Cindy Sheehan wanted to petition her president for a redress of her, and others', grievances.
Check it out:
... the numbers at Martha’s Vineyard were not large. But Cindy and her fellow anti-warriors were undeterred. While I was there, she mounted a spirited march down the road to Obama’s place, no more than a quarter mile away from where she stayed. The purpose was to present the President with a poster of Cindy bearing a signed plea to end the wars. The considerable armed force at the gate and the Secret Service officers would not even bring out the lowliest of staffers to receive the poster. Clearly the message from Obama was "Get lost, Cindy." And we were quickly told to move a considerable distance down the road. At least in Crawford it had been possible to demonstrate at the checkpoint to the site – not so at Obama’s place. Thus, did Obama greet a mother whose son was lost in the wars, which he continues and enlarges by the day.
The site chosen by Obama for his vacation appeared restful, even idyllic, that afternoon though the house itself was a considerable distance away from the road, hidden from view. But the image of the "antiwar" candidate lounging comfortably by the ocean, his family nearby, while ordering the deaths, by drones and assorted other killing instruments, of people half a world away, complete innocents, unknown to this man or his advisers, was disturbing indeed. What sort of man could do this? Does Obama bring his much ballyhooed "coolness" down a degree or two for cold blooded murder? Are these wars a matter of conscience or patriotism for Obama? If that were so, does one suppose in a future imperial war that Obama will urge his daughters to volunteer to die in some Muslim land any more than did Bush offer his daughters?
But, like his role model and predecessor in office, Rainbow Brite does find time for surviving relatives of the
right sort:
The Cape Cod Times reported the meeting thus:So, yesterday afternoon, the family drove from Yarmouthport to Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. They waited about two hours at the base. …The Obamas entered. …. President Obama called them all by their first names, Lisa said. "It was like seeing a friend you hadn’t seen in a couple months," Lisa said of the nearly 10-minute meeting. …
President Obama offered his condolences. "He told us whatever decisions he makes, he has Nick (and others serving) in mind," Lisa said. Earlier this year, Nicholas X met President Obama and shook his hand. The president gave a speech at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. Shortly after, Nicholas decided he wanted to be part of the new offensive in Afghanistan, his father told the Times in July.
Lisa said her son called her right after the meeting. "He shook his (President Obama’s) hand and called me moments later and said, ‘Mom, the President was amazing, his hand was the softest thing I’ve ever touched, like a baby’s bottom,’" Lisa recalled.
She made sure to tell President Obama that yesterday, drawing a laugh from him. Lisa X said her family is "still pretty numb and raw" over losing Nicholas. But she thought of his likely reaction to the family meeting the Obamas. "He is probably laughing hysterically … and proud."
Such an account should break your heart and stir your anger at this hypocritical politician. The more so if, as one might suspect, this encounter made cynical use of this grieving woman’s trust. That soft hand of Obama’s is soaked in considerable blood now, some of it Nicholas X’s, no less than the rough hands of Bush and Cheney. Obama’s message is clear. Sacrifice your child and endure without complaint the "numb and raw" emotions that come of your grief. And then Barack Obama will glad hand you for "nearly ten minutes" and get some good press – after you cool your heels for two hours awaiting the cool, great man. But protest the senseless death of your son, and you get the bum’s rush at Obama’s gate. Thus, does the erstwhile "antiwar candidate" (How silly that phrase sounds now!) treat Cindy Sheehan whose like he once called on to join him in making peace. And the "leaders" of the antiwar movement are nowhere to be seen or heard.
You can read the whole piece
here.
3 comments:
This is a heartfelt piece and we must be sorrowful at a parent's anquish. But shouldn't we remain aware that soldiers are not heroes? Surely those who volunteer for the military aren't all innocents enticed to enlist. They must know the bottom line is to kill other humans. So weep for those mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters--but face the fact that those in those we slaughter in ohter countries also have reason to mourn.
It is heart-breaking to lose a child, no matter the circumstances. Adding insult to injury, though, is the requirement that the grieved continue to live the lie that it was for a just cause. Speaking the truth is not politically correct.
Mimi, I quite agree: soldiers aren't heroes. And with every day that goes by, I see less and less real distinction between the nation-state and any other form of gang. The idea that I was pursuing here was the seamless unity between George Bush the Younger and Barack Obama the Progressive.
I have seen some of the left-bloggers in my locality seemingly forget that they used to think that war's a bad thing ... in one case, simply suspending his politically-oriented blog after a spasm of triumphalism following the Barack-ster's inuguration early this year.
When the GOP is returned to executive power, I expect to see many of the right-bloggers, who wax indignant about socialism today, become similarly forgetful as soon as an elephant again takes the oath of office.
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