Rick and Bubba of the Rick and Bubba Morning Show show spent hours during the past week discussing Cindy Sheehan’s protest outside President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Numerous callers have phoned the morning radio program and given their opinions on Sheehan’s stakeout of President Bush’s home.

Most callers supported the President’s decision not to talk with Sheehan and I tend to agree with them.

The reasoning behind Sheehan’s protest continues to elude me. Her son was killed in Iraq in 2004, and apparently the first face-to-face meeting she had with the president was not enough to ease Sheehan’s concerns.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a family member, but it seems as if Mrs. Sheehan has forgotten the thousands of other parents who can.

As she protests outside the president’s home, Sheehan has done nothing more than undermine everything that her son gave his life to uphold. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, and I will be the last person to take a person’s right to protest away.

What Sheehan has done should not be protected as “free” speech.

By abusing that right and using it to divide a nation, Sheehan has used the names of fallen soldiers and disrespected U.S. armed forces around the world in her attempt to find reconciliation for the death of her son.

Sheehan claims in her prior meeting with President Bush she was caught up in the moment and was unable to think clearly. She claims that the war in Iraq is wrong and that she speaks for the parents and families who have loved ones in the armed forces when she says what President Bush is misleading the nation.

Sheehan is entitled to her own opinion. But in her efforts to attack the president’s policy in the Middle East, she has attacked all the men and women fighting for their nation.It’s hard to believe that if Casey Sheehan were alive he would approve of his mother’s rants. He willingly joined the armed forces and gave his life in defense of the nation he loved. Now his own mother is preaching against the beliefs he vowed to protect.

I’m sure the parents and families of fallen U.S. soldiers want nothing more to remember the courage of their sons and daughters who died for what they believed was right. Mrs. Sheehan has disgraced and soiled those memories.

Brandon Gresham serves as staff writer for the Shelby County Reporter. He can be reached at mailto:brandon.gresham@shelbycountyreporter.com