September 19, 2004 - New Jersey Republican Assemblyman Bill Baroni said that the arrest of Sue Niederer outside a Hamilton firehouse where Laura Bush was speaking was justified. Niederer was being “disruptive” he said. Well I guess that she was. She shouted a question at Mrs. Bush. “When are the sons and daughters of Congressmen and Senators going to fight in Iraq?’ Niederer, who wore a T-shirt with a photo of her dead son and the legend, “President Bush, you killed my son!”, had a ticket to attend the rally. When she shouted her question Mrs. Niederer was hustled from the hall by Hamilton Police and Secret Service Agents. She was not arrested at that time.

Her disruptive behavior occurred outside of the hall on the public sidewalk. It was caught by the television cameras and broadcast Friday. Mrs. Niederer is shown standing there, surrounded by reporters and calmly answering their questions. Suddenly uniformed policemen and others in street clothes walk up behind her, grab and handcuff her and take her away. The first reports were that she was to be charged with “defiant trespass.” The Mercer County prosecutor has announced that no charges will be filed.

Yes, Rep. Baroni, Sue Niederer was disruptive. Asking unscripted question in the middle of a carefully planned speech is always disruptive. When an ordinary Gold Star Mother captures the attention of news reporters sent to cover the First Lady’s event it does disrupt the plan to generate favorable political publicity. Political discourse is always disruptive of somebody’s plans. It is supposed to be.

Mrs. Bush compassionately ignored Mrs. Niederer as her shouted question was drowned out by the Nixonian chant of “Four More Years”. The Secret Service (Geheim Dienst) compassionately removed her from the hall and the Hamilton Police compassionately led her away from the reporter’s questions in handcuffs. With all that compassion flooding Hamilton, New Jersey no one mentioned her son, 24-year-old Army Lt. Seth Dvorin, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq Feb. 3.

Sue Niederer has been a thorn in the side of the Bush Administration since she got the news that he son had been killed. She has become a leader of an organization of military families opposed to the Bush Administration and has led demonstrations outside of Walter Reed Hospital and at Dover Air Force Base where the bodies of the slain are received. Her question has been repeated over and over and no one has answered it – compassionately or otherwise.

No one has a better right to ask inconvenient political questions that Sue Niederer. No one has a better right to disrupt the comfortable existence of the politically powerful. It came with her Gold Star.