Cindy Sheehan became an icon of the peace movement after her son Casey was killed in Iraq. Almost immediately she was attacked by Republicans as being a fringe lunatic that was in it for publicity. She was also accused as being a tool for the Democratic party. However as she went on her quest for peace, the large following became too much for one grieving woman. The fractured and divisive peace movement beat on her spirit even as they cheered her on.
Then she spoke out against Democrats for failing to do their part on the war and for that she was shunned by both sides on the left-right spectrum. She increasingly became marginalized as people spewed partisan hatred at this poor woman. Of course not everyone did this, but the damage was enough to put peace far out of our reach. She spoke truth about Democratic leaders and was proven right as we saw many of them cave to the Bush Administration last week. So Cindy decided today to call it quits and go back to a more private life.
From her GBCW (GoodBye Cruel World) diary:
I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.
The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a “tool” of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our “two-party” system?
However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”
Her sentiments are right on, this is a moral issue and unfortunately the politics of the matter have kept us in this war despite one woman's efforts. She is a true patriot and devoted mother in her mission to not have her son die in vain. It is a shame that all of that hard work has done next to nothing in accomplishing what we need to have done, bring peace to our country.
|