Military Mom a Decent Human Being
Saturday, August 27, 2005
(SNN Boise) Disappointment reigned after a CNN interview with military mother Tammy Pruet. While being interviewed Paula Zahn, Mrs. Pruett actually said that she felt Cindy’s pain and empathized with her feelings.
It was supposed to be a masterstroke that would end the war. Bush took a few days off is 50th vacation to visit a National Guard post in Idaho. During that visit he said he was proud of his own service in the National Guard, back in the days when being in the guard meant you got to fly cool jets, not get your ass shot off. Let’s face it, no matter what you think of the president, he’s not that guy in Independence Day. He’s not going to be flying a jet up the alien mother ship’s ass.
During his speech the president singled out Tammy Pruett. Pruett comes from a military family. Her husband and five sons have all served in Iraq. The Pruett family believes in the president and stands behind the war. Many people saw Tammy as the anti-Sheehan.
But hope turned to disaster when Pruett did not turn out to be a rabid attack robot. Unlike several conservative commentators such as Bill O’Reilly, Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh, Pruett did not suggest that Sheehan was an anti-American terrorist sympathizer who wanted to lose the war. In fact she treated Sheehan as another military mom who had suffered a great loss. “Personally, as a mother, I feel her pain. Obviously, I can’t feel it to the extent that she does. But I totally empathize with her feelings.”
Pruett did not suggest that Sheehan was an anti-American terrorist sympathizer who wanted to lose the war.
Tammy’s husband, Captain Leon Pruett even went as far as to say, “I guess Cindy and the other folks that have lost loved ones over there, you know, we grieve with them and we’re sorry for their losses and empathize with them and their families and what they’re going through. We don’t have anything against anybody that wants to protest or do anything like that. That’s wonderful. Isn’t it right — isn’t it wonderful that we have that right in this country to be able to do that?”
This has come as quite a blow to the media. I mean seriously: adults acting like adults and treating each other with respect and dignity? That crap might sell out in Idaho, but CNN? Do these people even watch the news? Don’t they have any idea how they are supposed to behave? Why couldn’t she have called Sheehan “terrorist scum” or channeled Casey Sheehan and tell Cindy how disappointed her son is in her. Really, it’s like the Pruett family is not even serious about winning the war.
In the hyper media driven by Faux News it does seem astounding to find someone speaking and acting like and adult. But the Pruetts strike me as the kind of people I met and worked with in both the Navy and the Army.
I don't agree with Sheehan about an immediate withdrawl. But I would never be so cowardly to suggest that this woman is not due every expression of anger and grief that she needs to deal with what no parent should every face: the loss of a child.
She is a brave and honorable woman in the tradition of the men and women who have made America great.
B'shalom,
Jeff Hess
