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Review
of the
Cindy Sheehan/Camp Casey Anti-War Rally from Crawford, TX
Saturday,
August 13, 2005
by Lisa Ghariani - OKC, OK (scroll below the pic for the story) |
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Monday,
August 15, 2005 - A colleague of mine - Chris Emery and I
drove to Camp Casey - Anti War protestor - Cindy Sheehan's
rallying point very early this past Saturday morning. The trek
from Oklahoma City took about 7 hours including meal and fuel
stops. We arrived in the small hamlet of Crawford, TX - a
90 mile drive south of the DFW metro area and located just west
of IH 35 - a little after 2:00 PM to find literally hundreds of
Cindy's supporters driving over three hundred vehicles; cars,
vans, airport shuttles and RV's - moving at a snails pace,
bumper to bumper to the site where Cindy is camping
about two miles from George Bushes ranch.
I estimated the head count at the rally to be at least 500. Chris overheard the local law enforcement radio traffic and their estimate was 420. The camp site has been turned into a make shift shrine to honor Casey, Ms. Sheehan's 24 year old son who died in Iraq on April 4, 2004. In addition nearly 60 other families displayed photos of their deceased loved ones throughout the campsite area. Small white crosses with the names of 842 of the fallen 1800+ soldiers in Iraq lined the final quarter mile mark of our destination. Please note: This number - 1800, reflects ONLY the military conflict related deaths. We discovered from recently retired Iraqi war veterans - the actual number of deceased from the 2003 - 2005 Iraqi / Afghanistan conflicts is "well over" 6,000. This larger number includes deaths from friendly fire combat accidents and non-combat / urban terrorist related deaths. This clearly emphasizes the point that our military hierarchy chooses to mislead us on several dozen aspects of this illegal war.
We were
fortunate to find a parking place fairly close to the hub of
activity. A truck bed had been set up as a stage with electric
generators and audio equipment to facilitate short empowering
speeches by Cindy and other family members who have suffered
loss in this war. They are the diligent few who are leading the
call to end this quagmire which is commercially packaged by the
current administration as "The War on Terror."
We unloaded our
gear consisting of a camera, water bottles and a bright red and
white sign that read "1,800 + Killed In Action / 0 - WMD's" .
We were greeted by an onslaught of camera's snapping photos of
our sign. It was very hot and humid as we maneuvered our way
through the crowd towards the platform stage set up on the back
of a pick up truck nearby.
Chris
immediately noticed a friendly face. It was Ray McGovern the
former CIA analyst whom Chris had met on his recent trip to the
Washington, DC Truth convergence. Ray is one of the growing
number of former intelligence officers who has pledged his
alliance to the truth movement and call to the end of the Iraqi
war. I told Ray that he was one of my new found heroes.
He didn't have much time to chat because he was due on stage to
speak to the crowd of diverse activists. The first question he
asked the group was "how many of you are over 50?" Several hands
went up. He then read a recent quote by GW stating coldly that
"pulling our troops out of Iraq at this time was not wise" and
then Ray paralleled it with almost identical quotes by Nixon
during the tail end of the Vietnam war. The comparisons that he
drew were uncanny and then he triumphantly ended with "We had
to work hard to end the war back then and we must work together
today to end this war too".
The wife of an
active duty soldier and her teenage daughter came next and
rendered heart felt pleas to end this war so their loved one
could finally come home and return to his role as a father and a
husband. The teenage daughter's voice wavered softly as she
attempted to read a prepared statement. She then broke into
tears as she expressed her deep sentiment about how hard it was
to be with out her father for months and months without end. The
group was brought to tears while the young girl struggled to
read her notes. Her mother read an email that her husband had
sent her from Iraq wherein he praised his family's efforts to
voice their opinions openly about ending this war. The cryptic
email's message supported Cindy's efforts yet the soldier
simply had to refer to Cindy Sheehan as "that lady" for fear of
reprisal. He reminded his wife that it was her right as an
American to speak out and urged her to do so.
The next
speaker was Cindy, she donned a floppy hat covering most of her
sun weathered face as she climbed up on the make shift stage.
