Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our society. There is a somewhat cathartic irony when reading and following Cindy Sheehan's journey, claimed over the grieving of her son. Cindy enjoys a society so completely open that a formerly obscure woman can squat on land adjacent to our President's Texas home, garnering media attention, as if she were celebrity or recognized diplomat. Her beautiful child died defending the freedom's required for her 15 minutes of fame. She boldly stands shameless in her claim of glitter and spotlight otherwise unavailable to her.
How marvelous that our open society is able to witness, first hand, her grief unfold. As it does, she appears to be experiencing an apparent savant like understanding of geopolitical strategic planning and Sun Tsu like wisdom.
Mystically crowds have gathered in support of Cindy as she kisses newly arriving strangers in a manner reserved, in polite company, for intimate friends. And now, the ranks or wannabe ranks of Hollywood have weighed in for another good measure of simplistic wisdom.
Christine Lahti, the 50 something fading star, has surfaced like recovered pieces of a shipwreck. Perhaps her role as Rose in Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman (2004) has become her own reality. In fact, while slightly past the middle age range, Miss Lahti would offer prescience as she claims to know that President Bush is scared shitless of Cindy Sheehan.
How do we comfort them? How can we bring them home from their delusional roadside chirpings? Perhaps theirs and others who have joined them are better left to vent and rant at will as daily witness to the fact that the defense of our nation, our freedom and our future will come today and tomorrow at a monumental cost. The final cost will be determined, not within our lives or our children or grandchildren's lives. The cost of freedom will be paid each day an open society must defend against the thieves of freedom.
It would be heartless and impossible to ignore Mrs. Sheehan's loss and grief, but not impossible to question her motives, and her willingness to leverage her quilt for a misguided counterproductive end.
Susan Moses
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SUNDAY • AUGUST 14, 2005
*BUSH PROTESTING MOM CALLS FOR 'ISRAEL OUT OF PALESTINE'; VOWS NOT TO PAY TAXES: Anti-war protestor Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier son Casey was killed in Iraq, is calling for Bush's "impeachment," and for Israel to get out of Palestine! "You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism," Sheehan declares. Sheehan, who is asking for a second meeting with President Bush, says defiantly: "My son was killed in 2004. I am not paying my taxes for 2004. You killed my son, George Bush, and I don't owe you a penny...you give my son back and I'll pay my taxes. Come after me (for back taxes) and we'll put this war on trial." "And now I'm going to use another 'I' word - impeachment - because we cannot have these people pardoned. They need to be tried on war crimes and go to jail." The 48-year-old California mom remains tented up in a ditch along the one-lane road that leads to Bush's Texas ranch. As her protest entered its second week, hundreds of people with conflicting opinions about the war in Iraq descended on the area. Time mag reports in new editions on Monday: Sheehan gets support from her surviving son, Andy, in principle, but he recently sent her a long e-mail imploring her, "to come home because you need to support us at home."
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*LBN-POLITICAL BRIEFING by Christine Lahti: Cindy Sheehan is my hero. She is the hero of all Americans who make up the 62% of us who oppose this war. As an American exercising her right to free speech, she is a brave, passionate, living example of democracy, and she has the undeniable force and the moral authority of a grieving mother. Being a mother of three, I can't even imagine the depths of the grief she must feel having lost her son in this horrific war. But I can imagine that her grief and rage -- her demand for justice and action -- is a force that is unstoppable. No wonder Bush is intimidated. No wonder he can't even walk down his driveway. He is scared shitless. Whether he acknowledges it or not -- whether his aides try to insulate him from the truth or not -- his hands are covered in the blood of Cindy Sheehan's son.
The above were found in the Late Breaking News online bulletin:lbnelert@earthlink.net
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