A Young Cindy in the Making?
Grief is an odd thing. It’s quite real, and has a place most of us can recognize.
But sometimes it takes on a form that requires either additional pity or speculative rancor to deal with from the outside?
Cindy Sheehan is one case in point, now we seem to have another.
Army Ranger’s widow expelled from book signing
Ashley Joppa-Hagemann told The News-Tribune on Saturday that security officers for the former secretary of defense escorted her out by the arm. She and the executive director of a Lakewood-based anti-war group confronted Rumsfeld as he promoted his memoir, “Known and Unknown.”
She had introduced herself to Rumsfeld by handing a copy of her husband’s funeral program to the former defense secretary. She told him her husband had joined the military because he believed the lies told by Rumsfeld during his tenure with the Bush administration.
I haven’t yet dug into the details, but the article says she was in the company of someone from an “anti-war group”.
Dealing with grief in almost any context can be a challenge, and with Cindy as an example, some don’t do it well at all.
Let’s hope this particular new case doesn’t follow THAT pattern.
I kinda like my villains clear cut.
Category: Geezer Alert!, Politics, Protests/Rallies
When a person is down and grieving, I can see how easy it is to be able to be swept up in placing blame…You can bet the Ranger didn’t think that way…Hopefully, you’re right…the villain is the anti-war creep and not the widow…that would just suck all around.
Sad
Her late husband, Jared Hagemann, had at least six combat tours under his belt, re-enlisted twice, most recently in January of this year, and died two months ago today stateside from what may or may not have been suicide. In any case, it takes some pretty serious cognitive dissonance to blame Rumsfeld, given that the guy had two opportunities to get out of the Army and chose to stay in. Personally, I don’t think this woman has had adequate time to grieve; once she does, she might see things differently.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Widow-Ranger-killed-self-to-avoid-another-tour-2139246.php
Dealing with a possibile suicide certainly makes the grief process even more complicated.
Would also agree that it is much more likely that the nebulous anti war group sought out the widow that she them. Would that their recruiters find something worthwhile to do with themselves. (Let’s not even contemplate that she was already involved with them and that activity contributed negatively to his last days…)
RIP, Ranger
Ashley Joppa-Hagemann and Jorge Gonzalez <—-(IVAW)
http://www.coffeestrong.org/veteran-and-military-spouse-dragged-from-on-base-donald-rumsfeld-book-signing/cimg2013-2/
http://thevigilantlens.wordpress.com/tag/ashley-joppa-hagemann/
Here's another story on this.
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Widow-Ranger-killed-self-to-avoid-another-tour-2139246.php
Looks like she is going after Cheney as well..
http://www.chron.com/news/article/Widow-Ranger-killed-self-to-avoid-another-tour-2139246.php
oops…sorry..about the post in #6 – it said Dick Cheney.
Melony #5: I’ve been otherwise occupied. Thanks for the additional info.
I was kinda, almost feeling sorry for her until I saw her smiling, happy face at Rummy’s table. My money is on IVAW hitting on her rather than the other way around.
This one hurts my head and my heart.
#8 – Zero, Most welcome!
Smiling pic on the page of Coffee Strong? If he reenlisted in January, he obviously recognized the possibility of another deployment.
If she thinks she has a legitimate grievance, it would be with the current administration. Unless we’re still going with “it’s Bush’s fault”, and by extension, Rumsfeld.
I think it’s easy and somewhat natural to look for someone to blame when your heart is hurting after a loved one’s death. Maybe blaming others helps make sense of a senseless act. An uncaring and indifferent Big Army and a lying oil-hungry SecDef make a convenient scapegoat. I agree that her husband almost certainly would not want his widow to go this route.
Just because one marries into the family, doesn’t mean s/he wants to be family.
And, for a few years at least, Cindy Sheehan lived very well: feted in society that would normally have crapped on her just because she breathed; and wined and dined and hustled to pre-arranged drama.
Some folks want that spotlight. Just like Bristol Palin’s baby-daddy, what’s-his-name.
@ #13 Jack…….
Why would she be blaming Leon Paneta?
Seriously… are you still regurgitating that tired old lie about war for oil? Seriously?
Tim, I don’t know what you mean by “are you still regurgitating that tired old lie”. I’ve never said that, and I’m not saying that now. Seriously.
