The Step Parent Myth

My son is a Marine, my stepson for those who haven't been paying attention. I have never attempted to present my relationship with him as anything less then a shared responsibility. Anything other then that would be disingenuous. It would detract from others who have shared in his life up until now, including his other step dad and his birth father. Tom is fortunate enough to have three dads, and he loves them all equally.

The Right is all up in a fervor, because Nick Coleman had the gall to point out the true parentage of a fallen hero. But if step mom would have been honest about her relationship, there wouldn't have been anything to write about.

What IS interesting, is when you scroll around Freeper land and skim the comments about the rights of Step Parents to speak out. There are still those who are trying to perpetuate a long debunked rumor that Cindy Sheehan did not raise her son, Casey. Even a commenter at SitD mentions this:

Nick Coleman undermines his argument about an alleged "deception" by writing:"Folks who would do that kind of despicable thing are the folks who attacked Cindy Sheehan as a "tragedy pimp" and mocked her grief over the loss of her soldier son, Casey."

Should that be "her soldier STEP-son" or is that distinction only important when the (step-)parent supports the mission in Iraq.
Posted by Thorley Winston at February 20, 2006 12:05 PM
----
Surely you aren't accusing Nick Coleman of hypocrisy? He writes for a major newspaper, for gosh sakes.
Posted by Kermit at February 20, 2006 12:37 PM
----
I wasn’t commenting so much on hypocrisy as the apparent lack of fact-checking done for Nick Coleman’s columns particularly when it undermines a key part of his argument that this was somehow a “deception.”
Posted by Thorley Winston at February 20, 2006 01:09 PM

In fairness, there are those in Freeperville with enough intelligence to quell these onslaughts. But I found one comment most interesting:

I thought that was an urban legend from a change in guest anti-war mother on some talking head show. Sheehan bailed and the substitute turned out to be a phony.

22 posted on 02/03/2006 10:36:53 AM PST by RebelBanker

Who was the substitute the poster references. Wait for it . . . . . M.J. Kesterson.

I would never call Ms Kesterson a phony. She performed one of the most challenging tasks there is next to parenthood, and that is step parenthood. There are challenges very unique in rearing a child who is not of your blood, because they have no problem pointing it out when you are butting heads with them. I was merely pointing out the mind set of those on the Right, who continuously pick and choose what is right or wrong depending on the political breeze. I wonder if RebelBanker thinks Ms M. J. is a phony now.

Flash