Motherhood and Apple Pie

When I was growing up, there was a saying. "As American as motherhood and apple pie."

So what's happened to this country?

A mother has a son. She carries him in her womb, gives birth to him, feeds, clothes and nurtures him for twenty-four years. When the son is a man, he decides to join the armed forces. He tells his mother that recruiters promised he would never be sent overseas. But he is. And he is killed.

The mother now decides to take a stand against the war which killed her son. The war which continues to kill sons, daughters and Iraqi civilians daily. The war which was started based on the lie of weapons of mass destruction.

A mother stands for peace, in the shadow of her son's death. As American as. . .

But hold the presses. The war president, the one who was supposedly elected because he represents traditional values, refuses to meet with her. His supporters deride her in the media. Some have even decided to show up in person and tell her how terribly unpatriotic she is.

But she's a mother. What is so unpatriotic about that?

The same people who oppose this mother, Cindy Sheehan, also oppose Islam. Islam, they say, lacks values. They label Muslims as being uncivilized.

Who is uncivilized? Muslims, who value mothers?

Or the ones who taunt and insult a mother who mourns for her son.