Let Us Declare a Moratorium on Cindy Sheehan

Please. We are reaching saturation point on reading, viewing, and discussing the doings of Cindy Sheehan. This is a pitiful woman hitched to the wagon of a dreadful cause. Can we not, in the name of decency, turn our eyes from her crazed visage and close our eyes to her maundering, irrational spews?

How long are we going to continue to tolerate having her take up room on the national stage? What is wrong with us that we not only permit her to be there but even encourage her behavior by paying attention to it? Thomas Merton was right: sometimes there are no innocent bystanders. In this case, his words resound with justified accusation.

Cindy Sheehan is America’s creation. The Left uses her, and that is to be expected. But we on the Right have been equally responsible in our reactive, defensive, and endless "how-dare-she" chatter about her behavior. In some ways this is understandable: she lost a child in a war and that experience calls everyone to attention because it is only too easy to imagine ourselves in that position and to wonder what we might do in her situation.

But enough is enough. Are we so completely in thrall to the MSM and the machinations of the Left? When are we going to take back our free will and do something meaningful with our time?

How do our soldiers fighting in the dust of Iraq feel when they watch the endless attention we pay to someone who disrespects their task and who drags the spirit of their fellow soldier through the mud at home? They can all too easily put themselves in Casey's place and shudder at the idea that their names and reputations might be as forever sullied as his has been.

Would that we could get back half the energy we have expended on this malevolent enterprise and turn it over instead to public discussions about what our men are doing right now. We owe them; we do not owe her -- though we act as if we do when we give her demands our time and attention. Our behavior speaks volumes here about our moral sense.

Please. Out of respect for the dead soldier, Casey, and out of love for the living soldiers in Iraq let us declare a voluntary moratorium on any more discussion of The Mourning Mother. I , for one, vow not to read about her, not to join in discussions about her, and to the best of my ability to replace any internal judgments or analyses I make of her with thoughts about the guys in harm’s way at this very moment. We go about our daily routines and we don't even think about the men over there. Or at least we don't give them the careful consideration we give this woman.

The Mourning Mother is merely a habit by now. Habits are made by paying attention to them. They can be unmade by giving our attention to something more worthy of our time.

When you think of the limited time we have on Earth doesn't is seem like a waste to have given this much of it to evil?


Greg, at Toe in the Water, was ahead of the curve on this one. Last week he posted his own resignation from further comments on the subject:

	<sigh>
	Not gonna mention her name, but you know the woman whose son was killed in Iraq, who 'camped' outside of Bush's ranch this summer...
	I originally felt great saddness for her loss, and sadness that she had been co-opted by the forces of darkness in advancing their evil agenda.
	No more.

If you hear of other resignations, let's post them.