"Good Riddance Attention Whore"

Source: Daily Kos

Below is an excerpt from a recent article by Cindy Sheehan declaring her intentions to step down as the spokesperson for the Anti-War movement. Now that both Republicans and Dems have disowned and used her she's had enough.


"Good Riddance Attention Whore"


by CindySheehan


Mon May 28, 2007 at 09:57:01 AM PDT
I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called "Face" of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such "liberal blogs" as the Democratic Underground. Being called an "attention whore" and being told "good riddance" are some of the more milder rebukes.

CindySheehan's diary :: ::
I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system?

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left", but "right and wrong."


Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/28/12530/1525

This whole thing is beginning to sound like kindergardeners arguing over not enough cookies. BOTH SIDES.

as well as the bickering and regurgitation of all that is unsightly with this whole mess is enough for me to -- uncharacteristically, as I used to like Cindy -- be happy to see her go!

I wouldn't say those words to ANY Gold Star Mother, even if they said George W. Bush is the second coming.

That being said, I don't blame Cindy for stepping back. I just hope those blowhards who called her names step forward with a plan to end the war that is more effective than what is being done now. And if they are Democrats and FOR the war, I would strongly question what they are doing in this party.

Other than the standards of Cindy herself.

our fellow poster who would be so unbelievably cruel and insensitive to a grieving mother of a vet, especially on Memorial Day.

Please consider deleting this thread. We've had enough of this as has Cindy.

Here's the only reasonable and compassionate thread on the matter I've yet to view.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x987221

Between the time I read the OP for this thread and posted my reply, 4 other people had already piled on and when I then read what they had to say I realized -- something vile has happened at DU.

Hekate

She lost her son, he fought for his country, and it's Memorial Day. The way she was treated here in the last couple of discussions is unbelievable. If people don't like her for some reason, there are much better ways to say it.

to yourself or other DU'ers. I live in Canada and honestly forgot it was you Memorial day. I saw this news story and since I thought it was relevant to many people here I sent it on.
She mentions DU specifically in the article, and I thought it important that those who care would want to know Cindy's thoughts on how she perceives what's going on in the media in relation to her situation.
Once again, I'm sorry.

I explained my perspective in part on Will's thread but having avoided the flame fests on her since yesterday, I was trying to take a more productive response is all.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x985806

Sorry back atchya for being a bit snarky. Just a really touchy issue for many of us for a whole lot of reasons.

best

Someone HERE called Cindy an "attention whore"?

I feel heartsick.

Hekate

As to whether or not you wanted to "see her go." I voted no. The statement in question was the other option.

Horrible, really. People can be so nasty these days.

It's unclear if this was a broad based term that she feels reflects how the media in general discribe her. Or it could be a particular journalist who labeled her this way. It doesn't state.

Sounds as if someone is directing a fight, with DU in the middle. :shrug:

And that would be me. I called her an "attention whore" for she is one.

I used to have suspicions about her motives, now I have little doubt. She's less interested in the cause than getting her name mentioned by the media. She used to be respectable at the beginning, but she's pissed all that away.

Go away and good riddance, Cindy. You're nothing but a "fairweather friend". A selfish opportunist of the worst sort. We do not need anyone like you for the cause.

:shrug:

Just askin ...

but Cindy Sheehan is not obliged to ask your permission to say or do any damned thing.

Cindy Sheehan never had an obligation to any organization, party, or obnoxious individual. She started her own campaign to influence bush after her son was killed. She gets to write the rules. You don't. Now crawl back under your rock.

This is as vile as Ann Coulter's trash-talk about the 9-11 widows.

:cry:

Hekate

... to your conclusions about Cindy Sheehan.

But the cynic in me doesn't expect a whole lot of reason went into such an absurd series of statements.

Oh well. You're certainly entitled to make yourself look ridiculous, if you choose. Wish you'd drop the "we" and "our cause" stuff, though. You sure don't speak for me.