Just as she began to speak a security helicopter began to
circle above the stage almost drowning out Cindy's words. She
joked about the timing of the helicopter coinciding with the
exact moment she was to speak, then went on to deliver her
message to the applauding crowd. She began with "this one of the
happiest days of my life" and thanked everyone for their
support. She also compared this day to one of the worst days of
her life when she found out that her son Casey had been KIA in
Iraq. On a personal note she told us who Casey was, he was a
very loving and bright 24 year old kid that had a lot going for
him. Unfortunately his future was wiped out by George Bushes
war based on nothing but lies.
She spoke in a raspy voice as she recounted the first few months following Casey's death on April 4, 2004."I lost the will to go on and felt like my world ended when Casey's life ended". Then something impelled her to stand up and demand the truth about Casey's death. She paused then said whimsically "who would have ever thought that a revolution would begin last Thursday in Crawford, Texas? and if George was a truly man he would come out here and talk face to face with me. I will be here for the five weeks he is on vacation until Sept 1. If he won't talk to me I will follow him to the White house then I will come back to Crawford for his next vacation which we know will be very soon!"
She ended her
empowering speech with a very simple and poignant statement that
sent the group into a frenzy. She said "I just want George Bush
to know how sick and tired we all are of his shit!
I thought to myself......Journalists, authors, former staff members and economists have written volumes about the Bush DyNASTY and Cindy is able to sum it up so eloquently - "George Bush we are sick and tired of all of your shit!" Well said Cindy.
A few seconds
later, I noticed something brewing to the north of the group and
moved in closer to see what the hoopla was all about. A small
group of Bush supporters led by a plump man wearing a
Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses and a Panama straw hat reminiscent of
the CIA outfit cloned from the movie "Ishtar" was yelling "Talk
to the troops Cindy! We support our president and the troops!
Talk to the troops who have done three tours of Iraq!" He was
carrying a sign that read "Sheehanism: America haters welcome."
Another skinny guy struggling with a giant American flag was taunting the group yelling "We support Bush and our troops". Then a baby faced poster boy for the war appeared in Wal-Mart bought fatigues [no ID's name tags nor US Army insignias were attached to the uniform.] holding up a sign that said "Don't be Michael Moore's Puppets." It was a dwindling motley crew, so they forced some five or six young children to stand in the blistering sun with bewildered expressions holding up flags and "We Love Bush" signs. At one point a veteran who had just lost his son in the war lunged at one of the brain dead across the street who was jeering at him. The Bushes dirty dozen almost achieved a photo op of a peace activist pummeling the guy with a flag bigger than Dallas, but then the bereaved man walked away shaking his head in disgust. In the midst of all of the orchestrated drama, a helicopter flew low over head with an Imax type camera circling the area like a vulture almost clipping trees and power lines. More local police and sheriffs units showed up to bring the tally to about 30 vehicles. SUV's drove by slow with shoe polish laden windows that said "Cindy go home". We were told that the Bush supporters had been driven to the site in buses and that the original 100+ group by 3:00 had withered to about 16. This count includes the 5 children forced to stand along side their parents shouting "We support Bush" in the blazing sun without water. Someone from Cindy's group started to take the kids some water but local law enforcement began to announce over a bull horn that any of Cindy's supporters found standing on the grass would be arrested. As far as I know there is no recognized law against standing on grass to the side of a public road in the boondocks of Texas but this was a simple way to separate the opposing sides without incident and it worked quite well.
A Vietnam vet
with PTSD began to have some sort of break down due to the
relentless circling of the choppers and had to be taken to
a tent for medical treatment. Chris and I chatted briefly with
the man who was holding up an American flag in front of the tent
to shield the view of the vet flailing about in torment. They
kept reassuring me "he'll be alright" and asked me to step back.
I started to take a photo but I lowered the camera. There comes
a point in journalism when a human being's privacy supercedes
the story and this was that time.
Black Storm clouds began to roll in from the western horizon and the eminent rain began to quiet the scene and the crowd began to leave peacefully. As Chris and I walked to the car a lone protester wearing a mock Bush T-shirt played soothing jazz music in the rain. The secret service agents dressed incognito as protesters gave a sigh of relief as the crowds dispersed. Many others who had come from all parts of the US to support Cindy for the duration, settled in putting up their tents. I tuned in to the fake news when I finally got home and Fox was estimating the crowd in Crawford today at around 100. This must be the same math they use to count the dead and injured in this ungodly war. |
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