goodbye, Cindy

It seems that everyone - even the mighty MSM - is talking about this post over at Markos' place. There are some who bemoan her decision to drop out of the spotlight, while many more are castigating her for not doing so sooner. I'm sure it was a hard decision for her to make, and a hard letter to write. It's not like there's a lot of people out there who would speak openly about the despair and heartache they feel at the loss of a child.

Consider this:

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.

I wonder if Cindy considers that the way she views her son's death is the way many Christians may think about the work of Christ on the cross. So many people don't believe in Him. His own followers, except for maybe a few women, left him to hang on the cross. People would rather spend time amusing themselves than following Christ's example of "taking up the cross and following Him."

I've never felt anything, really, but sadness and fear for Ms. Sheehan. Sadness about the loss of her son, and fear that she won't be able to see anything beyond that. She seems to have now given up on the one thing that kept her going. Where does that leave her?


(Thanks to Mark Byron for linking to this post. If you haven't stopped by his blog, you need to - he has a great way with words!)