Sue Niederer, Her Dead Son, and the Right to Speak

Here's CNN's spin of the story I posted last night. Scroll down; I'm on s-l-o-w dialup and I'm not going to go back and link.

I kept waking up last night thinking of Mrs. Niederer, all the talk about how our soldiers risk their lives for our freedoms and liberties (usually uttered by politicians who are trying to restrict them), and the way this mother of a dead soldier was treated. Her face and her words were there waiting for me when I awoke this morning, too.

Sure, everyone who dissents from the official spin is being treated this way. But that sanctimonious crowd in Hamiltown yesterday kept trying to drown out this woman, whose son paid for the right to her to speak, with chants of "Four more years!"

How many of the folks in the audience had given their sons and daughters in Afghanistan and Iraq? Certainly not Laura Bush, whose 22-year-old twins can't keep off the booze and drugs while on the campaign trail for their dad. Your 18-year-old may be fighting and dying, while the Bushes' children are swilling $4500 of designer drinks in a single pop (according to the NY newspapers during the RNC) and making sure their schedules are free during Fashion Week.

Why are Jenna and Barbara Bush more precious than Mrs. Niederer's son? How can men like Mr. Bush start and then mismanage wars that the children of the Mrs. Niederer's must fight? And how can these politicians have the sheer nerve to get their GI photo ops and praise these men and women for what they give us, only to have this mother arrested for daring to say the war is wrong?