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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 4:47 pm Post subject: Sorry To Be A Wet Blanket, but... |
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Regarding the counter-Sheehan rally in Texas.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I really have mixed feelings on this tactic.
My first emotional, gut reaction was to say yes, counter her idiocy with a show of support for the President. However, my saner side says that this tactic just creates more media attention for her. The absurd spectre of two competing camps vying for camera time will only bring more attention to HER.
Better to just ignore her. and let the media attention wane. Let her sit in her ditch put on her mourning pose. The fact is that she was fast becoming damaged goods, and her usefulness to the Left diminishing.
Left on her own, it was becoming obvious that she is a very disturbed woman who is being USED by the anti-war Left. What is being seen by the American heartland is a bunch of 'smelly hippie-types' with their 'Seventies Peace Signs & Flower Power'. Basicly a 'turn-off' to most people.
And the more Ms Sheehan is interviewed, she comes off as a shrill looney with odd-ball statements of conspiracy theories involving Bush and the oil companies, the colonizing of Mid East countries by America, and anti-semitic rants against Israel. She will do herself in as an unbalanced kook who is feeding her grief with hatred for the President.
But please don't create an ongoing image of two competing camps for the media, which can only generate more attention for her. Just let Ms. Sheehan languish and her circus become stale news!
I think a ONE DAY showing of support for the President is sufficient.
After all, the President's supporters are WORKING people who have to get back to their jobs, as opposed to the HIPPIE-TYPES who have all the time in the world to languish in the hot Texas sun.
What do you think??
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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If any show up with signs condemning Ms. Sheehan, yes, it will work against our motives. However, if they show up simply with support signs, the media may try to make it out to be against her, but I don't think it will work fully.
Personally, I'd like to see all of her family members that have spoken out against her show up there and show their support. The media would have a very difficult time painting that as war mongers against a grieving mother.
Otherwise, a show of support for the war effort away from her would be good. Getting media coverage for anything pro-Bush, though, is a different matter.
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Clark County Conservative |
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Leeman
PO3
Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 265
Location: Connecticut
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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I am with you Shawa, leave the MSM on thier own & they will switch back to Gretta van who ever..with the latest scoop on The missing gal in Aruba & her momma.
Plus you can not gain anything protesting a greiving Mother, I don't care how many times she changes her story.
Just speaking for myself as soon as I hear they are gonna cover her from outside the ranch..I think my remote knows to change channels..on it's own..lol
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Leeman
"We are all Ghost now"
"But once we were men"
from an unsigned diary recovered from Cabanatuan Camp |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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Maybe there's a dim ray of hope yet. From her hometown newspaper;
| Quote: | Mother already met Bush
Catherine Moy TheReporter.Com
Cindy Sheehan's incessant Bush-hating landed her on the Web site of Al-Jazeera, a propaganda arm for Muslim terrorists, and splintered her family, who mourn the loss of her son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who died last year in Iraq. Mrs. Sheehan is now a tool of America-haters. She has joined the family of radical Democrats in defiance of her son's blood relations.
Her family has had enough. Cherie Quarterolo, Casey's godmother and aunt, wrote a letter to KSFO saying the family broke its silence because "our family has been so distressed by the recent activities of Cindy."
The note read in part: "The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan family supports the troops, our country, and our president, silently, with prayer and respect."
The Sheehan family has exposed itself to the scorn of leftists. Anti-war activists hope Cindy Sheehan's status as a grieving parent will protect her from criticism.
I wrote a column last year relaying my sorrow over her loss. In an e-mail, she told me to stop writing about her son. She did not want media attention.
So, what changed? The anti-Bush crowd now handles Mrs. Sheehan, answering her phone and prepping her for the media, according to Sheehan's online diary. She still doesn't like critical media attention or when the media ignore her.
"I conservatively got three to five phone calls a minute. I did about 25 phone interviews and several TV interviews," Mrs. Sheehan wrote in the diary. "I was supposed to do: 'The Today Show,' MSNBC live interview, 'Connected Coast to Coast' and 'Hardball,' both on MSNBC. 'The Today Show' just never showed up and the other three MSNBC shows cancelled for no reason. Could it be because NBC is owned by General Electric, a major defense contractor?"
President Bush already heard her last year when taxpayers paid her way to visit him. Later, she told The Reporter that she knew Bush is "sorry and feels some pain for our loss." On Sunday, she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Bush's deputy chief of staff met with her in Texas and told her "the president really cares." And I said, "You can't tell me that because I've met with him and I know that he doesn't care."
