Cindy Shewho? Misguided Matron Makes Massive Miss

Cindy Sheehan was bitter last week. Having sharked up some thousands of 60’s retreads, professional protestors, and one mentally unbalanced congressperson; “Ms Smarty” gave a party and nobody came to play. Bitterly berating the media – and not just Fox News – for spending their collective attention on Hurricanes, wars, the conformation of the Chief Justice, and other such trivia; she marched off to the White House to get her self arrested. The image of queen Sheehan, grinning with pleasure, as she was haled off – as if in a sedan chair – by officers of the D.C. police, left me cold. This is the “Mother Inferior’s” attempt to link her sinking, and stinking, cause to the noble tradition of civil disobedience? Her failure would be laughable if it weren’t for the bitter consequences that even a minuet of fame for this gorgon gets, brings upon those who risk their lives to defend freedom throughout the world.

Sheehan has totally missed the formula for actually performing an act of civil disobedience. Three elements and one condition are key to invoking the power by which Gandhi drove the British from Empire and M. L. King lead our nation out of racial segregation. These three important elements and condition are: 1) an unjust law, 2) nonviolent disobeying of that law, and 3) taking the consequences for disobedience to that law. The one condition is that these actions must take place in a nation that accepts the rule of Law (justice). Gandhi and King would have vanished, along with millions of others, had protested the injustices of Nazism or Communism.

Sheehan’s protest doesn’t pass the smell test. Were is her suffering in Birmingham Jail; where her beating at the hands of apartheid driven jack troops? Instead Sheehan is gently carried off into the evening’s news cycle.

Where is the great injustice against which she fights? Where the enforced poverty, the inequality of opportunity, the oppressive brutality against a race or group? The law Sheehan chooses to break is nothing more than jay walking. How are laws against blocking public access unjust? Of course they are not. She does not even have the grace of protesting in the name of one brought down by oppression like the mothers of the disappeared n Peru. Her mock protests degrade the sacrifice of her son, who was not sent to war by any mother, but who freely gave his life in the battle to bring hope and freedom to millions.

Modern relativists cannot discern these concepts. Thus, eco-terrorists endanger lives and destroy property from secret web-cells and never gain one ounce of sympathy for there unjust causes, thus PETA attacks the livelihoods of honest farmers and ranchers, and cannot understand why the masses do not embrace their agenda, thus terrorists must murder to get attention but garner only righteous wrath.

Not all mothers are loving care givers, some are abusive monsters, Sheehan continues to abused her son, his memory, and the just cause for which he gave the ultimate gift of love. You’ve missed it Ms Sheehan. Your moment of fame may be fanned by those who seek to use you – but you have only harmed the cause justice.

Perception Is Everything - NOT!!!!

Last Friday I had the privilege of participating in my second “Late Start Day” of the school year. Our most excellent Principal arranged a very informative training for the first part of our extra two hours without students. This training culminated in a discussion on the fact that my school had failed the “No Child Left Behind” standards for last year. The presentation soon degenerated into a lot of excuses and complaints about the entire testing program. Finally one of my most respected colleagues, with a pointed stare in my direction, suggested that our only salvation was to elect a new President. At this point I put in my two bits worth. “What does it matter that we got a “No” on the level of success of our Hispanic students? Isn’t the purpose of the standard test to help us find students that need help? Perhaps we would be better off with a President who allow us to continue to sweep our failures under the rug – but wouldn’t it be much better if we were to work together to make these students more successful and quit worrying about whether we beat Davis High or not!!” At this point another dear friend and fellow teacher said loudly and pointedly, “Perception is everything!” Then my Principal intervened to explain that I was stealing his final remarks.

But I was deeply troubled at Mr. Brimhall’s comment. It is at the foundation of what I call Relativism. Reality does not matter – it is what one chooses to believe that matters.

Please consider these examples:

1) I spent many hours last week watching the “questioning” of Judge John Roberts. (Thank goodness for CSPAN) It soon became obvious that many of the questioners were far more interested in perception than in Judge Roberts. For those of you who have listened and watched, I am sure you are aware of a thousand examples, but the most blatant, to me, was Ted Kennedy EEOC attack. Toward the end of his second set of questions, the twenty minute round, Kennedy started reading a lengthy description of the EEOC and its great value to America and to the civil rights of all those who Kennedy pretends to champion. He then read one phrase from a memo that Roberts had written while advising President Reagan some twenty years ago. Kennedy read from Roberts’ memo: “. . . we should ignore the assertion that the “EEOC is un-American”, the truth of the matter not withstanding.” Kennedy’s hope was that the perception would be that Roberts was implying that it was true that the EEOC was un-American and that Reagan should just ignore that fact. Kennedy wanted to propagate the perception that Judge Roberts truly believed the EEOC to be un-American. When Kennedy pompously demanded an explanation of this abhorrent claim, Roberts promptly provided one – the TRUTH!!! He pointed out that Senator Kennedy was only reading the last half of a sentence. The first half of that sentence referred to a person who had written to President Reagan demanding that he fulfill an alleged campaign promise to abolish the EEOC. Roberts explained that he had been unable to prove or disprove that Reagan had made any such promise – but was advising the President to ignore such a claim – the truth of the matter of whether Reagan had made such a promise or not, “not withstanding”. It then became obvious that Roberts was defending the EEOC to Reagan not disparaging it. Kennedy was left gasping like a great fish out of water. He tried to obfuscate and to withhold the memo from the record and from Judge Roberts, but fortunately Chairman Specter provided the Judge a chance to prove the truth by providing him the memo and time to explain.

