http://www.michaelbutler.com/blog/mbutler/2005/08/24/but-i-cant-make-a-difference/ "if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room" Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:34:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.michaelbutler.com/blog/mbutler/2005/08/24/but-i-cant-make-a-difference/#comment-40 Karen Wed, 24 Aug 2005 21:43:00 +0000 http://www.michaelbutler.com/blog/mbutler/?p=30#comment-40 Having spent 26 years 'helping in my local environment' in a variety of ways that would not be productive to list here, I couldn't agree with you more, Michael. It is SO HARD to get good people to help, but it is primarily, I believe, because they become so beleaguered by people who have their own 'agenda' and are NOT looking to the common good, or employing any common sense, for that matter. Cindy Sheehan is a PERFECT example of someone who is suffering grievously, however, she has decided it is her ticket to her proverbial 15 minutes of fame, and she has NOT embarrassed the president at all! He's spoken to her personnally already - and she was most gracious about it...now she's changed HER story and you think GWB is embarrassed....No, if Ms. Sheehan gave it any thought at all, she and her now-dead son would be the ones to be embarrassed. Remember that he not only enlisted, he re-enlisted! She may not have liked it, but that was his choice, not hers. As parents, we would LOVE to make choices for our kids, except we can't, and when they do things differently than we did, they must be allowed that. Cindy Sheehan needs to learn that. I realize she is mourning her son...she ought to learn to do so with dignity, in a way that would honor him, not turn it into a media circus that she is relishing at every turn. No wonder the rest of her family is disavowing her efforts. Having spent 26 years ‘helping in my local environment’ in a variety of ways that would not be productive to list here, I couldn’t agree with you more, Michael. It is SO HARD to get good people to help, but it is primarily, I believe, because they become so beleaguered by people who have their own ‘agenda’ and are NOT looking to the common good, or employing any common sense, for that matter. Cindy Sheehan is a PERFECT example of someone who is suffering grievously, however, she has decided it is her ticket to her proverbial 15 minutes of fame, and she has NOT embarrassed the president at all! He’s spoken to her personnally already - and she was most gracious about it…now she’s changed HER story and you think GWB is embarrassed….No, if Ms. Sheehan gave it any thought at all, she and her now-dead son would be the ones to be embarrassed. Remember that he not only enlisted, he re-enlisted! She may not have liked it, but that was his choice, not hers. As parents, we would LOVE to make choices for our kids, except we can’t, and when they do things differently than we did, they must be allowed that. Cindy Sheehan needs to learn that. I realize she is mourning her son…she ought to learn to do so with dignity, in a way that would honor him, not turn it into a media circus that she is relishing at every turn. No wonder the rest of her family is disavowing her efforts.

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