didn’t have
to take the time to meet with us," Pat said.
Sincerity was something Cindy had hoped to find in the meeting. Shortly after Casey died,
Bush sent the family a form letter expressing his condolences, and Cindy said she felt it was an impersonal gesture.
"I now know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,"
Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he’s sorry and feels some pain
for our loss. And I know he’s a man of faith."
"That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said
That was then.
THIS IS NOW.
Since their meeting with Pres. Bush, Mrs. Sheehan became a shrill political activist, camping out in front of the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, giving interviews to various members of the national media, and demanding a second meeting with Pres. Bush so that she may obtain from him the answers to questions she failed to put to him the first time.
Here are some samples of what she has said. These are taken from a speech she gave August 8 to a group of veterans opposed to the Iraq war:
- Then we have this lying <expletive>, George Bush, taking a 5-week vacation in a time of war.
- . . . but I’m either gonna be in jail or in a tent in Crawford, waiting until that jerk comes out and tells me why my son died.
- So what really gets me is these chickenhawks, who sent our kids to die, without ever serving in a war themselves. They don’t know what it’s all about.
- So anyway that filth-spewer and warmonger, George Bush was speaking after the tragedy of the marines in Ohio, he said a couple things that outraged me.
- And I know I don’t look like I’m outraged, I’m always so calm and everything, that’s because if I started hitting something, I wouldn’t stop til it was dead.
- And I’m gonna tell them, "You get that evil maniac out here, cuz a Gold Star Mother, somebody who’s blood is on his hands, has some questions for him."
- And I’m gonna say, "And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for." And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy’ I’m gonna say, <expletive>.
- You’re taking away our freedoms. The Iraqi people aren’t freer, they’re much worse off than before you meddled in their country.
- You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine
- And if you think I won’t say <expletive> to the President, I say move on, cuz I’ll say what’s on my mind.
- What can we do to get him out of power? And I’m gonna say the “I” word. Impeach. And we have to have everybody impeached that lied to the American public, and that’s the executive branch, and any people in congress, and we gotta go all the way down and we might have to go all the way down to the person who picks up the dog<expletive> in Washington because
- We can’t let somebody rise to the top who will pardon these war criminals. Because they need to go to prison for what they’ve done in this world. We can’t have a pardon. They need to pay for what they’ve done.
- And I want them to come after me, because unlike what you’ve been doing with the war resistance, I want to put this frickin’ war on trial. And I want to say, "You give me my son, and I’ll pay your taxes."
- It’s up to us, the people, to break immoral laws, and resist. As soon as the leaders of a country lie to you, they have no authority over you. These maniacs have no authority over us. And they might be able to put our bodies in prison, but they can’t put our spirits in prison.
The most charitable interpretation that one can put on this is that Mrs. Sheehan is so enraged with grief that she is no longer rational when it comes to the subject of a meeting with President Bush. One can put other readings on it, but these would involve charging Mrs. Sheehan with some degree of disingenuity and thus would be less charitable.
Regardless of whether one supports or opposes the current war in Iraq, it simply is not rational to propose in all seriousness that you and the president of the United States have the kind of meeting described in this speech.
If Mrs. Sheehan is not proposing this meeting in all seriousness then she is in some measure disingenuous. If she is proposing it in all seriousness then she is not rational.
Proceeding on the assumption that Mrs. Sheehan is a mother so grief-stricken by the death of her son that she has lost rationality in regard to this subject, what is the charitable response?
The answer, of course, depends on who you are–what relationship you have with Mrs. Sheehan. However, common to all responses should be the idea of doing NOTHING to feed Mrs. Sheehan’s rage and grief or to expose her to the human degradation of having her lapse of reason exposed in public.
To the best of one’s ability, one should encourage Mrs. Sheehan to retire to private life, in which she could best come to terms with her loss, find healing, and get on with life, efforts that would be best assisted by professional counselling.
Viewed from this perspective, it was utterly despicable for various anti-war protestors, politicians, and the news media to EXPLOIT her and her situation by egging her on and shoving cameras and microphones into her face. This cynical, exploitative response merely fed Mrs. Sheehan’s frenzy and exposed a grieving mother to further public degradation through the making of irrational demands.
One of Mrs. Sheehan’s children reportedly did appeal to her to come home to California and be with her family. (Most likely, other family members did so as well, but I have only heard one report.) This was the charitable and compassionate response and seeks to protect and preserve as much dignity as possible for Mrs. Sheehan in her grief.
Mrs. Sheehan’s tragedy was further compounded by the disintegration of her marriage (her husband filed for divorce) and her mother suffering a stroke. Following the latter, Mrs. Sheehan did return home, though she promised to return to her protest.
I hope for her own sake that she doesn’t, at least until such time as she has regained the rationality needed to make reasoned arguments for her point of view and correspondingly reasonable requests. I suspect, though, that the psychological pressures of participating in protest activities are such that, given all that has happened to her thus far, she will find the most healing if she remains in private life.
I hope those around her will be able to embrace her and love her and help her heal in the midst of a now multi-faceted human tragedy of enormous proportions.
I encourage everyone to pray for her and for those around her, that they will be able to help her get through this superhumanly difficult time.
