Posted on 08/21/2005 5:40:05 PM PDT by jeepgal
Folk singer Joan Baez planned to bring her latest anti-war message Sunday to President Bush's adopted hometown, supporting Iraq war protesters camping out near his ranch.
Baez was prominent in the anti-Vietnam war movement and has championed civil rights, free speech and peace causes for four decades.
Meanwhile, more Bush supporters arrived in Crawford at a downtown pro-Bush camp.
Baez's free concert was expected to draw more than 1,000 people on a private 1-acre lot offered for the protesters' use by a landowner who also opposes the war. An 80-by-160-foot tent has been erected at that site, which is being used only for large events.
The protesters continue camping a couple of miles away off the main road leading to Bush's ranch, a site started Aug. 6 by grieving mother and peace activist Cindy Sheehan, of Vacaville, Calif. Sheehan vowed to remain until Bush meets with her or until his vacation ends
Sheehan remained Sunday in Los Angeles, where her 74-year-old mother was hospitalized after having a stroke Thursday. Sheehan is expected to return to Texas in a few days.
Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, died last year in Iraq. He is among more than 1,800 U.S. soldiers killed since the March 2003 invasion.
Bush has said he sympathizes with Sheehan but won't change his schedule to meet with her; his monthlong ranch stay is to end Sept. 3. She and other families met with Bush about two months after Casey died, before she became a vocal opponent of the war.
Bush supporters Brenda Bohanan and Frances Lee, who live across the street from each other in Douglasville, Ga., arrived in Crawford on Saturday with plans to hold pro-Bush banners down the street from the protesters.
Instead, they spent Saturday and Sunday at "Fort Qualls," a pro-Bush camp that started Saturday beside a downtown store. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 150 people had visited the large tent with "God Bless Our President!" and "God Bless Our Troops" banners and a lifesize cardboard cutout of Bush.
"When we saw this, we said, `Thank God you're here," Lee said. "We said, `We wanted y'all to know that there are people from all over the United States that care'" about Bush.
The site is named for Marine Lance Cpl. Louis Wayne Qualls, 20, killed in Fallujah last fall. His father, Gary Qualls of Temple, said the anti-war demonstrators are trying to push a radical left-wing agenda and are not honoring the fallen soldiers.
Also, a few Bush supporters have stood with signs for several hours a day in the ditch across from the demonstrators' camp. Down the street, another group of about a dozen set up tents and pro-Bush signs on private property over the weekend.
Qualls and downtown gift shop owner Bill Johnson, who started "Fort Qualls," have asked for a debate with those at the Crawford Peace House, which is helping Sheehan. It's unclear if that will happen.
And no Peter Paul and Mary??
I though that she had died a long time ago, because she dropped off the radar screen. Maybe she is trying to revive what little career she had.
Gosh, Joan baez, she is just SOOO relevant, all the kids love her... isn't it time she retired????
Camp Cindy is turning into Woodcrock 2005.
Ah, the never ending quest of the aged hippie to be relevant.
It never seems to occur to them that their entire career was made on the back of war. Without war, they would have nothing to protest and voila! No career.
I dreamed I saw Joan B last nite
Irrelevant as can be ...
From "Dope, Rock, and Mud" to "Viagra, Depends, and Dust"
She still alive? Well ok, then it's "Has-Beens for Cindy" time.
Al Kapp had her in his cartoon strip as a hawk-nosed "Phony Joany"; she hasn't changed except to put Depends in her dirty jeans.
Now, if Jimi Hendrix shows up, THEN you have a story!
Is that old babe still around.
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