Mrs. Sheehan has had her turn with the president and changed her statements about their meeting.
President Bush shouldn't waste more time on her.
The author, of Fairfield, can be reached at Poohdo@aol.com. She returns to her regular Saturday spot next week. |
That this is in her Hometown Newspaper could go a long way to showing her for the fool she has freely become. Editorials as this and the letter from her family need to be distributed widely.
It's refreshing to see that not all of the media are leftist morons out to impose their agenda on the nation.
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Clark County Conservative |
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GM Strong
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 18 Sep 2004
Posts: 1579
Location: Penna
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| Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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Dittos. She has been against this all along. She is emotionally disturbed and the left is definately using her. Her family's statement show there is great conflict here. We all mourn for the loss of casey, but we honor his service and sacrifice. he went because he wanted to. I have pity for this person. Politicizing it does nothing for anyone and is a disgrace for the leftist vermin using her.
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8th Army Korea 68-69 |
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AMOS
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 30 Jul 2004
Posts: 558
Location: IOWA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:31 pm Post subject: A book |
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| She's doing this for a book deal, period. |
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PhantomSgt
Vice Admiral
Joined: 10 Sep 2004
Posts: 972
Location: GUAM, USA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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People deal with the loss of a child in different ways as they run the gamut of emotions associated with the pain. Ms. Sheehan has the right to grieve in any way she wants if it helps her cope and we all should accept it. Camping out in Crawford may be the best way for her.
We also have a choice not to pay attention to the display presented in Crawford, which would undermine the press value of the event. Let this woman have her fifteen minutes and she will subsequently fall back into obscurity after the President ends his stay.
It seems in poor taste for protestors supporting the war on terror to go tit-for-tat with a woman in grief. Nobody wins in this situation.
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Retired AF E-8
Independent that leans right of center. |
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shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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I just came accross this Blogger's commentary on grief.
It is a BRUTAL straight-talk piece re Sheehan, but more reflective of how our present-day 'wimpier' (my word) society
views grief.
Exerpt:
| Quote: | Most hurts hurt less over time unless we choose to make them into a cross or an excuse. That's not bad. It's the source of human strength. We go on. We live through loss. Otherwise, no culture would survive earthquakes, floods, famines, epidemics, and wars.
Except for losing a child, of course. How many parents have we taught to cling tightly to their grief lest they feel less of it and enter a new purgatory of guilt for not being exquisitely sensitive enough to remain emotionally ruined for all their days?
For whatever reason, we have exalted grief in this nation to a supernatural force that must be honored and appeased rather than overcome. As recently as the Victorian era, infant and child mortality was so pervasive that few large families did not experience it. Before the age of modern medicine, sudden, unexpected death was an everyday companion of the living. They learned to control grief with defined periods of mourning in prescribed clothes and then to proceed with life. And they learned not to lose their faith and humility in the process.
Now we teach even our youngest children that grief is a devouring god to whom they must genuflect whenever the bad thing happens. Every incident at school -- fire, death, insect infestation -- is followed by an invasion of professional grief counselors who carefully implant the idea that what has happened will resonate through the rest of their lives like some gong of doom.
We have taught ourselves to view the grief-stricken as secular saints imbued with the mystery of new age stigmata, and we watch in awe as they bleed continuously from their invisible wounds. In their actions we consecrate what we cannot comprehend, and we collectively offer up to them the key to a kind of free-fire zone, in which they can act out all they want while we do their penance for them in hushed, admiring tones. |
Read article WHEN MOMS CRY
_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 6:36 pm Post subject: Re: Sorry To Be A Wet Blanket, but... |
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| shawa wrote: | | ....The absurd spectre of two competing camps vying for camera time will only bring more attention to HER. Better to just ignore her. and let the media attention wane. .... I think a ONE DAY showing of support for the President is sufficient. After all, the President's supporters are WORKING people who have to get back to their jobs, as opposed to the HIPPIE-TYPES who have all the time in the world to languish in the hot Texas sun. What do you think? |
Shawa—
I see your point and it makes sense – giving attention to this woman’s cause may be the wrong thing to do.
However, in this instance, I do prefer "two competing camps" rather than one. As Cindy is a poster child for the rad-Left and is being sponsored and used by them, it is they who are raising their ugly head and in that context I would prefer they not be ignored. Also, I don’t have any faith in predicting what the media will or will not report on, or what they will “allow to fade away” or what they will ramp up -- and I wouldn’t want the media’s attention or inattention to control whatever decision various Americans make about what action they do or do not take with regards to their personal beliefs.
