Posted on 08/16/2005 9:03:08 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Crosses vandalized at antiwar mom's Texas camp site
6 minutes ago
A pickup truck ran over wooden crosses erected at anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's campsite on Monday night, in the latest sign of tension over the peace vigil outside vacationing President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.
Larry Northern, 46, of nearby Waco, Texas, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief in connection with the incident, Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore said.
Sheehan has pitched a tent on Prairie Chapel Road, which leads to Bush's ranch, and calls her site "Camp Casey," after her 24-year-old son, who was killed in combat in Iraq in April 2004.
The small, white wooden crosses erected at the site are hand-painted with the names of soldiers killed in Iraq.
Sheehan, of Vacaville, California, has demanded a meeting with Bush at which she said she wants to call for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq.
While Bush has expressed sympathy for Sheehan's grief, the White House has declined a meeting. Sheehan previously met with Bush in 2004 but wants another meeting.
Michelle Mulkey, a spokeswoman for Sheehan, said protesters were still awake on Monday night when a truck dragging a pipe and chains drove over a portion of the area where the crosses were standing.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I'm not disputing that, but I don't see what tearing it down accomplished. And the "not every soldier who has died in this conflict is Christian" is certainly an argument THEY would make about something like, say, removing crosses from any public event to honor soldiers, so I ain't buying THAT one. Since when have FReepers ever argued against the inclusion of crosses, anywhere? I'm not arguing about it, merely pointing out a pretty obvious fact.
I think this is stupid, but I LIKED the shots fired.
He wasn't anywhere near them, he was on his own property, in the country you hear people shoot their shotguns and other firearms all the time, I do it myself as much as possible when I'm on my aunts property. I like to think of those city type liberals steppin' and fetchin' and runnin' for cover when they heard someone exercising his second amendment rights way over across the road out of sight, probably several hundred yards away.
We are Texas. It's a Texas thing. If you're from Cambridge, you wouldn't understand.
I haven't lost anyone in the war and I'll presuppose anything I damn please. She's a b and a ho.
Yeah, two instances since 1989, which was when that was made. And the objection was not to the cross, it was how the cross was treated for a photograph.
Heh-Heh. Now we're getting Schiavo-esque.
I always thought people like this would burn if they touched a cross......just a folk tail?
Looks like you are capable of understanding my point on this....just try a little harder and apply your above comment to this situation.
Those crosses are a publicity stunt. What right does this woman have to use the names of fallen heroes for HER agenda?! Was it a stupid thing to do? Yes. Do I understand why the guy did it? Yes.
"All this stuff going in crawford, we've just been watching it and shaking our heads until two days ago, we saw the crosses with the names on there," Matt Matula said.
On one white cross read the name Mattew Matula: their 20-year-old son who was killed in Iraq last year.
"He's not a victim, he's a hero, and I think that everybody that's serving our country is heroes," Matt Matula said.
"He knew joining the Marines, his chances are, that was the purpose. His main number one job was to defend our country. He was very aware of that before he signed up," Toni Matula said.
So Matt Matula went to Crawford to stand up for his son, a Marine who proudly stood by the war he died in.
"I went there and had Matthew's name taken off of there. It's fine for people to grieve their own way. It aggravates me to see them using other people's names to further their cause," Matt Matula said.
"For people to use his name against it is not what he died for. He died so that they can do that though," Toni Matula said.
Since when have FReepers ever argued against the inclusion of crosses, anywhere?
***
Well...right now...where the crosses are being used, not as a religious symbol, but rather as a prop for their "anti-war, anti-Bush" demonstration.
What is it that I'm not doing that I threatened to do???? I don't remember making any threats???? Please elucidate...
Hardly. I wouldn't want my name or anyone I served with to be dishonored by these freaks and there as "props" in support of their cause. She makes a mockery out of those who have died honorably for this country and the cause of freedom.
oh, I don't doubt that camp cindy-iets are behind this and I think it is very, very uncool. They are mocking far too much now.
Well, yeah, except that the crosses are not a tribute to fallen service members any more than an anti-smoking commercial is a tribute to those who died of lung cancer.
Only a fool would interpret them as a tribute. They are simply being used as symbology in a propaganda war.
Try this on for size, it came from your post #13 "I'd run their garbage crosses over myself and hopefully hit some of the Sheehan scum as well... ?"
So that was just talk, eh? Tells me quite a bit about you.
Now I see... So, someone with a screen name like "dmz" gets all soft and squishy about cockroaches... Isn't that telling as well... Send me your address hotshot & I'll be over so we can discuss this in person...
I have to disagree with your calling the cemetary crosses (and that's what they are) a "tribute." I live near Ft. Monmouth in Jersey and every Saturday war protesters stand outside the gates waving crosses and fake tombstones. I worry about the effect this has on young, vulnerable men and women going in and out of the military base.
I hope she realises that she is really getting her beloved islamists insurgents upset with all those crosses. They want a jihad not a crusade.
This woman is mentally, morally challenged and should be under a doctors care and I don't mean the 'mad' Dr. Dean.
To whom it may concern, please knock off the personal stuff.
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