Open Letter Pitiful
An open letter to Barbara Bush from Cindy Sheehan is the most uninspiring piece I've read this week. I've tried to give Sheehan leeway in her methods but signing off on this sanctimonious sermon truly reeks.
"Dear Barbara,
On April 04, 2004, your oldest child killed my oldest child, Casey Austin Sheehan."
The letter's sole purpose is to please those democrats who still believe their pols are the good ones. The first sentence clearly tells me the remainder will be tritely emotional and deliberately stuffed with all the adjectives we love to hate Bush with.
Sheehan tells Babs her son George (however true) is a liar, profiteer, immoral, ignorant, reckless, careless and has "bad manners" etc.
She says Barbara is "one of the few people he still talks to. He won't speak to his father, who knew the difficulties and impossibilities of going into Iraq and that's why he didn't go there in the 1st Gulf War." (Thanks Cindy for exonerating Poppy Bush of any hardships on the Iraqi people.)
Sheehan tells Mama Bush how she (the good mom) raised her children not to solve problems with violence, that she washed their mouths out with soap for lying and asked if Babs did that to George. She talks of the Angel of Death. Body bags. Of Barbara's "beautiful mind" moment on Good Morning America. Of her trip to Austin where GW wouldn't speak to her. That George is inaccessible; his policies killed her son.
She inserts pretty much all the current emotional cue cards of the Democrats.
If Sheehan sincerely wanted (which she doesn't) to take her cause to George's mother this wouldn't be the letter. I would respect more a letter of anger and rage, telling Babs what a bitch she is and how evil her family, but this missive is pure propaganda, reinforcing the Democrat party line. It's embarrassing, like reading a page from the diary of an emotional and miserable teen girl, but a teen writing prosy - in case anyone else reads it.
She ends with asking Barbara - "Can you make him stop?" This is the adult mother of the peace movement. "Can you make him stop?" Sheehan needs to stop bowing to her handlers and manage her own movement, and if this is her management she might as well go home.
6 comments:
Yikes. Agree with you, this letter is unfortunate and not the best way to accomplish whatever Cindy's goal was. I checked Snopes and then Scroogled (Google w/o the tracking), thinking it might be phoney! It doesn't ring quite true. But maybe she's just not living up to my image of her as a fresh authentic truth-telling regular person with a good cause. I don't follow her activities especially closely, but you rang the There Are No Heroes bell for me again. And I was just starting to admire Murtha... oh, well.
hey dus
I was working on a piece about Murtha but he's so disgusting and pork barrel dirty that I quit. Even the republican business cartels in Pennsylvania sing his praise.
I think we may each have to be our own heroes and do what we have to do to contribute to the cause - hit them where it hurts, in the wallet, in all and every way we find feasible in our lives. Be disobedient to whatever limit we can muster.
I'm of two minds about this letter. My first reaction to it, read yesterday, was "you go girl, kick that bitch's ass". But, something did stick in my craw (besides washing her kids mouths out with soap, Jesus!), couldn't quite put my finger on it, and then I read your comments, et voila there it was!
That letter was pathetic:childish, whiney, too sentimentally maudlin, too pleading, without anger or outrage. No adult to adult feel about it. But, then again, is Babs Bush an adult, not even close. I don't think she's even human. But I admit to having higher standards than most people.
As for Sheehan, methinks that she's well intentioned, but misguided, and that she's also deep in grief, and is certainly being exploited by her handlers, many of whom have no conscience and no maturity either.
If I wrote a letter to Babs, it'd read something like this: Yo bitch, you must be so proud of having married a psychopathic war criminal and of having raised one too. So what does that make you! Put that in your "beautiful mind" and implode already!
Mature, huh! lol
I'll take the high road, when the rest of the world starts taking the high road. Until then, I say fuck 'em. And hit 'em where it really hurts. Word!
Thanks again Kate. Right on. Write on, amj
Implode sounds good. ;)
I witnessed the transformation of Cindy in Crawford, and have occassionally read her writings and press releases since then hoping that she had dismissed her handlers. The creation of “Camp Casey II” in Crawford birthed the media star. The woman whom I sat in the mud with was no longer available except for speaking engagements at Camp Casey II; she was secluded with a few friends and endearing supporters at Camp Casey I, holding court with the press and facing off with pro-war groups in the staged protests. Cindy’s website was abandoned before she left Crawford. “Cindy’s” writings became scattered throughout the blogs, each taking their turn being the source for all things Cindy but none remained consistent. I do not know Cindy well, but it is my opinion that her grief is not the problem; rather she was surrounded very early on by friendly advisors (endearing supporters) who convinced her that she could spread her message farther and wider by engaging professionals. During the times of our initial acquaintance when I spoke with her, and heard her speak with others, she showed no signs of being emotionally crippled, and did not speak with childish, pleading, manipulative phrases.
She was reborn in Crawford, Texas and was quickly separated from those who would remind her of herself or her purpose.
anon,
thanks for sharing that information on Cindy.
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