Mourning in America – John Tierney

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3 responses to “Mourning in America – John Tierney”

1. 

   2006-06-10

   bls

   “But having tragedy strike your family does not make you an expert on public policy. Instead, it warps your perspective. You become the most narrow special-interest group, obsessed with redressing a personal loss no matter what the cost to society.”
   But this doesn’t mean Cindy Sheehan’s voice is irrelevant or that she should keep quiet. And she’s part of society.
   What’s wrong with a grieving mother standing up in front of the world and remind everyone what the costs are? That’s reality, too. It’s a necessary voice, and one that keeps Americans from rushing into unnecessary wars, I think.

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2. 

   2006-06-10

   D. C.

   Tierney says that, in the very first sentence of the excerpt.

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3. 

   2006-06-10

   bls

   Here’s a little phrase we use in A.A.: “Everything after the ‘But’ is bullshit.” Or, in this case, before. Tierney apparently doesn’t believe that clause himself, since he brings up Cindy Sheehan’s encampment outside Bush’s ranch.
   What’s the problem with her doing this? Anyway, it’s not of a piece with the other issues he mentions; Cindy Sheehan isn’t affecting “Congressional committees” or “urban planners.” (And I notice in complaints like Tierney’s that it’s always the ivory-tower elites who are so horribly put-upon by the warped and twisted crazies of the world – the people who actually live the experience themselves, and go through the pain. People on “Congressional committees” are famously not sending their own sons and daughters to Iraq.)
   Cindy Sheehan is simply another person with an opinion – just like you or me or Tierney. I don’t believe she’s ever claimed to be anything else. So what, exactly, is the “cost to society” he complains of here?

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