--- To me, this is not about one woman, this is about “America’s voice.” And it is also about our troop’s morale – what they see going on over here. Left on her own with her minions, she “speaks for America” – with a counter-showing of opinion, there is a greater chance that her cause will be questioned.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I always wonder what difference it would have made in 1971 when the Left embraced kerry as their poster child -- as “the voice of the Vietnam vet” -- if John O’Neill’s voice had also been heard. If he had been allowed to speak to Congress – and if he and the Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace had been involved in the Congressional hearings that ended up containing only the voice of the VVAW. The silent majority allowed the protests to go unchallenged, allowed those few to speak for America and allowed those few to be used by the Lefties in Congress as a tool for their agenda. Would the "other side" speaking out, acting out, have made any difference given the climate of the times? We will never know...
But we've got a battle with the same "antiwar" movement today and some of the same people and organizations and they are desperate for poster people to spearhead their vile cause against our military efforts -- we’ve got this already:
(excerpt/emphasis mine)
| Quote: | “Bush pressed to meet protester mom”
8/12/05 – by Dave Wedge
....Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday each threw their support behind Cindy Sheehan, who has been camped outside Bush's Crawford, Texas, home since Saturday, vowing not to leave until the president meets with her about the war. Sheehan's 24-year-old Marine son, Casey, was killed five days after he arrived in Iraq.
``The president has not leveled with our troops and the American people,'' Kennedy said. ``I admire Cindy Sheehan for her courage and determination to make the president answer to her.''
Kerry spokeswoman April Body said: ``Senator Kerry understands the demands on Bush's schedule but hopes he will take time to meet with Mrs. Sheehan.'' ....... |
I followed the Free Republic Live Thread (“H.O.T. Chapter’s Crawford Support Pres. and Troops Rally”) on this counter-protest and was proud of what they were doing and relieved to see some action against the Left in this regard. I think counter-protest “on the streets” is important as it is the territory of the Left and I welcome any in-road into that territory.
Is this the right thing to do? Would it be better to ignore the lefties as they amass themselves (in any number, big or small) behind this so-called “spokesperson” for families of the military? Is this a little thing – could it get bigger – will it fade away? Does it help our morale, our troops morale, to see and hear a counter-voice, to hear this woman’s motives and associates and sponsors questioned, to not allow her to become America’s voice –Will the Left’s momentum against our efforts to wage war against the terrorists be increased or decreased if Cindy’s voice is allowed to drone on and on unchallenged? I don’t know. Will other news preempt this issue and wipe it away? I don’t know. By directly challenging the Left on their own stage, will the pressure cause them to show their true colors and expose themselves? I don’t know, but I can only hope it will.
I have mixed feelings, too, Shawa – when should one speak out, act out, and when not – when is it best to keep quiet? Which method would work for the good. For now, I disagree with you on this one – if challenging the rad-Left in this instance backfires in some way, then I will learn from that. I personally felt a lift in my spirits by the counter-protest and I needed it – so I thank all involved for their incredible effort, their courage and their good intentions.
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Tanya
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 13 Aug 2004
Posts: 570
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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~snip~
"Casey Sheehan did not want to go to Iraq, but he did not want to let down his buddies. So despite his mother's offer to whisk him away to Canada or run his leg over with a car, off he went. Less than two weeks later, the 24-year-old from Zacaville, California, was dead, one of eight soldiers killed in an ambush near Baghdad."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1545845,00.html
And now she is going to protest the Blue Angels?
"STOP THE WORSHIP OF THE GODS OF WAR!
STATEWIDE PROTEST OF THE BLUE ANGELS AIR SHOW
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 10TH"
SPECIAL GUESTS ARE KATHY KELLY AND CINDY SHEEHAN
"REAL ANGELS DON'T DON'T DROP BOMBS"
http://www.space4peace.org/actions/GN%20Blue%20Angels%20Protest.pdf |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | We also have a choice not to pay attention to the display presented in Crawford |
Unfortuantely, the leftstream media, Moveon.org, Veterans for Peace, Michael Moore and such see it differently. Through them, we are treated to around the clock exposure to this debacle ramming an anti-war message down our throats.
