Sheehan Marring Her Son’s Legacy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother and anti-war protester, has been camping outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, for nearly two weeks. After Casey Sheehan was killed last year in Iraq, both his parents met with the president. Initial statements by Ms. Sheehan about the meeting were positive, but now she is calling for Mr. Bush’s impeachment and for the withdrawal not only of America from Iraq, but also of Israel from “Palestine.” Naturally, her vigil and her vitriolic anti-Bush statements have attracted worldwide attention, and hundreds of supporters have joined the 48-year-old California woman as she angrily bares her grief in public for all to see.
I’m not going to hazard a guess as to why Ms. Sheehan has changed her tune. Grief and time have a way of mobilizing inner impulses that defy explanation. Instead I’d like to offer some balance to the picture by reporting on the funeral of another soldier killed in Iraq, and the quite different response from his grieving family. Army Private First Class Nils George Thompson, who had just turned 19, was killed by a sniper August 4 while on patrol in Mosul, Iraq. Thompson was a deeply spiritual young man, who grew up in New Brighton, Staten Island, but moved to Confluence, Pa., in 2000. His family held his funeral mass at St. Stanislaus Kostka, a predominantly Polish parish church.
Several parish clergymen eulogized the soldier as being a young man of generosity and faith. Casey Sheehan and Nils Thompson appear to be of similar high character, judging by the respect paid to them at their funeral services.
The Pennsylvania soldier’s mother, Francine Thompson, told reporters after the service that it was very comforting coming back to the church, where her family had been members for so long. The soldier’s father, Nils M. Thompson, commented that nothing had changed his perspective of the American military. He told a reporter for the Staten Island Advance, Deborah Young, “We have nothing but good to say about those boys and what they do. This is what my son fought for: freedom of religion and freedom to live in peace.”
The parents of Nils Thompson and other grieving parents who still support the president and the war do not receive the same amount of attention as Cindy Sheehan. Their every word is not repeated on the Drudge Report, or on the Associated Press and Reuters wires. But that is because they are in the majority and not considered newsworthy. Whatever one’s feeling toward the war, we all need to consider the sacrifices of our men and women in combat, be they Sheehans or Thompsons.
I can’t help but think of them during this blistering August heat wave. I imagine what it would be like if I didn’t have electricity to run the fans, or cold running water to cool off. Meanwhile, our soldiers are sleeping in hot gear in the dirt, and enduring unimaginable hardships while getting shot at. Recently they were subjected to a deadly sandstorm.
I think also of some of the bravest people on this planet: the Iraqis. Beset by foreign terrorists determined to undermine their freedom, they continue to enlist to fight for the coalition and to draft a constitution for a democratic country.
A recent Zogby survey determined that Detroit was the most liberal city in America. The pollster, John Zogby, said New York, surprisingly, came in only at 21, due to the influence of Staten Island and parts of Queens.
Yes, we are conservative here, and most of us voted for Mr. Bush and support the war. There are plenty of “yellow ribbon” signs in the neighborhood, which lend credence to that description. On the lawn of Snug Harbor, our community arts center, is a huge 25-foot sculpture depicting that famed Times Square photo of a returning World War II sailor kissing a nurse. It’s very appropriate for this traditional borough, where many veterans of the last five wars reside. It’s also a borough that suffered particularly horribly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Many streets are named after firefighters and police officers murdered on that Tuesday nearly four years ago. Signs on many cars read, “We will never forget.” We never will.
It is disheartening to see Ms. Sheehan surrounded and exploited by organizations that have no respect for the choice that Casey Sheehan freely made. I suspect that Ms. Sheehan never supported her son’s choice either, and his death must have confirmed her fears. But as we sit in air-conditioned apartments and homes and drink our ice-cold, thirst-quenching drinks, we should take a moment to remember that Casey and Nils were young Americans who went to war so that we can do all these things in peace. They deserve our deepest respect.