I'm melting
Posted on 09/02/2006 5:22:17 PM PDT by kristinn
CRAWFORD, Texas - With a rally on their campsite Saturday, about 100 war protesters ended their monthlong vigil near the Western White House but planned to move it close to the White House.
Many group members are heading next week to Washington, D.C., for a two-week demonstration called "Camp Democracy."
"We wanted to try to build momentum and needed something to move the focus back to Washington," said retired Army Col. Ann Wright, who resigned as a U.S. diplomat in 2003 to protest the war with Iraq.
Cindy Sheehan, whose oldest son Casey died in Iraq in 2004, started the protest camp in early August on the 5-acre lot she bought in July in President Bush's adopted hometown. About 50 demonstrators have camped on the land, and a previous weekend's cookout drew more than 100.
Although attendance was significantly lower than last summer's protest, when more than 10,000 people streamed into Crawford over her 26-day vigil in ditches off the rural road leading to Bush's ranch, protesters said they were not disappointed.
"I think behind everyone who's here are dozens of people," said Allie Light, 71, of San Francisco, who also attended last summer's protest. "I feel the message has gone farther. There are more people she speaks for."
In downtown Crawford Saturday afternoon, Bush supporter James Vergauwen sat in a convenience store parking lot under a tent with a sign reading "The Price of Freedom Is Not Free."
The Vietnam veteran from Windthorst, near the Oklahoma border, said he and his wife been staying in his RV in the parking lot the past few weeks to counter Sheehan's protest. He also was there last summer, he said. Tourists and other supporters stop by or sit with him and thank him, he said.
"She has the right to say whatever she wants, and she does, but she doesn't have the right to slander," Vergauwen said.
After last summer's vigil, protesters left in three buses on a cross-country tour. Now, the group will participate in Camp Democracy, starting Tuesday and running through Sept. 21 on the mall in Washington, D.C.
Activities will center on issues on which the group wants to hold the Bush administration and Congress accountable, including the war, environment, health care and attention to Hurricane Katrina victims, organizers said.
Sheehan, who had a hysterectomy last week, said Saturday that she was continuing to recover and would not be able to attend Camp Democracy.
Sheehan's youngest child, Andy, visited Crawford for the first time this weekend and attended Saturday's rally. Sheehan also has two daughters.
"It's a great place," said Andy Sheehan, 22. "I came to support my mom and to meet everybody she's been working with."
Reserves. She recently said that she's subject to recall under the Ready Reserves. I wish they would recall her and court-martial her.
Geez...do these people not have families, jobs, responsibilities...oh nevermind....
a two-week demonstration called "Camp Democracy."
Nutty Cindy. Nutty, nutty, nutty.
Who's Cindy?
If they are saying 100 then probably the number attending was more like 20 to 30.
awwww does this mean her fasting fruit smoothie diet has ended as well?
I'm melting
Call it Camp DumbAssery.
LOL!!! Texas treated those nutcases to a month of the highest temperatures that have been experienced in these parts for many a year! Good riddance!!
Oh okay, I get it. The movement isn't fizzling out, its expanding And who speaks for Casey, who, after all, volunteered to fight?
I guess cindy has recovered from getting rid of Mr Jackson's baby.
A hundred people is 'building momentum'?
Great. Now I'm going to have even more clowns in my backyard. Yecch.
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