Feeling Cindy Sheehan’s and American Women’s Pain

By Paul S. Peete

All Rights Reserved

After spending the last couple years protesting the war in Iraq, becoming recognized as the face of the anti-war movement, Cindy Sheehan is coming home to California to pick up the pieces of her life and heal her obviously injured soul. In her letter outlining her decision, she states that America is a war machine controlling what we think and points out that we care more about who wins American Idol than the lives that will be lost in Iraq. When she first spoke out about Casey’s death and sought an opportunity to speak with President Bush about the purpose for her son having made the ultimate sacrifice, it was easy for the right wing ideologues to brand her as a grieving mother out of her mind. Bush was able to disregard her due to his then high approval ratings and the country not yet aware of the extent of the lies and bungling he and his neocon cronies had constructed in taking us into the conflict. After all, a woman bleeding over the loss of her son had no right to question the Decider in Chief.

Women are relegated to the second tier of American value by the ultra right. Two decisions of the Bush appointees on the Supreme Court are perfect indicators of the chauvinistic tendencies of these conservatives. The late term abortion decision, where the court chose to erode the rights of women to abort even if her life is endangered, is a precursor to an eventual rollback of Roe versus Wade. The usual moral platitudes were carted out to support the decision. Today’s decision by the right leaning jurists restricts the rights of employees to sue over pay disparities, a practice businesses use to underpay women and minorities. In an unusual move, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg read her dissenting opinion to the court countering both decisions, and implores Congress to act to correct these egregious affronts to women’s rights. With the narrow Democratic Majority in Congress, it is unlikely that anything will come of it.

If the women of America do not realize that by buying into the Republican mantra of family values and the fake righteousness of the Right, they’ve given into the very culprits who really desire to keep them barefoot and pregnant. The term is trite; but the intent is genuine. Come Election Day in 08, the choice is yours.