:eyes:

I just lost my brother Andy in Iraq on May 3 and I don't think that I want to be included in your "we," okay?

Calling a Gold Star mother an "attention whore" makes you look like something even worse. And I can guarantee that your actions make that label a whole lot more justified than that which you called Cindy, which is not justified.

before judging. Something tells me you haven't lost a child to bush's folly. And something tells me that you wouldn't have had the courage to speak out for peace the way she does. If I am wrong my apologies... regardless you don't speak for me.

If ending the war is your goal, then blaming Cindi for it's continuance is not a solution. She is a mother who lost her son and stood up for what she believed and pointed the finger directly at Bush.

Don't ya think?

She's a patriot.

Too bad you can't see that.

She single handedly has done more to bring an end to this war than you, but that shouldn't take much since you seem to want war more than peace.

now I can put your sorry ass on IGNORE :puke:

People seem to think it's okay to say any old thing nowadays, you aren't allowed to say that anything is just wrong, and I'm disgusted by the crass and obnoxious behavior I see here and elsewhere all the time. It seems that mean and nasty people have taken over, and the rest of us are just supposed to cower under their feet. Well, I for one refuse. And if Cindy wants to quit because people are so nasty, I don't blame her--she's put in her dues and been more sincere in one day than many of the rude posters here could be in one lifetime. I will miss her very much. I wish she weren't doing this, but she has done more to promote ending the war than most of us could ever dream of. :patriot:

The Left has not abandoned you--only some Democrats who never were on the left.

When the last struggle has been won, when humans at last know peace and justice, they will call out the honor roll.
Here, in no particular order, are a few of the heroic women whose names they will call:

Harriet Tubman.
Hannah Clothier Hull.
Carrie Chapman Catt.
Jane Addams.
Sojourner Truth.
Emily Greene Balch.
Marjory Miller Whittemore.
Cindy Sheehan.

Thank you, Cindy. No matter how you choose to spend the rest of your days, thank you for what you nave done these past three years.

destiny.

Any credibility to the story is destroyed in the last two words of the title.

The Title is hers

link to her diary at DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/28/12530/1525

Leave Her Alone.

out of over 104 thousand Members. But I guess those of us with kids in the Military should keep quiet in the event something bad happens. Unless of course we feel the need for some gratuitous abuse.

I wasn't aware that any on the Left were calling her "attention whore," or anything like that, but if so, I know where they learned it. The hard Right has poisoned all our discourse, and it must be tempting to fall back on ad hominem when rampant Democratic hypocrisy is pointed out.

Cindy's okay by me. She recognized the goddamned war as the central issue of our time long before most of us so-called liberals. She was right when so many of us were wrong.

She deserved far more attention than she ever got.

They don't own that kind of trashy rhetoric; it has always been practiced by people across the political spectrum. As you say, ad hominem attacks are a tempting defense mechanism. But we shouldn't let allegiance to the Democratic Party get in the way of our opposition to the war. Cindy Sheehan is morally consistent when she criticizes the Democrats. They betrayed, not the other way around.

When we need an accusation of consorting with terrorists or John McCain's biracial baby, we need only look to our Right.

Many people on the right look at things said by Michael Moore and Al Franken as poisonous rhetoric. If you really insist on dealing with facts, you could point out that claims about the criminality and incompetence of the Bush Adminsitration are true while the attacks of right-wing hate machines tend toward whole-cloth fabrication.

At the same time, puerile name-calling and hypocritical apologetics don't do anything to help our side. I see too much of both among my fellow liberals, even here on the hallowed discussion forums of DU.

to speak up against ANYONE who still supported this war. I see people trashing Hillary or Edwards all the time in DU, why shouldn't Cindy Sheehan have the same right. I am really sorry we made her feel this way. Cindy, you are a good person and you have a noble cause. God Bless You!

One of Ms. Sheehan's finer moments. Just felt like saying it.