Letter to the Editor: Sheehan's waning credibility

To the Editor:

Melody Joy Kramer's column ("Sudoku: Foreign policy edition," DP, 9/21/05) bemoans the recent disappearance of Cindy Sheehan in the American press and states that "the media storm surrounding Sheehan passed as soon as the winds of the hurricane started picking up." Sadly, the Sheehan storm did not dissipate with Katrina's arrival. In fact, the two storms inexplicably and outrageously coincided.

Sheehan got press for blaming the hurricane on Bush, his environmental policies and the war in Iraq. Perhaps they were not the front stories Kramer is calling for, but the front pages were filled with actual political figures involved in Katrina and actual facts about Katrina. Besides, why would a grieving war mom's assessment on the causes of natural disasters make the press?

To begin with, why would a single grieving war mom's plea for the halt of an entire war effort garner so much attention from the press?

Sheehan doesn't represent the majority of mothers who have lost sons and daughters in combat. Sheehan doesn't even represent her family, all of whom supported her son and the war.

More that that, Sheehan has lost complete credibility in opposition to the war with her extremist rhetoric, calling Iraqi insurgents "freedom fighters."

I wholeheartedly agree with Will Shortz's analysis of the Sudoku box that Kramer quotes: "If you make a mistake and then base other reasoning on that mistake, it is practically impossible to undo it."

It was a mistake to give Sheehan so much attention in the first place, and it's a mistake to give her so much attention now.

Cassandra Tognoni,

Wharton '09

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