Monday 03 April 2006

Dear Ms. Cindy Sheehan,

Thank you very much for your email. I appreciate your spirit in dialogue and debate and our mutual devotion to the First Amendment.

I want to apologize for my personal categorization of you and for allowing myself to get involved in such low-level name calling.

While you and I disagree on the war effort, I certainly did not intend to attack you personally. I have great appreciation for your perspective and your sacrifice as an American who has lost a loved one in the War on Terrorism.

This is a very emotional time in America, and my concern these days has been my 20,000+ constituent soldiers. As I have spoken with them in Iraq and their families back home they have expressed grave concern about the pessimistic media coverage of the war and its dissenters.

As you know, these volunteer soldiers aren't in it for praise but I do think their spirits are hurt by coverage that reports all the bad news and none of the good. Such coverage tends to focus on dissenters of the war and less on those in the field.

This isn't just my own personal opinion, but one that has been formulated by listening to the troops and their families. I suppose in my own stumbling way, I am trying to speak for them.

In any case, I hope you'll accept my apology and I look forward to continuing our discussion about this issue.

Sincerely,

Jack Kingston
Member of Congress