Once upon a hoopty...

The Sheehan lady in texas and all the media spotlight she's getting really grate on me. She's got such a martyr's complex. I am sorry that her son died in Iraq. I'll go so far as to say I'm sorry he died needlessly in Iraq for a war we shouldn't have been fighting in the first place. But, that's what he signed up to do. That's what the military is. I'm sure she loved her son. And what mother wants to see her son go off to war? I understand completely that she wanted to hide him in Canada. But he was a grown man. He joined the military, knowing the risks, and joined his fellow soldiers going to the place they were sent, knowing the risks and died bravely, doing what he felt was the right thing for the people or Iraq. Now. She wants someone to pay for his death. No one can bring him back any more than a child run over by a car can be brought back. Needless? Senseless? Meaningless (to her)? Sure. No doubt. And heartbreaking. And I suppose it is every mother's prerogative to believe that the death of her child is important enough to go straight to the president about, but it's also completely unrealistic. I can forgive all that. What gets me is as follows: Her demands. She demands that the President take time from his vacation (hey, let me see you get up from the couch when you're on YOUR vacation) to tell her why her son died. The President has done this. It is common knowledge. Even if you think the President is not telling the whole truth, what universe did you wake up in where politicians can speak the whole truth and still keep their jobs? And the worst is, she has told news reporters what is the answer she wants to hear. That her son died so that Petrol Magnates in the US can make money. She won't accept anything else. She is demanding that the president tell her something that she has already scripted out in her head. Anything less in unacceptable. The President. Of the United States of America, currently the most powerful nation in the world. Lady, who made you so important? How did you come to the conclusion that this is what is owed you? What broke this camel's back was an article I read today (see title link) in which she blindly assumes that all Texans (or whoever else lives in "Bush country") are out to attack her, just because they may not agree with her. Oh, come on, people. Not everyone who disagrees with you is a total jerk. Even this guy in the article is just being a Texan. He's right. He's not threatening anyone, but he does have the right to keep them off his land. And I do have to stand by him and Texans (this doesn't happen with me a whole lot) with his right to fire his weapon in the air on his property whenever he feels like it. If this is infringing on your rights, then get off his land. How dare anyone from either side of the political spectrum make this into a party-line situation. How dare this lady make the whole situation into an "us vs. them" thing. No one is out to get her, until she starts encroaching on their lives. And then she says they are peaceful. Sure, they aren't being physically violent, but they are trying to stir up things, not make things more peaceful. What she means to say is that they are being "non-violent." I'm sorry ma'am...and ladies...and all parents and loved ones of people who have died in this war or any other. I'm sorry to the loved ones all over the world who have lost children and spouses to war, especially to those relatives of the innocent bystanders. I'm sorry for your loss. But, Ms. Sheehan, I don't stand by your ridiculous statements and outrageous demands. To those of you who live in the nearby area, don't worry, she'll be gone in a month. Just take deep breaths and deal with it until then. The reporters might leave sooner.

EDIT: Someone mentioned that I took a little liberty with her son's views on the war. Granted. If I may rephrase and at least say that her son felt the right thing to do was finish out what he agreed to do in his contract with the military, even if he in no other way agreed with what he was doing over there. He was being a man and standing by his commitments and that, Ms. Sheehan, is what he died for. For personal integrity.