There is an article in the San Francisco Chronicle today comparing Sheehan and Bridges, two mothers of dead Iraqi soldiers, and their feelings about the war. The following is an excerpt from that article:
Sheehan has become the new face of the peace movement, camping outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, and demanding to speak with him about the war and the loss of her son.
Bridges would never consider such a thing.
“My son believed in what he was doing,” Bridges said. “I would never go protest against what he believed in and died for.”
An eight-year-old boy might believe in Santa Claus because his teacher told him and several of his small friends that a big fat man who lives at the North Pole comes down the chimney and gives presents. If that same teacher assisted the boy and his friends in stowing away on a whaling vessel to the North Pole to look for Santa Claus causing them to die a cold death from hypothermia, their parents might still be upset that this teacher lied to the children and sent them on a perilous journey to end in certain death. In fact, it might even be important enough for them to take a trip to that teacher’s house, and wait angrily for her to come outside.