If we just ignore it and hope she goes away, we are heading faster and faster to a repeat of Viet Nam in this war. Since she has aligned herself with the publicists associated with the far left loonies, we are left with little choice but to counter her outrageous behavior.
Don't be fooled, this is much more and lot deeper than simply a "grieving Mom."
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Clark County Conservative |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | "Casey Sheehan did not want to go to Iraq, but he did not want to let down his buddies. So despite his mother's offer to whisk him away to Canada or run his leg over with a car, off he went. Less than two weeks later, the 24-year-old from Zacaville, California, was dead, one of eight soldiers killed in an ambush near Baghdad." |
This is almost laughable, coming from the Guardian. Guardian of what? 
A fallacy in their claim is 1. Casey had recently reenlisted, knowing full well the Iraq War was on. 2. It was draft dodgers that sought haven in Canada, not Active Duty Marines. 3. Is she a sweet Mom or what? Offering to run her son over with her car? 4. It's Vacaville, not Zacaville. 
This article shows me she was very much against the War in the beginning and despite her Grown Sons wishes, decided what is best for him still. Now, she is shamelessly using his sacrifice as a tool to further her own self interests. Don't forget, he was a mechanic who volunteered to accompany others on the mission that day and I do believe it was a rescue mission, as well.
She now has even Al Jazeera pleading her case as well.
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Clark County Conservative |
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GenrXr
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 1720
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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| shawa wrote: | I just came accross this Blogger's commentary on grief.
It is a BRUTAL straight-talk piece re Sheehan, but more reflective of how our present-day 'wimpier' (my word) society
views grief.
Exerpt:
| Quote: | Most hurts hurt less over time unless we choose to make them into a cross or an excuse. That's not bad. It's the source of human strength. We go on. We live through loss. Otherwise, no culture would survive earthquakes, floods, famines, epidemics, and wars.
Except for losing a child, of course. How many parents have we taught to cling tightly to their grief lest they feel less of it and enter a new purgatory of guilt for not being exquisitely sensitive enough to remain emotionally ruined for all their days?
For whatever reason, we have exalted grief in this nation to a supernatural force that must be honored and appeased rather than overcome. As recently as the Victorian era, infant and child mortality was so pervasive that few large families did not experience it. Before the age of modern medicine, sudden, unexpected death was an everyday companion of the living. They learned to control grief with defined periods of mourning in prescribed clothes and then to proceed with life. And they learned not to lose their faith and humility in the process.
Now we teach even our youngest children that grief is a devouring god to whom they must genuflect whenever the bad thing happens. Every incident at school -- fire, death, insect infestation -- is followed by an invasion of professional grief counselors who carefully implant the idea that what has happened will resonate through the rest of their lives like some gong of doom.
We have taught ourselves to view the grief-stricken as secular saints imbued with the mystery of new age stigmata, and we watch in awe as they bleed continuously from their invisible wounds. In their actions we consecrate what we cannot comprehend, and we collectively offer up to them the key to a kind of free-fire zone, in which they can act out all they want while we do their penance for them in hushed, admiring tones. |
Read article WHEN MOMS CRY |
A brilliant take on grieving and the Cindy Sheehan story. Instapunk is warning us of our anthropocentric outlook. This degradation of society was first brought to our attention by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his masterpiece speech ‘A World Split Apart’.
_________________
"An activist is the person who cleans up the water, not the one claiming its dirty."
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to stand by and do nothing." Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Founder of Conservative Philosophy |
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Rdtf
CNO
Joined: 13 May 2004
Posts: 2209
Location: BUSHville
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| Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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Harvuskong
Seaman
Joined: 17 Oct 2004
Posts: 174
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| Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:48 am Post subject: |
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The information below is from an agriculture related discussion group:
yes, she's a grieving mother, etc.
But how many grieving mothers have their PR handled by Fenton Communications?
If you're a farmer who doesn't know who Fenton is, you should.
Remember the Alar-on-apples scare? That whole thing was fabricated, blown up to hysteria and the political fallout orchestrated by Fenton Communications.
Whenever I see Fenton Communications involved, I know I'm seeing a pack of professional liars at work, regardless of their client(s). And apple farmers, especially in the northwest, were the first victims of Fenton's media campaigns.
The money quote from the article at the URL below:
"TrueMajority -- an antiwar group founded by Ben Cohen, one of the
creators of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream -- hired Fenton Communications, a Washington public relations firm that has worked intermittently with
Sheehan over the past year to coordinate media coverage."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/12/AR2005081201816.html |
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