Remember when Cindy Sheehan was relevant? In 2004, when the media was desperately seeking a face for the anti-Bush left, Sheehan leapt before the cameras and staked her claim. Her son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, had been killed in Iraq. So she decided to set up what was, in retrospect, the first occupy tent city outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Texas.
With Bush no longer president, Sheehan became irrelevant to the media. While she jetsets around the country looking for the latest Occupy protest to infest, the media is no longer interested in her, because she has opposed Barack Obama’s foreign policy. But that’s the point: she shouldn’t have been relevant in the first place. She was always a tragic, attention-seeking character.
This week, the federal government filed suit against her, request her financial records for tax purposes. She refused to do so, stating that she didn’t have to pay her taxes, since “If they (federal government), can give me my son back, I’ll pay my taxes, but that’s not going to happen.” This is called mooching. The loss of her son was a tragedy, but she is hardly the only relative of a KIA military person, and none of them are complaining openly about paying their taxes.
Now the media has turned Sheehan into a laughing stock. But where were they back when she was relevant, examining her motives? Cindy Sheehan has always been a sad figure in need of help. Instead, the media enabled her attention-seeking behavior. Now it’s Sheehan who will pay the price.
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