Maybe I wasn’t clear. When I wrote “An uncaring and indifferent Big Army and a lying oil-hungry SecDef make a convenient scapegoat,” I meant that is the typical IVAW take on things and apparently how the lady in question sees things.
Jack; I agree that she is probably so full of emotion right now, not knowing the whys and whats and it pisses me off to no end that IVAW is right there to make sure they tell her who to blame. Give the woman time to grieve properly and let her come to you. That the Ranger may have taken himself deep makes it that much more emotional, because there aren’t any clear cut answers to the question “why”.
I think it’s a mistake to assume that because someone re-enlists, that they love the war. I re-enlisted twice, once after I had doubts about the war, and once after I actively believed it was wrong. It is entirely possible that he may have loved the Army and hated the war that sent him back time after time. Six deployments is more than too many; numbers I have heard say as high as eight.
Rumsfeld is a callous bastard. When someone hands you a funeral program and talks about their dead husband, the appropriate response is, “I’m so sorry for your loss,” not, “Yeah, I heard about that.”
Who said anything about loving the war?
When you re-enlist, it doesn’t matter what your personal feelings about the war are, whether you “love it” or are against it, you don’t get to make the decisions once you re-up. That decision is made when you raise your hand. If a person hates the war (which anyone would or should hate war) enough to join an anti-war group after they re-up, that’s their problem, not Rumsfeld’s. I’m still trying to figure out how you can make that type of leap, AS?
Would I go back to a job where I didn’t believe in what it was doing? Anyone that does has zero room to bitch about any of it.
Maybe Rumsfeld has had run-ins with these chuckleheads at other stops and was in no mood for any of it? Does he have to conform to what you think is proper? You say he’s a callous bastard? What about the assholes who are using this obviously emotionally wracked woman for their own political aims? They rate lower than snail shit, in my opinion.
#18 Army Sergeant:
Staff Sergeant Jared Hagemann was found dead on June 28, 2011. He enlisted in 2004 ( http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/08/24/20110824seattlearmy-ranger-suicide.html)
Donald Rumsfeld served as Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006.
Quick math tells me that SSG Hagemann served for (at most, depending on when in 2004 he enlisted) for 3 years concurrent with Rumsfeld’s tour as SecDef.
Seems that SSG Hagemann died under Leon Panetta’s watch, not Rumsfeld’s or Gates. Seems that SSG Hagemann failed himself, and his wife failed him too, for not getting him taken care of. With that in mind, who’s the obvious target for domestic terrorism? Why, Rumsfeld! Of course!
There’s no moral superiority, or political points to be made going after a man who left service 2 SecDefs ago.
Six is a lot, the most I’ve heard is of a classmate on his 9th tour. Then there’s the contractors and GS civilians who’ve been over there a long while as well.
There is no moral difference between this woman’s enabler, the anonymous executive director of the Lakewood anti-war group, and Palestinian martyr mothers who strap bomb-vests on their children and tell them to run off to school.
I get a laugh out of reading you, Army Sergeant. You express that you freely re-enlisted twice with at first misgivings, and then certitude about the war being wrong. And you signed the line anyway both times. And then you come here and call Rumsfeld a callous bastard? His proper response would have been to give her Panetta’s business card and call security.
@#s 19,20:
My feelings exactly. I have silently questioned her thinking since I first began reading her comments here a couple of years ago. I had a bit of sympathy with Viet Vets against War, because at that time, we had a draft. I have none for IVAW members because each and everyone of them that served, did it voluntarily. 100% voluntarily, even the sleazeballs that claim that a judge made em enlist. (Old readers know who this one is.) Judges don’t make anyone enlist and cannot make them enlist, they do offer alternatives.
I feel for this dead Ranger, and his family, and question why he didn’t make more noise about getting help.
As I stated above, @#9, My money is on IVAW hitting on her rather than the other way around.
Now is it time for Metthis to “take her under his wing” and pluck her for all he can get?
Reading here, and the article in the Seattle PI, I can find no mention that Rumsfeld said, “yeah I heard about that”. Care to source that quote, AS. And not from an IVAW source, as they’re hardly credible. And, if you find the Army so lacking, why don’t you get out?
Dave, in #20, of course the target of domestic terrorism is Rumsfeld, and by extension, Bush. We all know it’s Bush’s fault. Besides being dumbasses, IVAW and the anti-war left are woefully ill-informed.