By Malia Zimmerman

Cindy Sheehan in Hawaii

I was expecting more from Cindy Sheehan, the self proclaimed "peace mom" who spoke last night at the Church of the Crossroads in Honolulu.

More focus on her son, Army Spc. Casey A. Sheehan, who died in 2004 fighting for his country in Iraq -- he is the person she says inspired her to tour the country and share her controversial anti-Iraq war views with the nation and even the president himself.

More talk of who her son was and what he stood for, rather than who she is and what she thinks about politics, politicians, war and weapons.

More polish in her presentation -- after all she says she’s given 250 speeches in 28 states and 50 cities in recent months. Instead she gave an esoteric speech that drifted from random thoughts to political nastygrams spouted at the president sporadically as if she suffered from an incurable case of Tourette's Syndrome.

Sheehan says: "I’m going to tell people, if they think any war is at least fighting for peace, I’m sorry, for freedom and democracy, they’re not. They’re to make people rich. It’s plain and simple. ... The war machine is always looking for some way to eat our children up and spit them out. And what they do is, when they eat them and spit them out, it produces money and these people feed their families off of our children’s flesh and blood. And that’s despicable and that’s immoral and we have to stop it. And war is going to stop is when we bring the war machine down."

 

Then there was that embarrassingly hokey documentary that she attempted to show before her speech about "Camp Casey," the place she and several thousand other war protestors created outside Bush’s Crawford, Texas ranch after he refused to meet with her a second time. The documentary, which kept shutting itself off, was about her experiences when I thought it would be the story of her son’s life.

And the clichés she shot off about Bush were so predictable that they became dull, despite her strong language.

There was the "George Bush is the one who might as well have pulled the trigger that killed my son" quote. (Hear it here: Bush killed my son) There was the "George Bush has to either be impeached or resign before November of 2006" comment.

Then the double predictable whammy: "What George Bush did by killing my son and having our children fighting an illegal war dishonors them and it dishonors the USA" ... "My son died saving his buddy's life, George Bush, wouldn't even go to Vietnam."

Of course, no anti-war protestor speech would be complete without calling Bush a murderer:

"That he and his dysfunctional, murderous family is destroying nice families … like mine." (Hear it here: Bush destroys families)

Sheehan’s talk was shockingly transparent because it was so blatantly focused on one person -- Cindy Sheehan -- not Casey Sheehan and the contributions he’s made in his short, but important life. In fact, she says he died in vain and with no purpose -- no purpose at all.

For a while during her talk, which ran more than 30 minutes, with a 30-plus minute introduction and 15 minute talk afterward by another parent, Paul Wessel of Honolulu who lost his son Army Spc. Kevin Wessel in Iraq, it was if she was gossiping with her high school girlfriends. She talked about her recent vacation in Kauai, her background, her beliefs, her new book, the publicity she’s received since camping out at the president’s ranch last August. She talked about how "cool" it was to be named troublemaker of the world by Rolling Stone Magazine -- even cooler than being in Time Magazine in the section that talked about those who made a difference in 2005.

"People tell me I have had my 15 minutes of fame and ask when am I going to get off the stage. I tell them to get used to me because I am staying put," Sheehan says.

Self-obsessed with how important she believes she has become, she went so far as to claim that it was likely that the FBI is tapping her phone so that "they" can know what she is up to. There were many references to the evil "they" but it was not really clear who "they" are.

Travel and invitations to meet with important international politicians also has come with the "hate America spotlight" she’s shown on herself. She discussed all of the places she has been invited to travel and all the people she’s met around the world, since arriving in the new found fame. She brought back the message to America, which she shared last night, that Europeans despise America because they believe we are a greedy, clever, manipulative and despicable country, with "idiots" for citizens. That is with the exception of Cindy Sheehan herself, and those who think like her. Apparently the Europeans they met believe Sheehan and her supporters are not idiots.

The greatest disappointment is not witnessing a talk by a mom who claims to honor her son’s memory by dishonoring the leaders of our country and the people who believe in them. That was predictable. Or that she whined and droned on and was not nearly as clever as the woman, Ann Wright, who spoke before her, and the man who spoke after her on the same subject. That was expected.

The disappointment, after spending two hours in a hot, cramped room on a hard metal chair with people who hissed and moaned at the mere mention of President Bush, is I know very little about Casey Sheehan.

I know the young man is one of many American heroes our country should honor. His mother says he never even got into one fistfight in his life and she was surprised when he joined the Army. From news stories, I know that he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2000 at the age of 20, when the country was not at war. Four years later, he voluntarily re-enlisted, knowing he would likely be one of the troops sent to Iraq. And he was sent to Iraq, beginning in March 2004, where he worked as a mechanic for the artillery division of the 1st Cavalry Division. When a convoy was attacked in Sadr City, he went voluntarily to join the rescue mission and be in heavy combat, something he was not obligated in any way to do. For his bravery, he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He was killed in 2004. But these are just general facts I could read in any summary of a person’s life -- I want to know -- who is Casey Sheehan and what did he really think about America, about the war, about his mother’s crusade?

Sheehan says despite what others may say, her son would be extremely proud of her because he hated Bush and the war.

"Casey did not want to go to Iraq. Casey despised George Bush. Casey despised what George Bush was doing. He despised this war."

But the rest of Sheehan’s family does not seem to feel the same way -- they have pleaded with Sheehan to stop her crusade, saying Casey would not have approved. "The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect." Sincerely, Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins.'''

Even in the final seconds of her speech, Sheehan did not focus her attention on who her son really was, rather she talked about what he thought of her.

"And I know Casey is up there in Heaven and he’s so proud of me. He’s going, "Ooh, George Bush didn’t know what he was getting into."

Reach Malia Zimmerman, editor and president of Hawaii Reporter, via email at mailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com