Worthy Opposition?

As Cindy Sheehan steps out of the public eye, there's a lot of chatter about what to think of her. There's a lot of anger, but also forgiveness and pity. She's a grieving mother, and her son sacrificed his life for our country. Whether she knew it or not, she allowed herself to be used as a tool for the Islamist agenda, and she must answer for that. The bottom line is that she screwed up royally, but I hesitate to demonize her. She's going to be dealing with the consequences of her actions for the rest of her life.

This past Sunday, I had an experience that forced me to reassess the average anti-war American. The church I attend is rather politically diverse, but we're united in faith and generally leave our politics outside. Every once in a while, though, politics come up in a private conversation, and I generally find that people have thought out their positions carefully and are well informed.

We had a banquet on Sunday after the liturgy, and I became engaged in a conversation with some of the first people I ever met at the church. I've always had the utmost respect for them, and in the course of the conversation I discovered that we think alike in many ways.

But somehow the conversation turned towards the war, and suddenly they were talking about how much more vocal people were in the 60's. "Why aren't we protesting against the war like that?" "Well, I wish we could, but people are sensitive about not abandoning the troops like we did in Vietnam." "Can't we find a way to protest and support the troops at the same time?" "We should, but we haven't yet."

I'm not normally shy about sharing my opinions, but I found myself unable to say anything at this point. I was too busy trying not to glare at them, and I knew that if I opened my mouth, I wouldn't be able to suppress the hostility. And the problem is, I still like them. They are kind, intelligent people.

It reawakens an old question: How do others see us, and how do we correct their inaccurate perceptions? The blogging world is great, but we tend to read blogs that we at least generally agree with. There are exceptions, of course, but the dissidents who show up are generally "trolls" rather than serious thinkers. It's hard when we have such limited time; we don't want to read the work of people who aren't necessarily thinking straight. Yet it's a vital piece of the information war.

There will always be those who are so pig-headed that they can't see what's in front of them. But we need to make good information more accessible to those who genuinely want to do the right thing. We saw most of our country unify in the days following 9/11; we know it's not impossible. So let's make it happen again.