Cindy: A Rose by any other name…

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Romeo and Juliet (Quote Act II, Sc. II).

I’m not sure where I first encountered the concept (probably in an English Composition class), but the more something is described or defined, the more bounded and enclosed it becomes. I am thinking more about labels here than anything else, because that seems to be where media communication is currently hanging its hat.

Cindy Sheehan, in my view, is a grieving Mother who, having lost her son in a military action initiated by his own Commander–in-Chief for dubious and unclear reasons, is justifiably pissed off about the reluctance of said Commander-in-Chief to explain to her and the other grieving parents of our fighting men and women lost in action why he believes this war is the noble cause he professes it to be, and why it can’t begin to end…now.

In the view of some media members, Cindy Sheehan is traitorous; a media whore, giving aid and comfort to the enemy… and the labels abound about how far LEFT supporting she has become.


This piece better expresses my thoughts:

A grieving mother, looking for answers as to why her son was killed in Iraq, came to Crawford, Texas and holds vigil to find them. Since then...

The commander-in-chief who sent our troops into Iraq refuses to spend one minute with her, deciding instead to "get on with my life."

The same man "answers" her via his Saturday morning radio address, hiding behind his listeners.

And again, his motorcade speeds past her post, not even slowing down to wave.

A radio host with zero military experience (and four sons of military age NOT serving) brings almost a busload of his listeners to yell "We don't care!" at her before retreating back to Dallas. One after another, other "clever" radio hosts follow suit.

She gets relentlessly smeared and slimed by right-wing major media pundit after right-wing major media pundit, accusing her NOT of sitting in the hot Texas sun because of a calling from her conscience, but of being a left-wing nut and a media whore.

A local lunatic fires a gun several times, saying he's practicing for "hunting doves."

Another lunatic plows his truck over roadside markers honoring the war dead.

The National Review says she's auditioning for her own Air America show.

Her character and her motives have been twisted, assassinated and put through the meat grinder by people who consider themselves "patriots."

Her reputation has been shot through the mud by people who don't even know her or the pain she feels.

Her divorce is now gossip fodder.

All because this woman traveled over the miles to a desolate Texas farmland to ask her president one simple question about her dead son.