The Iron Yuppie

I heard Ann Coulter promoting her book on some yelling show quite a while ago and noticed the flimsiest argument I've ever heard. She said something to the effect of (and I don't have the exact quote I'm afraid) "What is different about a Liberal dissenting than someone who is helping the enemy." The concept is accurate; someone who dissents against the government and an actual traitor may both speak with a very similar message on a given issue. But they do a lot of other things the same as well! They both breathe oxygen, they both have nipples, they very likely like their ice cream cold and their coffee hot... is having a fondness for Macaroni and Cheese traitorous? It fails the most basic logic and statistics... correlation does not equal causality.

Not very recently (I'm slow to catch up on my blog reading, what can I say) some individuals in the media have called Cindy Sheehan a traitor for protesting against the war. My levels of disagreement with this assessment are many fold. First, treason = "Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country bywaging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies." Remind me again how sitting outside the President's ranch is "acting to aid [America's] enemies"? Second, if ANYONE could be considered supporting our country it would be one who had "the solemn pride that must be [hers] to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." Cindy Sheehan simply has more creditability to opine on what is worth sacrificing or not considering shes already paid a hefty fee. Third, the last time I checked, petitioning the government for a redress of our grievances was something this country was founded on... where did I see that? OH RIGHT, THE FIRST AMENDMENT:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

You know, I like to consider myself open to both sides of a given controversial issue, but some people's desire to tear down Mrs. Sheehan is just wrong. She's a person who has gotten a bit of a following. Does that make her wrong, evil or traitorous? Hardly. Disagreement is fine, but the slander is just uncalled for.