It is time to promote a coherent public discussion. This writer likes to think of himself as more than just a casual observer of the human condition. From the perspective of a former political science student at Cal Poly SLO, and my current role as an English major here at Sacramento State, it has been an interesting four years of post 9/11 social observation.

In San Luis Obispo the Progressive Student Alliance would attempt to hold regular demonstrations protesting the military action in Afghanistan. These demonstrations were always very small consisting of only a few dozen or so students holding signs and chanting tired slogans. As a supporter of that military intervention (an intervention prompted by the attacks on the World Trade Center) this reporter never really gave those demonstrations much thought. Fast forward to the present political environment and we have a very different set of circumstances to deal with.

This country is just ten months out of a contentious presidential election in which both sides of the political spectrum took part in watering down relevant political issues to such an extent as to make them absurd: who can forget the unending accusations from lefties that President Bush was AWOL from the National Guard, or the accusations from righties that perhaps John Kerry really didn’t deserve those purple hearts for wounds received while serving with the U.S. military?

Every public discussion concerning matters of foreign policy devolved into shouting matches between opposing, and absolute, views of the same situation.

Now, consider the anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a son killed in Iraq, who has demonstrated outside of President Bush’s Crawford ranch. Organizers affiliated with the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org have characterized Ms. Sheehan as a catalyst for the anti-war movement, saying “She’s like a herald, waking everybody up.” Sheehan has garnered a lot of media attention for calling on Bush to bring troops home and to meet with her to discuss the reasons for war.

The Sheehan issue, like the recent presidential election, has been hijacked and dumbed down. Instead of listening to what this mother of a fallen U.S. soldier is saying we, the public, have boxed her in: She is either a radical liberal activist with an agenda supported by far left groups or a victim — a mother overwhelmed with grief-and a symbol for those opposed to the war in Iraq.

Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly recently remarked on his Fox News television program that “…some families who also lost loved ones in Iraq believe what she’s doing borders on treason.”

We, the public, do ourselves a disservice when we refuse to acknowledge the complexities of our world and the issues that confront it. By refusing to acknowledge the problems we face in Iraq (the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, troop casualties, the lack of a sufficient number of troops to carry out the objective) we only complicate things. The public needs to have a serious discussion on the Iraq/Afghanistan issue.

Liberals and conservatives need to find a common ground to connect on. We should listen to the mother of a fallen soldier; listen to what her experience has taught her. Until we accept the idea that sincerity lies on both sides of the political divide a substantive, coherent public discourse will continue to be impossible.

Kyle Hardwick can be reached at [email protected]National Opinions

Bush cannot just shrug off the critics. As Americans have learned, an anti-war movement can develop a life of its own and ultimately take the policy initiative away from an embattled president. Congress knows that as well as anyone, and there are elections next year.

Editorial,

The Sacramento Bee

Sheehan has now become one of those unfortunate media creatures, which diminishes her message and her impact. She has complicated matters with her own comments about the president as terrorist and her thoughts about Zionist conspiracies.

Charles M. Madigan,

The Chicago Tribune

The hope this time was that we’d change the subject to Cindy Sheehan’s “wacko” rhetoric and the opportunistic left-wing groups that have attached themselves to her like barnacles. That way we would forget about her dead son. But if much of the 24/7 media has taken the bait, much of the public has not.

Frank Rich, New York Times