A Grief Observed on CNN
Cindy Sheehan is a sad figure, a victim twice over: first of war when her son was killed in combat, second of politics when the heroic notion that she could "make a difference" overwhelmed her already strained-to-the-breaking-point psyche.
She and her supporters in the anti-war left had just enough wits to parley her status as a grieving mom into national fame (or is it notoriety?) in the middle of a long Presidential vacation in the slow news month of August. Unfortunately, neither of them appears to have fully thought through what to do with the nation's attention now that they have it.
She has just reached the halfway point in her fifteen minutes of fame. This is the point where the victim of instant celebrity begins to crack up under the pressure of having to deliver something worthy of the nation's attention. And as cruel as the following must seem it needs to be said: Cindy Sheehan has no unique insight on war to share with us. There are roughly 1,800 young men and women who have lost their lives in the Iraq war, which adds up to 1,800 mothers (and 1,800 fathers, for that matter) and they all, understandably, want to know why. All of them will tell you it hurts to lose a loved one in the prime of his or her life. One will get a similar story from the hundreds of thousands of mothers and dads who suddenly lose young ones to drugs, crime, or accidents. And nearly all of them will do something very similar to what Cindy Sheehan has done: they will ask "Why?"
Most of the time the rest of us allow them to grieve and ask their existential questions in private, with their closest friends and spiritual advisors. The difference between them and Cindy Sheehan is that she got in front of a microphone at a time (August) and a place (Crawford Texas) where the media were most hungry for a political story. And now Cindy Sheehan has to live with the consequences of being a political story on top of being a grieving mom. And one of the consequences of being a political story is having your political views examined in far greater depth than most private citizens -- let alone those suffering from a shocking loss like the one she has suffered -- ever have to.
The results aren't pretty. A letter from Cindy Sheehan to ABC News Nightline has now surfaced and been authenticated, in which Sheehan alleges that
...my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full well that my son, my family, this nation and this world were betrayed by George Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agendas after 9/11.
Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate, calls Sheehan's protest "Sinister Piffle". This is harsh but it is to be expected from supporters of the Iraq war, who after all believe in all sincerity that the middle-eastern region is in desperate need of reform. For all the sympathy that civilized people might have for a grieving mother, one cannot seriously expect that the advocates of the Iraq war will cease their advocacy, or fail to respond to any anti-war spokesman who develops a significant audience, grieving mom or not.
Grief does things to people's minds, and leaves us all prone to terrible thoughts. Left to grieve without the nation looking in Cindy Sheehan's rant about neocons and the PNAC would have been allowed to pass decently into the air, forgotten or forgiven as the anguished shriek of a mother deprived of her son. Instead it, and her contacts with Michael Moore, Moveon, and the rest of the antiwar left will become part of the national discourse, recorded, dissected, and possibly held against her for years in the future. Already there are signs that Cindy Sheehan's protest has led to strains within her family: Cherie Quartarolo, Cindy Sheehan's sister-in-law and godmother to her lost son, issued a statement on behalf of several family members, alleging that Sheehan "appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son's good name and reputation."
One can only wish that there were someone close to Cindy Sheehan who saw where this is heading, the permanent damage to her reputation and relationships that could result from her fifteen minutes of fame. Cindy Sheehan is simply in over her head. It's time for someone who loves her, her priest or a family member or a close friend, to put an arm around her and lead her away from Crawford, back home, where she can mourn the loss of her son Casey.
She and her supporters in the anti-war left had just enough wits to parley her status as a grieving mom into national fame (or is it notoriety?) in the middle of a long Presidential vacation in the slow news month of August. Unfortunately, neither of them appears to have fully thought through what to do with the nation's attention now that they have it.
She has just reached the halfway point in her fifteen minutes of fame. This is the point where the victim of instant celebrity begins to crack up under the pressure of having to deliver something worthy of the nation's attention. And as cruel as the following must seem it needs to be said: Cindy Sheehan has no unique insight on war to share with us. There are roughly 1,800 young men and women who have lost their lives in the Iraq war, which adds up to 1,800 mothers (and 1,800 fathers, for that matter) and they all, understandably, want to know why. All of them will tell you it hurts to lose a loved one in the prime of his or her life. One will get a similar story from the hundreds of thousands of mothers and dads who suddenly lose young ones to drugs, crime, or accidents. And nearly all of them will do something very similar to what Cindy Sheehan has done: they will ask "Why?"
Most of the time the rest of us allow them to grieve and ask their existential questions in private, with their closest friends and spiritual advisors. The difference between them and Cindy Sheehan is that she got in front of a microphone at a time (August) and a place (Crawford Texas) where the media were most hungry for a political story. And now Cindy Sheehan has to live with the consequences of being a political story on top of being a grieving mom. And one of the consequences of being a political story is having your political views examined in far greater depth than most private citizens -- let alone those suffering from a shocking loss like the one she has suffered -- ever have to.
The results aren't pretty. A letter from Cindy Sheehan to ABC News Nightline has now surfaced and been authenticated, in which Sheehan alleges that
...my first born was murdered. Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel. My son joined the army to protect America, not Israel. Am I stupid? No, I know full well that my son, my family, this nation and this world were betrayed by George Bush who was influenced by the neo-con PNAC agendas after 9/11.
Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate, calls Sheehan's protest "Sinister Piffle". This is harsh but it is to be expected from supporters of the Iraq war, who after all believe in all sincerity that the middle-eastern region is in desperate need of reform. For all the sympathy that civilized people might have for a grieving mother, one cannot seriously expect that the advocates of the Iraq war will cease their advocacy, or fail to respond to any anti-war spokesman who develops a significant audience, grieving mom or not.
Grief does things to people's minds, and leaves us all prone to terrible thoughts. Left to grieve without the nation looking in Cindy Sheehan's rant about neocons and the PNAC would have been allowed to pass decently into the air, forgotten or forgiven as the anguished shriek of a mother deprived of her son. Instead it, and her contacts with Michael Moore, Moveon, and the rest of the antiwar left will become part of the national discourse, recorded, dissected, and possibly held against her for years in the future. Already there are signs that Cindy Sheehan's protest has led to strains within her family: Cherie Quartarolo, Cindy Sheehan's sister-in-law and godmother to her lost son, issued a statement on behalf of several family members, alleging that Sheehan "appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son's good name and reputation."
One can only wish that there were someone close to Cindy Sheehan who saw where this is heading, the permanent damage to her reputation and relationships that could result from her fifteen minutes of fame. Cindy Sheehan is simply in over her head. It's time for someone who loves her, her priest or a family member or a close friend, to put an arm around her and lead her away from Crawford, back home, where she can mourn the loss of her son Casey.
posted by A. at 11:43 PM
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