Mason (TX) mom against 'peace mom' (Wood takes stance in Crawford)
San Angelo Standard Times ^ | August 26, 2005 | Matt Phinney
Sue Ann Wood might talk to Cindy Sheehan if she meets her this weekend in Crawford.
What she would tell her is ''not for polite ears,'' Wood said. Wood, who like Sheehan lost a son in the Iraq war, said she understands the California woman's pain but doesn't agree with the so-called ''peace mom'' camped outside President Bush's Crawford ranch.
Wood's son, Marine Lance Cpl. Mathew Puckett, of Mason was killed in September in Iraq. Wood went to Crawford last weekend to protest what Sheehan is doing and plans to return Saturday.
Wood, who said she doesn't follow the news of the war much, grew upset when someone told her Puckett's name had been placed on a cross used by anti-war protestors. She immediately decided to go to Crawford. Wood, who had lived in Masonwhen her son was killed, has since moved to Austin.
Mason is 104 miles southeast of San Angelo.
''My son and family do not believe the way she feels,'' Wood said. ''He died for this country and believed in their cause.''
While in Crawford, a fellow Bush supporter found Puckett's cross and took it to Wood. She removed her son's name from the cross and took the cross back to the anti-war protestors, she said.
Wood said Sheehan and other protestors are dishonoring the men and women serving in the military.
''I miss my son every day and grieve every day,'' she said. ''I just personally think she is a traitor. I don't approve of her views and I don't appreciate her views. She's wrong.''
Wood, who met President Bush at Camp David in December, said her son told her he believed in the war.
Wood said she still supports the war ''100 percent.''
''As far as I'm concerned, every young man and woman that even registers and goes into the military is a hero,'' she said.
Sharon Westbrook, mother of Pfc. Jason Poindexter, a San Angelo Marine who also died in September in Iraq, said her son, as well as Sheehan's son, chose to fight in the war. Westbrook also disagrees with Sheehan's protests, but doesn't want to go to Crawford because anti-Sheehan protestors will only draw more media to her, she said.
''I want to make a stance, but I want to do it somewhere else,'' she said. ''I don't agree with her, but my heart goes out to her. Part of me wants to believe she is stuck in the anger stage.'' |
