Cindy Sheehan and Me

Cindy, I have a son in the military too, should I quit my job, leave my husband and children and join you in Texas? I’m perplexed. I want to do the right thing. What is the right thing?

Cindy Shenanigans is back at her protest site in Texas. The media is using terms like ‘stalking’ and ‘haunting’ the President. But she looks happy to be doing it.

Apparently, after having to spend some time with her family over Thanksgiving, she is once again free to continue her own personal tour of duty.

She is pictured arriving at her camp in Texas smiling, hugging and greeting her friends. When interviewed she gushes, ‘I’m so happy to be back here with my friends’. I don’t know her friends, but the pictures on TV of the dozen or so protesters there send my memories back to incense, ripped jeans with patches all over them, ironing our hair so it’s be perfectly straight and peace symbols.

But then, I’m from the fly-over world, so what I think I know is not relevant.

In the brief interview I saw this morning, Ms. Sheehan was smiling broadly while bemoaning the fact this protest is necessary. She said she is doing this for her son’s memory. I can’t question that. She’s useful because no one can question what is in her heart.

She said she’s doing this for her son’s memory, smiling from ear to ear and hugging her new found friends, walking arm-in-arm with them all surrounding her. All getting closer and closer to her as the camera zoomed in on her. Cindy Sheehan, the center of the movement, the center of the attention. All eyes on Cindy.

She is so brave to be doing this for her son. International media attention. The darling of the radical left, the toast of the aging hippies still clinging to the ‘good ol’ days’ when they had something to protest, and, lest we forget, book deals. There’ll probably be a movie.

She is so brave to be putting herself through this in memory of her son.

As per Ms. Sheehan, many soldiers don’t know that the military has to fight sometimes.

Bush should have told them that.

I’ve been proud of my son, a brand spanking new Army Officer serving overseas. He volunteered, and has excelled in his chosen profession. He chose this path, my son did. He knew that serving in the military could mean he will have to face battle with an enemy at some point. We knew that too.

I guess all parents don’t tell their children that joining the military could be dangerous. We tell them the dangers of driving too fast, of driving under the influence, of being sexually promiscuous, of walking alone downtown in the middle of the night. I guess some forget to tell them about the dangers in the world.

Bush should have told us that joining the military means you have to go to battle sometimes. Bush should have told us when the government is paying you to be in the Reserves that means when the Reserves are called up, the government wants a return on their investment.

Bush should have told us.