Now an observation, which I hope my many friends who were most successful policy debaters in high school and college, will not consider in any way a slight on the merits of that activity. In Kennedy’s folly I see all the trappings of the card quoting and brief building of certain high school debaters. What Kennedy had done was set loose his army of aids and interns to scour the 100,000 or so pages of documents provided from John Robert’s paper trail. One of these eager beavers had found this little treasure and wrote page after page of brief for Kennedy to read in the hearing. The entire purpose of the charade? – To try to create a pernicious perception. This CARD was to carry the day for the relativists and sully the reputation of a great man, because, to them, perception is all that matters. What Roberts’ brilliance and Specter’s fairness proved was that it is the TRUTH that matters!!!!

2) The endless yammering about the “failed” policy in Iraq. Now I hear that George McGovern and Bill Clinton have joined the chorus calling on America to desert democracy in Iraq.

3) The constantly inflated casualty numbers, the lies about dikes being blown up, the constantly casting of the “race card”, the endless blame game, of the hurricane disaster.

4) The endless griping about the costs for wars and disaster clean ups.

It would be nice to consider some facts for a change:

Consider the fact that both Iraq and Afghanistan have had more successful elections than Germany.

Realize the fact that leaving Saddam to grow in power and brashness would have inevitably brought upon the world far greater costs in lives and treasure. Saddam demonstrated his brashness and earned his destruction by ignoring multiple UN resolutions.

Understand that leaving Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in ruins, will do this nation far more damage than spending enough money to revitalize and rebuild them. I would point out that the deficit spending of FDR together with the Marshal Plan and the rebuilding of Japan, at great expense to Americans; enunciated the second great economic boom of the twentieth century. By the way, the roaring fifties far surpassed the roaring twenties. I would add that Ronald Reagan’s deficit spending and tax cuts allow the US to spend the USSR out of existence without nuclear war, and lay the foundation for an economic prosperity that it took Bill Clinton seven years of mismanagement to deflate.

The truth is out there – but I fear it will have little effect on those to whom Perception Is Everything.

The Cannibals Are Choking

Last week a media personality, and enemy of President Bush, claimed that poor people in New Orleans were eating the bodies of the dead. This nameless blip on the media screen later retracted his pernicious and deliberate lie, but the damage had already been done. The flood of misinformation flows from the enemies within our country to buoy up and embolden our enemies without. Americans eat themselves up to the cheers and delight of Alkada murders, South American dictators, French snobs, and German politicians.

Now for some facts:

1. Thousands of Americans were NOT KILLED by the most devastating storm to hit our country in many years. Previous storms have been just as powerful but there was far less to devastate. The devastation was not what our enemies had hoped for, but that did not deter them. Without a real failure of America, its enemies set about sharking up corpses in order to dismember our county.

2. Realize that not one American has died of starvation or thirst due to Katrina. These important necessities were made available not only to the hundreds of thousands that followed the directions of their chosen leaders and fled the city to safety, but to the thousands who did not leave the city when they could have. Many still refuse to leave. They and are being fed and hydrated by their fellow citizens, at great cost and sacrifice to us all. America’s government and President, and the leaders of States and Cities, communities throughout this land, have and continue to do all that is possible to alleviate the danger and mitigate the suffering of our fellows smitten by an over whelming act of natural power. To seize upon that suffering; fabricating specifics which the facts do not support; as a way of increasing one’s own political power; to misrepresent the extent and causes of disaster in order to bludgeon ones opponents to get gain in the next election is to truly cannibalize the dead.

3. This hurricane and the devastation it has wrought is neither the result of the anger of Ala nor global warming. Storms like Katrina, and greater, have been boiling about the oceans of this planet since before our ancestors crawled out of them. When such storms come ashore were people are - they hurt those people. Environmental and Islamic fanatics have long abandoned reason; now they search for sustenance by feeding on the dead. To blame an act of nature on God or man is to devour the dead to strengthen one’s selfish ambition.

4. The resurrection of the areas affected by the storm and flood is progressing at a rate ahead of all predictions and at a level which promises to improve the standard of living for those affected. I listened to a German Reporter on the NPR gushing with pleasure that the “One Superpower” had been brought to its knees by the might of nature. What a pleasure to see this ghoul made a fool. America has not been brought to its knees; it stands taller than ever as we reach out to serve each other. Those who wishfully speak of the failure of America are devouring themselves. Trying to sharpen their teeth on the bones of our lost loved ones they are consumed by their own lies.

We have seen this all before. The cannibals counted the slaughter on 9/11 - predicting 50, 000 dead and America weakened beyond recovery; they choked on the truth. The cannibals predicted the utter defeat of the United States in Afghanistan, licking their chops as they predicted our nation would follow the USSR into the morgue of history; they choked on the truth. The feasters on human flesh predicted that 20,000 Americans would be killed in the first days of the charge up the Euphrates, and that that many more would fall before the walls of Baghdad; they choked on the truth. Still smelling blood the naysayer call for another Vietnam in Iraq. They will find the truth hard to swallow. And now, baying for blood, those who would devour their fellows for their own gain condemn the Bush administration and other selfless servants of our nation, who rushed into the storm to bring safety and support to our countrymen in danger. Of these cannibals I say, "Let them choke!!!"