May 30, 2007
Cindy Sheehan Says Sayonara
Worth a read as Cindy says she's had enough. Disenchanted, broke, perhaps broken,too, she's a tragic figure who was taken advantage of by the media and other radicals. She may get a life, but she'll be unhappy for a long time. I suggest she move out of the U.S. because she seems to hate it so much.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Why should Sheehan leave the country? That so smacks of Love it or Leave it. I take her at her word that she tried to change the country. She was traumatized by the death of her son in a war perpetrated by a government that would have gone into Iraq no matter what. She paid the ultimate price. She did whatever she could to stop the war. Did she make mistakes? No doubt. After the media celebrity thing hit her, she didn't handle it as well as she could have. Why? Because she is a mother, not a professional PR consultant. I think she provided a great service. She got pissed off and got off the sidelines and fought. Was she always right? No. But at least she got out of her chair and spoke her mind and stood up to power. We need more of that. Not less. Why do we get angry at people like Sheehan who contribute to the public discourse. It is a strong country. We can take it.
It's the quote below from her 'goodbye' letter that suggests she is not only very discouraged, unhappy and disgruntled, but that she really does not believe in this country anymore. If that's the case, she's better off elsewhere where conditions and government are more to he liking. She seemed to warm up to Hugo Chavez when visiting Venezuela.
This is my resignation letter as the "face" of the American anti-war movement. This is not my "Checkers" moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.
"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.
I suggest that if you "don't believe in the country anymore,'' that you shouldn't leave. It's her country. Her son is dead. She lost.
We can't get rid of people who feel the way she does. I suspect that there are thousands upon thousands of people just like her, myself included, who love this country, who are patriots, but who are feeling helpless at the $500 billion wasted, the lies told by high government officials and the fact that for at least the next generation, the country that led the world, which the world looked up to, the shining city on the hill, the place of freedom, privacy and integrity, has become reviled in the world community as a money wasting, immoral bully, insensitive to the world around it. That's not a country I am proud to be a part of. But I'm not leaving. I won't give it over to those who would put my children and grandchildren in financial hoc for the sake of the egos of Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and Don Rumsfeld. It's Sheehan's country too, no matter how discouraged she is.
Sheehan is a tragic case of activism gone awry. Of course she's entitled to live in this country as a citizen who likely seeks some peace and quiet. One of the strengths of the country is to tolerate reasonable dissent. She, however, is not off the hook for her failed campaign to embarrass the country and its leaders in her exploitive marathon of anti-war bashing. Her decision to fade into the background is a wise one.
One can legitimately disagree with the policies of our country but in so doing, he/she has a responsibility to provide alternatives. Most radical activists seem to end with: "Get out of Iraq now." Many, including Sheehan and her sponsors, seem unable to comprehend the real threat to the West posed by radical Islamists and their terrorist tactics. Where was Sheehan's condemnation of those enemies? It's insufficient and an abdication of responsibility to bash, trash and berate this country and its leaders without proposing viable alternatives.
Many parents mourn the loss of their soldier children, yet seem to understand the threat faced by our country and Western civilization. They do not join in radical activism either pro or against the war in Iraq. Anti-war radicals who do not see the need to fight militarily and in every way possible against radical Islam, including in Iraq, do not understand or believe that evil is alive and thriving on planet earth. They would rather believe that all will be well if we just treat people kindly and with compassion. That is blind belief in the basic goodness of mankind contradicted by the whole of human history in a very dangerous world.
I want the best for my kids and grandkids, too, but not at the expense of sacrificing our way of life or enabling our sworn enemies.
Post a Comment