Irony

A local church, in the Huntington area, annually puts thousands of crosses on their property. Each cross is to remember an aborted fetus.

Several years ago, someone who apparently disagreed with their position on abortion drove a truck through the property one night, damaging and destroying many of the crosses.

Now what's amazing about this was the reaction from both ends of the political spectrum. The "right" was upset that their rights of expression had been stomped. The "left" was equally upset because, believing in freedom of expression, they were concerned that the "right's" freedom of expression had been stomped.

(Fast Forward)

Monday night, someone drove a pickup truck through a display of crosses, each representing an American serviceman or woman killed in action in the Middle East. The display, if you've been asleep, was put up by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, and a war protestor.

Now what's amazing about this is the reaction from both ends of the political spectrum. The "left" is upset because their rights of expression have been stomped. The "right?" As near as I can tell from news reports, the "right" thinks she got what's coming to her. I even heard mutterings that "it's too bad, she wasn't in the way."

The woman lost her son in a war that she feels was unjust. Apparently, a lot of Americans agree with her, since polls are showing less than 40 percent of Americans support the way President Bush is conducting the war. I'd call that (60% +) a pretty substantial majority.... certainly more than the percentage who wound up voting President Bush into office. Cindy Sheehan has every right (and, to his credit, President Bush has made it clear that he agrees with her right to express her opinion!) to suggest the war is wrong and we should get the troops home.

But it appears parts of the "right" think the right to expression applies only when it is their opinion that is being expressed.

And I call that "Irony."