Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Cindy Sheehan's son died in an unnecessary, illegal war of President George W. Bushs making. In refusing to meet Sheehan and hear her grievances, he dishonors her, the soldiers who have sacrificed for his war, and the American people.
No, Cindy Sheehan is not inviting the president to speak at a contrived "Town Hall Meeting" before a carefully screened audience of blindly loyal followers. She is an angry, distraught mother, demanding that he publicly confront accusations that he lied to lead us into war, and once there, he put our soldiers at further risk with astonishingly incompetent mismanagement.
We, who believe the Iraq invasion is tragic, foolish, and immoral, have no illusions that President Bush will seriously consider Cindy Sheehan's concerns. To do so would be a complete about-face from the narrow-minded myopia he has consistently demonstrated throughout his presidency. We are left to take our inspiration from Cindy Sheehan and continue to raise our voices until there will be too many to drown out.