Guy B. Meredith
New member
JON CARROLL
- Jon Carroll
Friday, February 3, 2006
I do admire Cindy Sheehan. I like the way she used her moral authority to focus the attention on a single story of needless sacrifice, a single victim of the Bush administration's profligate and inept invasion of Iraq. Her standing as the mother of a soldier killed in the line of duty made her -- for a while -- not susceptible to the usual attacks from the right. When the sleek presidential motorcade whizzed past her small encampment in Crawford, Texas, it was a useful symbol for the decadent isolation of the Bush White House.
And so I say with all love: Cindy, back away from the fame machine. You are who you are, and you were great in that role, but you can't be someone else without a lot of work. And when things move too fast, you become a sock puppet, and easy to make fun of, and that hurts -- you, me, the cause, whatever. You could still be doing good, but right now, you're not helping. I have no idea whether you are leading the charge or following bad advice, but please, rethink the whole thing.
It all started when that encampment grew and grew. It became a kind of Woodstock for people with agendas. Inevitably, those agendas diluted and muddied the message, and pretty soon it became Camp Progressive Humans Against Globalization, Unsafe Logging Practices and American Policy in Burma. And then celebrities showed up, and we all had hot dogs and listened to Bruce Springsteen.
So somewhere, I think, Cindy Sheehan bought into the Cindy Sheehan myth. It happens. As my friend Carol Cantor says, "I think it's standard-issue (in the) left-wing activist's world, with the focus splintering into a multitude of passionate ineffectualities. She's done her bit and had her moment of broader relevance, and now things have moved on."
What's Cindy Sheehan doing with Hugo Chavez? Yeah, she's a citizen, she can be where she likes, but whatever she does right now is real public. This just in: Hugo Chavez is not a nice guy. It's like the whole Fidel Castro thing: You may be bitterly opposed to American policies toward Cuba -- and I am -- but it's not because Castro is a saintly martyr. Chavez also played kissy-face with Saddam Hussein. So did Donald Rumsfeld, but that doesn't make it right.
Here's a little rule for citizens of the United States: Don't get involved in South American politics. You are out of your depth.
Now Cindy Sheehan is talking about running for senator against Dianne Feinstein. That is such a bad idea. She'd be doing it to bring attention to issues that matter, a lot like Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader ran for president in 2000, split the vote and gave us George Bush, and that's the issue I remember. Also: Never ride in a Corvair.
There's stuff that Cindy Sheehan could do right now. There are boatloads of veterans' issues, from stop-loss policies to inadequate body armor to stress-related mental illness -- they all need attention. It's not as if Cindy Sheehan's work here is done; it's just beginning. But there's also the danger of turning into, I dunno, Marabel Morgan. Who? Exactly.
[Clip]
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/03/DDGU9GJ4TS1.DTL
- Jon Carroll
Friday, February 3, 2006
I do admire Cindy Sheehan. I like the way she used her moral authority to focus the attention on a single story of needless sacrifice, a single victim of the Bush administration's profligate and inept invasion of Iraq. Her standing as the mother of a soldier killed in the line of duty made her -- for a while -- not susceptible to the usual attacks from the right. When the sleek presidential motorcade whizzed past her small encampment in Crawford, Texas, it was a useful symbol for the decadent isolation of the Bush White House.
And so I say with all love: Cindy, back away from the fame machine. You are who you are, and you were great in that role, but you can't be someone else without a lot of work. And when things move too fast, you become a sock puppet, and easy to make fun of, and that hurts -- you, me, the cause, whatever. You could still be doing good, but right now, you're not helping. I have no idea whether you are leading the charge or following bad advice, but please, rethink the whole thing.
It all started when that encampment grew and grew. It became a kind of Woodstock for people with agendas. Inevitably, those agendas diluted and muddied the message, and pretty soon it became Camp Progressive Humans Against Globalization, Unsafe Logging Practices and American Policy in Burma. And then celebrities showed up, and we all had hot dogs and listened to Bruce Springsteen.
So somewhere, I think, Cindy Sheehan bought into the Cindy Sheehan myth. It happens. As my friend Carol Cantor says, "I think it's standard-issue (in the) left-wing activist's world, with the focus splintering into a multitude of passionate ineffectualities. She's done her bit and had her moment of broader relevance, and now things have moved on."
What's Cindy Sheehan doing with Hugo Chavez? Yeah, she's a citizen, she can be where she likes, but whatever she does right now is real public. This just in: Hugo Chavez is not a nice guy. It's like the whole Fidel Castro thing: You may be bitterly opposed to American policies toward Cuba -- and I am -- but it's not because Castro is a saintly martyr. Chavez also played kissy-face with Saddam Hussein. So did Donald Rumsfeld, but that doesn't make it right.
Here's a little rule for citizens of the United States: Don't get involved in South American politics. You are out of your depth.
Now Cindy Sheehan is talking about running for senator against Dianne Feinstein. That is such a bad idea. She'd be doing it to bring attention to issues that matter, a lot like Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader ran for president in 2000, split the vote and gave us George Bush, and that's the issue I remember. Also: Never ride in a Corvair.
There's stuff that Cindy Sheehan could do right now. There are boatloads of veterans' issues, from stop-loss policies to inadequate body armor to stress-related mental illness -- they all need attention. It's not as if Cindy Sheehan's work here is done; it's just beginning. But there's also the danger of turning into, I dunno, Marabel Morgan. Who? Exactly.
[Clip]
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/03/DDGU9GJ4TS1.DTL
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