cindy sheehan

Why Cindy Sheehan?

Why, after two years without any single person, event or single group managing to muster any cohesive or potent dissent against the war, has this grieving mother finally been able to do it?

I'm not sure, exactly, except the grief of a parent who has lost a child is the most universal grief that exists. It's a raw hurt that no one can ignore, no matter what their political views. When a mother speaks of losing her son, no one can really ignore her.

And now the right wingers, including some in her own family, have gone on the attack, impugning her motives and making things up about her. The fact that her husband has now filed for divorce is trotted out as reason enough to discredit anything she says, despite the fact that MANY marriages end in the wake of a couple losing a child, even an adult child.

Ultimately, I don't really care why it is Cindy Sheehan who has finally captured the media's and the public's imagination in whatever way it takes to get some real momentum behind an antiwar movement. All I know is that tonight I took my children to an antiwar rally and when my seven year old son saw all the people there, he said to me, "Mama, I thought we were the only ones who are against the war."

Now he knows that we are not.

So thanks, Ms. Sheehan.