I encourage y’all to read the entirety of Ronald R. Griffin’s editorial today on OpinionJournal.com. Like Cindy Sheehan, he lost a son in Iraq, but she does not speak for him — nor for many of the parents of our fallen heroes.
One of my readers claimed it was “immoral and down right vicious” to try to attack the grieving mother of a dead soldier. By that argument, it would be vicious to attack Mr. Griffin, a grieving father, who supports the President’s leadership in Iraq:
Thirty-five years ago, a president faced a similar dilemma in Vietnam. He gave in and we got “peace with honor.” To this day, I am still searching for that honor. Today, those who defend our freedom every day do so as volunteers with a clear and certain purpose. Today, they have in their commander in chief someone who will not allow us to sink into self-pity. I will not allow him to. The amazing part about talking to the people left behind is that I did not want them to stop. After speaking to so many I have come away with the certainty of their conviction that in a large measure it’s because of the deeds and sacrifices of their fallen heroes that this is a better and safer world we now live in.
Mr. Griffin spoke with a number of
parents and loved ones of fallen heroes in an attempt to find out their reactions to all the attention Mrs. Sheehan has attracted. What emerges from those conversations is an empathy for Mrs. Sheehan’s suffering but a fundamental disagreement with her politics.
One parent believes Mrs. Sheehan “is dishonoring all soldiers” while the author’s wife says. “She is no more important than any other mother.”
She’s right because each one of the parents of our fallen heroes is important. Mrs. Sheehan no more speaks for all of them than does Mr. Griffin. Each parent, each widow, each relative left behind should have a place in our heart for the loss they have sustained. We should acknowledge as well the quality of their children, individuals who volunteered to serve in our armed forces, aware, when they did, that they could lose their lives defending our freedom. Mr. Griffin is right to ask for “equal time to other loved ones of fallen heroes. Feel the intensity of their love, their pride and the sorrow.” As we feel that intensity, we should be ever sensitive to their grief as we honor the service of their sons and daughters.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com