(actually posted Jan. 20, 2009)
The inspiration for this post stemmed from my curiosity over why Mary Tillman is allowed to question the Army over the death of her son but Cindy Sheehan isn't. My curiosity quickly evolved into understanding, although it doesn't always work this way... neither my understanding, nor the right wing media's heeding of the facts.
What I discovered is that because Pat Tillman was famous, and his mother chose to write a book, Ann Coulter couldn't make up a story for them without challenging them. (I'll assume that Coulter called Tillman "a true original" and a hero before she learned that SPC Tillman wasn't a big fan of Bush or the war and by then it was too late to retract it.) She also couldn't retract it since most of America already saw Tillman as a hero for giving up an NFL contract to join his brother in the Army, Coulter et al couldn't really maintain their pseudo-patriot front and do anything but praise him.
The Sheehans on the other hand, in spite of being nearly identical families in the important areas - mothers grieving sons lost in a war that should never have been fought - were unknowns to the American public, so the conservative media were free to make up whatever the hell they wanted to about them. Every statement Cindy Sheehan made was an opportunity to pick it apart and find something wrong with it. Every photo taken, a chance to point out her flaws. After all, her son wasn't a "true original." All he did was die for his country. He didn't turn down an NFL contract to do so and somehow, in Coulter's eyes, that makes his death less patriotic and his mother's grief less worthy of sympathy. His mother's frustration over why this had to happen less worthy of an answer and her attempts to find that answer while grieving that loss by camping out in Crawford, TX while the president vacationed instead of paying her the courtesy of a reply was called a ridiculous, liberal agenda.
So Cindy Sheehan chose to express her grief on behalf of all mothers who feared the same thing. She chose to go macro and argue that this war wasn't worth the loss of another mother's son, that the lies had gone on long enough, and that someone at or near the top should be held accountable for the deaths of these sons. She chose to try to stop other mothers from going through the same thing she'd experienced. That's how her grief played itself out. I don't think anyone, not Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter or Sean Hannity has the right to question how a mother grieves in that situation.
Mary Tillman's grief took on a slightly different form. She went micro. Instead of asking why the war was worth her son's life, she just wanted the truth about how he died. Instead of questioning the lies that put us in the war, she only questioned the lies about the events on the day of her son's death. What's interesting about her different form of grieving is that the results coming from the White House were so similar... both moms got little more than the latest version of the story, not the truth. Coulter et al may also have been more careful about criticizing the Tillmans because Kevin Tillman, Pat's brother, was in the same platoon and was there the day Pat was killed. It's tough to make up a story condemning their version of it in order to suit your own agenda. Casey Sheehan wasn't as fortunate, so his mom gets criticized for questioning his death.
I've spent enough time on here explaining that troops don't get to pick the wars they fight, and that most of them are good people fulfilling a sense of duty and doing the best job they can, so don't even start on me on that. And don't start on me claiming that I'm favoring one mother's method of grieving over another's. I ain't sayin' anything like that. No one oustide of their shoes has any business judging how they grieve. From us, they should get nothing but sympathy and support. And both of these families have that from me.
What I am saying is that both mothers, regardless of the direction their grief points them, deserve the same from the media. Common courtesy says this should apply to the "liberal media" just as it applies to the actual media.
If Katie Couric gave the same time to Sheehan as she did to Tillman, Fox and AM radio would have been all over it. That's crap. The only thing that matters is these mothers lost their sons. Whether you agree with the war or not, whether you agree with the moms' politics or not, if you're not offering your support then just shut up and leave them alone.
Luth,
Out
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