August 18, 2005

Every Mother's Son

The Union Line, Pea Ridge National Military Park and Battlefield, Pea Ridge Arkansas...

10,000 sons of
10,000 mothers
died in battle here.
Brother bayoneted Brother,
for a cause that wasn't clear

10,000 days
and more have passed
still families remember well
that winters day
on grey Pea Ridge
when 10,000 brothers fell

in 1862, mothers grieved and "didn't understand" either...
Freedom, everybody's freedom, isnt free...

He was 24, a volunteer Army Specialist, that was killed during an act of heroism in Sadr City Iraq on April 4th 2004... His name was Casey Austin Sheehan

He was every mother's son who has ever died in battle, in a war that is seemingly pointless, at least to you... You are that mother that is holding a folded flag as they shovel dirt over the precious boy that was your life.

You don't care that he chose this road, that he felt honored to wear the uniform of the US Army, that he volunteered for a dangerous mission and died protecting others as they were attacked in an ambush.

You don't care that he died like a man, with honor and dignity. You don't care that he was awarded medals for bravery, justly deserved.

You don't care that your current actions do the very thing that he would never do, demoralize his brothers and sisters in arms.

You just think of your missing firstborn, and of the man you hated anyway prior to the death of your son. Your words betray this on your website.

You have every right to protest, your son fought and died to preserve this right as long as you don't break the law. However, I can see your son looking down from heaven as a part of the "cloud of witnesses" mentioned in Hebrews 12, and saying

"Mom, Mom, you are wrong, I would do it all again and change nothing... Its my life and I chose to go and serve my country. It isn't the Presidents fault or the Israelis... It's to give the gift of freedom for now and forever to another land... Think of it Mom... I am a patriot, just like the men that came from France and Prussia and Poland to help us in America when we needed help way back when... We didn't do it alone and neither can Iraq. See the women voting, the little kids going to school. We built that school, the US Army did... We are doing a lot of good here!"

"Mom, Mom, please just be proud of me... I love you..."

I really believe this. After doing a bit of research on Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan, I see a really special young man who did this country proud in the way he lived and died. Sadly I feel that his mother is tarnishing the beautiful memory of her son by getting involved with the worst of liberal whackydom, allowing them to exploit her undealtwith grief as a tool to undermine the war effort. Shame on you people for doing this. Shame on the family for allowing this to go on, she has forgotten herself, her dignity as a Gold Star Mother, and her family that needs their Mom back in Vacaville, not camping out on the Texas Plain.

Mrs Sheehan has made some very erroneous comments, from saying that this is a war for oil to that her son died because of Israel's situation with the Arab occupiers of the "West Bank". Here is a great post by my friend Smooth Stone regarding the situation. Take the time to read this, its important.

If you question the feelings of Iraqi's about our troops being there... if you are taken in by the media's faulty reporting of the situation, read this post from the blog Iraq the Model, It broke my heart... for I know that every word is true.

We are at a critical time in Iraq. Let us not waver in this work that has been set before us. Let us finish the course, then bring our troops home...As for Mrs. Sheehan, in the name of your son we honor your grief, get some help, join a grief therapy group, and go home to your other four children. They need you. After all they lost the big Brother that they adored. They are grieving too...