Sunday - March 19, 2006

Requiem

This morning I woke up to the realization that I had survived another year on this planet and could safely put the 57th notch on my life-counter. Will there be a 58th? Who knows. None of us really knows when our number will come up in the great lottery of cheating death day after day.

Putting aside momentary thoughts about my own mortality, I started looking around the web to see what was going on while I slept. Almost immediately I came across a link from Drudge to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about Cindy Sheehan by staff writer Vicki Haddock.

Fully expecting to read another anti-war diatribe from another San Fran-critter, I started reading. Sure enough, there was news about an upcoming media blitz revolving around Ms. Sheehan, including a movie about her starring anti-war activist Susan Sarandon ...

She’s averaging just two days per month [at home]. The next morning she will fly off again, the surreal star of what is—depending largely on one’s political perspective—either an epic tragedy or a farce. After stops for protests in New Orleans and Washington, D.C., she will breakfast in Manhattan with actress Susan Sarandon, who is set to portray her in a biopic movie. A crew will film Sheehan for a weekly reality series on the Sundance Channel.

Her letters to President Bush inspired “Peace Mom,” a one-woman monologue show in London. A memoir is due to her publisher April 1. And she hopes to reschedule a trip to address the European Union, postponed, she says, because of injuries when she was arrested yet again and jailed earlier this month on charges of blocking entrance to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Thoroughly intrigued by the phrase “depending on one’s political perspective”, I decided to read further. The article goes on to explore not only Ms. Sheehan’s rise to “fame” but also the psychological impact it may be having on her. I have to admit I lost all respect for the woman a long time ago. At first, I felt sorry for her for the loss of her son but then after a while things got real squirrely as described in the article ...

Sheehan’s image rose and fell on her willingness to publicize personal pain. A January Vanity Fair spread featured a photo of Cindy Sheehan, eyes closed, lying on her son’s grave: National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg suggested it was “the most shameless, exploitative stunt of the decade.”

“These plainclothes celebrities become spotlight addicts. The lows of being out of the news cycle make them crave it all over again. So they ratchet up the zealot factor,” said Matthew Fell, media director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. “Cindy Sheehan went from letting her picture be taken, to posing, to mugging. She’s become a caricature of herself.”

The picture in Vanity Fair really went over the top, as far as I was concerned.  If you must see the picture, it’s here in this WorldNet Daily editorial from December, 2005. When I first heard about the photo and saw it, I had to just sit back and take a deep breath. I cannot describe the feelings that went through me ... except one. I felt extreme and complete shame and pity for Ms. Sheehan. Not for the loss of her son but for the loss of her sanity and dignity.

The article then goes on to explore Ms. Sheehan’c current state and how she is reacting to the sudden media spotlight followed by the subsequent disappearance of support for her cause as more and more people reacted negatively to her increasingly embaressing displays of “media whoring” as some have called it ....

Her public rhetoric grows angrier. In the earliest interview, after her first meeting with the president, she gingerly described him as sincere while suggesting he didn’t satisfy her about the war. In recent months, she has branded him “The Fuhrer” and a mass murderer, demanding his impeachment. She has squared off against parents who have lost soldiers in Iraq and continue to support the president’s policies, labeling them “brainwashed.”

But Cindy Sheehan isn’t apologizing for her anger. “How can your rage not increase when every day something comes out that says my son should still be alive, that the reasons for this war are bogus? ... I’m not an extreme wacko—I’m with the mainstream on this. I don’t think it’s naive or wacky to be upset that we’re still killing people to solve our problems.”

Sheehan has been severed from much of her old life—or she has severed it herself. Her marriage, her job, her home. Loss of most of her friends, whom she cannot forgive for voting to re-elect Bush. Loss of her Catholic faith (a former youth pastor, she has abandoned Christianity and envisions a universal spiritual creator.)

Every day her anger increases. She has driven off everything from her former life including her husband, her marriage, her former friends and now travels around with a host of bodyguards and public relations people hired by activist organizations with suspect agendas. She has declared that she is “not a wacko and with the mainstream” but I know she hasn’t convinced me and I doubt she has even managed to convince herself.

The loss of her Christian faith is, to me, the final sign. This is a trainwreck waiting to happen. When it does, the media and the Leftist groups propping her up will simply do what she is doing now ... namely blame everyone but themselves. I sincerely hope I am proven wrong and Ms. Sheehan manages to regain her sanity and perspective before all is said and done.

So where does this lead me? Well, you’re probably wondering why this post leads off with a picture of a Army soldier. The picture is of Spec. Casey Sheehan who is at the center of all this and at the same time becoming less and less a part of this saga. After reading the article above and gathering my thoughts, I decided to rectify my lack of knowledge about Casey Sheehan. Here is what I found out by browsing around the web ...

He grew up in Norwalk in Southern California and moved to Vacaville in 1993 with his parents, brother Andy, 18, and sisters Carly, 23, and Jane, 18. His family attended church at St. Mary’s Catholic Church where Casey was very involved. According to Father Benedict DeLeon, the priest there, “Casey assisted me in various ways. He was on our high school youth group leadership team, also acted as alter server when we celebrated youth mass. When Casey got older, he served as a eucharistic minister.” He was also an Eagle Scout.

Casey Sheehan was in Iraq only two weeks when he was killed while driving a Humvee just outside of southern Baghdad during the uprising there. He was one of eight soldiers killed by Shiite militia firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades in an early morning ambush of the convoy. He was 24 years old at the time (April, 2004). Sheehan was a member of the 82nd Field Artillery of the 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas. According to Sheehan’s Sergeant, on the day he was killed he and another soldier, Cpl. Forest J. Jostes, volunteered to be part of a quick response team when rioting started in Baghdad.

Casey Sheehan’s life was probably best summed up in a quote from his sister Carly that I ran across at Honor The Fallen web site ....

“That’s all he wanted to do was serve God and his country his whole life,” Carly Sheehan said. “He was a boy scout from age 6 or 7 and an Eagle Scout. It was kind of a natural progression to go into the military from that. He said he was enjoying the military because it was just like the boy scouts but they got guns.”

Now do you understand? Casey Sheehan was just a good kid, as evidenced by the many compliments of his friends. He was someone who believed in his country and his faith. He was the kind of young man any parent would be proud to have raised. His life, his dedication to duty, honor and courage, his faith in God and most importantly his willingness to lay down his life in the cause of freedom - should be his requiem. Instead, all we are given is constant coverage of his mother as she disassociates herself from everything he stood for. That’s just not right.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/19/2006 at 01:40 PM   
Filed Under: • War-Stories •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
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4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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