Karen Brust, of Vacaville, holds an Iraqi flag signed by an Army National Guard company stationed in Iraq during a rally Monday at the Veteran's Memorial Hall. (Brad Zweerink/The Reporter)
Posted on 09/20/2005 8:19:27 AM PDT by ajolympian2004
Trouping for troops
Vaca dad honors fallen GIs
By David Henson/Staff Writer
The Vacaville parent of a fallen soldier embarks on a politically-charged tour across the United States to speak out about the war in Iraq.
Sound familiar? Not so fast.
This isn't Cindy Sheehan, the so-called "peace mom" who stirred heated debate throughout the nation with her roadside anti-war protest near President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.
This is Joseph Williams, whose son died in Nasiriyah in March 2003 and who has become a focal figure in a cross-country anti-Sheehan, pro-military bus tour.
"The reason I'm going, I guess, is I'm just tired of Cindy," Williams said Monday to a small flag-waving crowd at a kick-off rally outside the Veterans Memorial Hall in Vacaville.
Karen Brust, of Vacaville, holds an Iraqi flag signed by an Army National Guard company stationed in Iraq during a rally Monday at the Veteran's Memorial Hall. (Brad Zweerink/The Reporter)
Joseph Williams is part of the "You don't speak for me Cindy" tour. (Brad Zweerink/The Reporter)
Organized by the conservative Web site MoveAmericaForward.org, the rally marks the second cross-country "You Don't Speak For Me, Cindy" bus tour. While the first trip ended near Sheehan's Texas protest camp, the second will make its final stop Saturday in Washington, D.C., to counter Sheehan's scheduled march and protest there.
Williams, a man of few words who appears rather uncomfortable in front of a microphone, nonetheless seems to be the tour's answer for Sheehan. Both are from Vacaville, and both had a son killed in Iraq in an ambush. Williams, though, is a veteran himself, having served in Vietnam from 1964 to 66.
"I remember the feeling over there the guys and I had, listening to the demonstrators over here," said Williams from behind a bushy salt-and-pepper mustache. "All we wanted to do was come back and kick their butts."
Around three dozen flag-waving people attended the rally, which featured patriotic songs, honks of support from passing cars and lots of red, white and blue. The rally's rhetoric was laced with plenty of barbs directed at the left and the anti-war movement, resulting in unfailing cheers from those present.
"This is about pushing back against the left and the communists with Cindy Sheehan," said Deborah Johns, a Roseville woman who heads Northern California Marine Moms.
The event even drew one local elected official.
"I spent the first 28 years of my life defending the Constitution from all enemies foreign," said Solano County Supervisor Mike Reagan, who retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. "I ran for office to protect it from domestic enemies. That's what we're doing here today."
Speakers at the short rally invoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks as justification for and the need to support U.S. military action.
Most of all, though, they seemed to fear that protests, left unchecked by conservative or pro-war groups, would begin to resemble those during the Vietnam era.
"Our men and women don't need to come back here and fight another war in the media and have this be another Vietnam," Johns said.
Vacaville resident Lori Judy, an Air Force veteran whose son is in the Marines, echoed Johns' speech.
"I felt a lot of sympathy for Cindy Sheehan," Judy said. "Now it's to the point that she's damaging our image, our troops, and that's when I take it personally."
And news of the protests apparently does reach Iraq. Lisa Elliott, of Vacaville, said her husband, an Army National Guardsman stationed in Iraq, actually let her know about the rally in Vacaville. From what her husband tells her, the high-profile protests of the war are "demoralizing" for troops in Iraq. "They need our support, not our criticism," Elliott added.
Only about half as many people attended Monday's rally as did a similar event a month ago when Sheehan's protest was the talk of the country. Since then, Hurricane Katrina has devastated the Gulf Coast and news has centered around that area.
But MoveAmericaForward.org co-founder and conservative talk show host Melanie Morgan said she thinks Sheehan will begin making headlines again for Saturday's protest and that it is important for her group to be there.
"The left, old-line media will absolutely cover the peace protest in Washington, D.C.," Morgan said. "We are going to deliver how the rest of America perceives the war."
But for Williams, his motivations are more personal. He's going, in part, for his late son, Michael.
"I think he'd be really happy with this tour. And that so many people are supporting the troops," he said.
David Henson can be reached at dixon@thereporter.com.
God bless Joe Williams.
Ill-informed people see the little white doves and think these people are about peace. They're about anything but that. They are about destroying America at any cost.
Read this story and thought you might have received
more responses and reads:
..in comparison to the "pushed around in Central Park of Cindy" story which generated over hundred posts here.
The headlines have a lot to do with multiple news posts and this "title" on the http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_3045855story was not a "flag" to generate readership or other news media interest.
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