Only at the risk of seeming stone-hearted does one beat up on such a grief-torn soul as Gold Star Mom Cindy Sheehan - unless one is a Gold Star Parent oneself and thus entitled to viewpoints every much as morally authoritative as hers.
Many moms and dads who have lost their own sons and daughters to Iraq are informing Sheehan that hers is hardly the only Gold Star out there, and that personally they choose to honor their dead by supporting the war. "Chris and all those over there are fighting for all of us," a mourner said the other day at a service for 19-year-old Ohio Marine Christopher Dyer. His mother, Kathy, urged family and friends not to let anger at Christopher's death turn them against the war. Christopher served his country "with the greatest pride ... fighting to preserve freedom."
It happens that more and more Americans are unhappy about Iraq and are ripe to be galvanized by this single-minded woman. But Mother Cindy's own flame will likely soon burn down, as her sympathizers begin to discover that, for example, she's an admirer of Lynne Stewart, the New York lawyer recently convicted of aiding and abetting a jailed terrorist mastermind, and that she has been known to blame "the Jews" for many of the world's ills.
But hear as well the pride-filled words of those Gold Star families for whom Cindy Sheehan does not speak. Hear of Kathy Dyer, along with Ann and Dale Hampton and Stacey Sammis and Joan Curtin and Karen Long, all of whom lost a child or a spouse in Iraq and who stand far apart from Sheehan. Their stories were told yesterday in The Wall Street Journal by Ronald Griffin, father of Spec. Kyle Griffin, who, too, was killed in the war.
"We refuse to allow Cindy Sheehan to speak for all of us," Griffin wrote. "Instead, we ask you to learn the individual stories. They are glorious. Honor their memories. Honor their service. Never dishonor them by giving in. They never did."
Well said.
What's the difference between gold star mothers and American Gold Star Mothers, Inc?
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