Saturday, August 20, 2005
Mr. Snow and Mrs. Sheehan don't seem to get along
Though I'm not terribly sympathetic overall. For the loss of one's son, ok, but ultimately you have to accept it. After all, everyone's gotta die sometime, and signing up with the Army is a sure way to bring that day closer.
Here's Internet activist, dataguy: "We should call her 'Mother Sheehan.' ... 'Mother Sheehan' is her title, and expresses her ceremonial status as a bereaved mother, calling forth over the dead body of her son. She is not a person now, she is a mother, which is not an expression of her individuality, but rather the expression of her eternal character: the mother, the bringer of life who has been wronged by state power."
This vaporous encomium makes explicit what many have suspected from the start. Cindy Sheehan's backers and financiers do not consider her a "person." To them, she is a useful idiot, whom they will adore until the TV cameras go away.
Reporters get the joke, which is why they treat her with a wary sensitivity normally reserved for aggressive panhandlers. After all, this is a woman who has likened terrorist lawyer Lynn Stewart to Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird"; who has done Dick Durbin one better by calling the president the most prolific mass murderer alive; who has earned the praise and admiration of David Duke by calling Operation Iraqi Freedom a "war for Israel"; and who has accepted support from Code Pink, an organization that advocated aid to terrorists in Fallujah. Journalists would rather gargle acid than listen to such gormless gibberish, which is why they primly avoid asking her questions about her beliefs.
Even her personal recollections seem dotty and odd. When she and her husband met with President Bush in June 2004, she greeted the commander in chief by asking: "Why are we here? We're both Democrats. We didn't vote for you. We're never gonna vote for you!" Meanwhile, she never talks in detail about her son — other than to mention that he is dead.
Here's Internet activist, dataguy: "We should call her 'Mother Sheehan.' ... 'Mother Sheehan' is her title, and expresses her ceremonial status as a bereaved mother, calling forth over the dead body of her son. She is not a person now, she is a mother, which is not an expression of her individuality, but rather the expression of her eternal character: the mother, the bringer of life who has been wronged by state power."
This vaporous encomium makes explicit what many have suspected from the start. Cindy Sheehan's backers and financiers do not consider her a "person." To them, she is a useful idiot, whom they will adore until the TV cameras go away.
Reporters get the joke, which is why they treat her with a wary sensitivity normally reserved for aggressive panhandlers. After all, this is a woman who has likened terrorist lawyer Lynn Stewart to Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird"; who has done Dick Durbin one better by calling the president the most prolific mass murderer alive; who has earned the praise and admiration of David Duke by calling Operation Iraqi Freedom a "war for Israel"; and who has accepted support from Code Pink, an organization that advocated aid to terrorists in Fallujah. Journalists would rather gargle acid than listen to such gormless gibberish, which is why they primly avoid asking her questions about her beliefs.
Even her personal recollections seem dotty and odd. When she and her husband met with President Bush in June 2004, she greeted the commander in chief by asking: "Why are we here? We're both Democrats. We didn't vote for you. We're never gonna vote for you!" Meanwhile, she never talks in detail about her son — other than to mention that he is dead.
