Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother and anti-war protester, has
been camping outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas,
for nearly two weeks. After Casey Sheehan was killed last year in
Iraq, both his parents met with the president. Initial statements
by Ms. Sheehan about the meeting were positive, but now she is
calling for Mr. Bush's impeachment and for the withdrawal not
only of America from Iraq, but also of Israel from
"Palestine." Naturally, her vigil and her vitriolic
anti-Bush statements have attracted worldwide attention, and
hundreds of supporters have joined the 48-year-old California
woman as she angrily bares her grief in public for all to see.
I'm not going to hazard a guess as to why Ms. Sheehan has changed
her tune. Grief and time have a way of mobilizing inner impulses
that defy explanation. Instead I'd like to offer some balance to
the picture by reporting on the funeral of another soldier killed
in Iraq, and the quite different response from his grieving
family. Army Private First Class Nils George Thompson, who had
just turned 19, was killed by a sniper August 4 while on patrol
in Mosul, Iraq. Thompson was a deeply spiritual young man, who
grew up in New Brighton, Staten Island, but moved to Confluence,
Pa., in 2000. His family held his funeral mass at St. Stanislaus
Kostka, a predominantly Polish parish church.
Several parish clergymen eulogized the soldier as being a young
man of generosity and faith. Casey Sheehan and Nils Thompson
appear to be of similar high character, judging by the respect
paid to them at their funeral services.
The Pennsylvania soldier's mother, Francine Thompson, told
reporters after the service that it was very comforting coming
back to the church, where her family had been members for so
long. The soldier's father, Nils M. Thompson, commented that
nothing had changed his perspective of the American military. He
told a reporter for the Staten Island Advance, Deborah Young,
"We have nothing but good to say about those boys and what
they do. This is what my son fought for: freedom of religion and
freedom to live in peace."
The parents of Nils Thompson and other grieving parents who still
support the president and the war do not receive the same amount
of attention as Cindy Sheehan. Their every word is not repeated
on the Drudge Report, or on the Associated Press and Reuters
wires. But that is because they are in the majority and not
considered newsworthy. Whatever one's feeling toward
the war, we all need to consider the sacrifices of our men and
women in combat, be they Sheehans or Thompsons.
I can't help but think of them during this blistering August heat
wave. I imagine what it would be like if I didn't have
electricity to run the fans, or cold running water to cool off.
Meanwhile, our soldiers are sleeping in hot gear in the dirt, and
enduring unimaginable hardships while getting shot at. Recently
they were subjected to a deadly sandstorm.
I think also of some of the bravest people on this planet: the
Iraqis. Beset by foreign terrorists determined to undermine their
freedom, they continue to enlist to fight for the coalition and
to draft a constitution for a democratic country.
A recent Zogby survey determined that Detroit was the most
liberal city in America. The pollster, John Zogby, said New York,
surprisingly, came in only at 21, due to the influence of Staten
Island and parts of Queens.
Yes, we are conservative here, and most of us voted for Mr. Bush
and support the war. There are plenty of "yellow
ribbon" signs in the neighborhood, which lend credence to
that description. On the lawn of Snug Harbor, our community arts
center, is a huge 25-foot sculpture depicting that famed Times
Square photo of a returning World War II sailor kissing a nurse.
It's very appropriate for this traditional borough, where many
veterans of the last five wars reside. It's also a borough that
suffered particularly horribly after the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001. Many streets are named after firefighters and
police officers murdered on that Tuesday nearly four years ago.
Signs on many cars read, "We will never forget." We
never will.
It is disheartening to see Ms. Sheehan surrounded and exploited
by organizations that have no respect for the choice that Casey
Sheehan freely made. I suspect that Ms. Sheehan never supported
her son's choice either, and his death must have confirmed her
fears. But as we sit in air-conditioned apartments and homes and
drink our ice-cold, thirst-quenching drinks, we should take a
moment to remember that Casey and Nils were young Americans who
went to war so that we can do all these things in peace. They
deserve our deepest respect.