As far as I am concerned, life is based on exploitation. Everyone exploits everything, and that just seems to be how things are. The people who complain about that are totally missing the point.

I find it extremely disturbing and ironic that while people are attacking Cindy Sheehan for exploiting her child’s death, we have another mother who is vowing to stay in Aruba until she gets answers about her daughter’s disappearance. In the same month that Cindy Sheehan is accosted by the media for camping outside of Bush’s ranch (where all he seems to do — as made evident by a recent episode of The Majority Report — is clear brush!), Beth Twitty-Holloway confronts and harasses a young man who she thinks is somehow hiding information from the police. Rather than covering Holloway’s actions as disrespectful and possibly illegal (the young man is seeking a lawsuit now), the media covers it as “a mother out for answers”-type thing. She is hailed for her slightly unorthodox actions and excused because she is a mother in grief.

Yet when it comes to Cindy Sheehan, the media’s story (when it chooses to get critical — admittedly, most of the stories covering her actions in Texas are pretty lame and don’t ask tough questions of either side) is that she is exploiting the death of her son in order to advance her left-wing agenda. The fact that she is a liberal who lost a child in the Iraq War seems to mean that must hide her political views as she grieves and that since her son died in a war she disagreed with, that she must stop all political action in the name of her son. It’s ridiculous.

The administration has been exploiting military families this entire war. And not just military families — this entire war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan before it, was waged in the name of those who died on Sept. 11. The U.S. wanted revenge and wanted to ensure that an event like Sept. 11 would never happen again. If the right-wing administration can exploit, what makes it so wrong for the other side to do the same?

Which brings me back to my first point — “exploitation” isn’t always so bad. Without “exploiting” the dead, we probably wouldn’t have made the same advancements we’ve made against fatal diseases, for example, because families who have suffered the loss of a loved one due strive to save others from the pain and fight for research and treatments and whatnot. If John Walsh hadn’t “exploited” the death of his son, America’s Most Wanted would have never existed — that show alone has helped apprehend 853 criminals and found over 40 missing children. (The America’s Most Wanted example comes to my mind because I saw John Walsh commenting on the whole Aruba thing last week.)

I think what Cindy Sheehan is doing is admirable and brave. I don’t think she is exploiting her son — or any other soldier. I think that she has turned her grief into action, and that is a commendable thing to do. In the face of horrible events, most people retreat inward and try to cope with what has happened. Cindy Sheehan lost her son. She is using that loss to illustrate the fact that he died for what is not a “noble cause.” She is trying to affect change, unlike (not to dis on her, because I am sure she is going through immense grief as well — it’s just that the media handles it differently) Beth Twitty-Holloway who is truly exploiting her daughter’s disappearance to be on the television and, well, I’m not really sure what her ultimate goal is, but I don’t think it is as selfless as Cindy Sheehan’s motives.