The Day Begins with a Downer

There are times in life when I wish I would have taken typing in the way-back, or otherwise learned how to touch-type. My “three-finger plus thumbs” method of typing just isn’t fast enough to capture thought in certain situations, nor can I take notes or otherwise write fast enough to get things down as they happen. This morning was just such an occasion.

She Who Will Not Be Named (SWWNBN)* was promoting her new book (Peace Mom) on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning for about 45 minutes. I took notes for this post, but my notes aren’t near where as comprehensive or as useful as I’d like them to be. So take the following with a grain of salt.

I’ll deliver the de rigueur sympathy statement right up front. The woman lost her son, and regardless of one’s political persuasion, one has to acknowledge that loss and her right to grieve. I sympathize with SWWNBN’s loss and thank God I am not in her place.

It’s a well-known fact SWWNBN and her husband are now divorced. That subject came up during this morning’s interview and the reason offered for the divorce was Mr. Sheehan wanted to keep their grief private, SWWNBN wanted, and subsequently did, take the grief public. Divorce was the result. SWWNBN then made the claim that 75% of all couples who bury a child divorce. I find that a little hard to swallow, but I can’t factually dispute it. Peter, the C-SPAN interviewer, later asked if she still had friends back in Vacaville from her “old life.” “One” was the response. SWWNBN claimed “the entire town of Vacaville” turned on her when she became a peace activist because the town is “very conservative.” Interestingly, SWWNBN also abandoned her religion. She stated she was no longer a Catholic but didn’t amplify on the statement. SWWNBN remains close with her surviving children and communicates with her ex-husband through the kids.

So much loss…son, marriage, friends, religion. From a disinterested outsider’s perspective, one wonders just how an individual copes with loss of that magnitude. One also wonders why SWWNBN doesn’t question why all those people who used to be prominent in her life are no longer on her side and are (apparently) no longer supportive of her or her cause. Personally, I think her new friends—the Code Pink “ladies” and the like—are using her…but that’s just my opinion.

SWWNBN doesn’t come off as all that smart, even though she characterizes herself as a “history major.” Rather, she comes off as a well-meaning but misguided pacifist, with all the “why can’t we be friends?” baggage people with pacifist views carry. She made several statements to the effect that “I’m against all wars,” “war is not a solution to problems,” “the military-industrial complex,” “President Bush’s terror war,” “we have to fight hate with love” (my personal favorite), and “we have to evolve beyond war.” In other words, SWWNBN is well-versed in all the platitudes of the pacifist Left. SWWNBN also repeatedly brought up the erroneous “fact” the US has targeted and killed many thousands of innocent civilians in both Iraq and Afghanistan. She is also against the Afghanistan war, claiming we shouldn’t have “invaded,” but rather should have launched a “Special Forces type” of operation. Just how a Special Forces operation differs from an invasion is completely lost on me.

Other observations:

Peter: There are a lot of four-letter words in your book. Why?
SWWNBN: I use four-letter words. They come from my heart.

Peter: You have a lot of friends in Congress. Who are some of your heroes in the Congress?
SWWNBN: Dennis Kuchinich, John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Russ Feingold. (There were more; I couldn’t write fast enough. All left-wing, all anti-war, all predictable.)

I’ve exhausted my notes. As you can probably surmise, there was more, much more. Generally speaking, the call-ins were respectful and subdued, even from those who disagreed with her. SWWNBN noted that fact and expressed a small amount of surprise, claiming she’s been “abused” by “right-wingers.” One hundred per cent of the callers on the “Democrats” line were supportive, bordering on fawning.

My bottom line: SWWNBN is the classic useful idiot. I feel sorry for the woman.

* I think it was Lex who coined this term.