Posted on 03/09/2007 7:54:54 AM PST by SmithL
More than 200 supporters of the Iraq war and the troops fighting it descended Thursday on the crosses in Lafayette -- long a lightning rod for local anti-war protesters.
Supporters waiting for a national support-the-troops caravan to stop in the city stood at the base of the hillside blanketed by crosses, and some shouted at cross organizers who stood on the hill.
The parent of a soldier killed in Iraq removed his son's name from one cross.
"Using our son's name is disgusting," said Tracy resident Scott Conover, whose son Brandon died in Iraq in January 2006.
The 3,188 crosses, which sparked an emotional and mixed response when they went up in November, became a place where divided views on the Iraq war collided Thursday.
Anti-war protesters have gathered at the crosses before, but Thursday was the first time the crosses became a stop for a different group. A caravan organized by Move America Forward, a Sacramento group that supports the military mission in Iraq, left San Francisco on Thursday morning and stopped in Lafayette at 10 a.m. en route to Washington, D.C.
A sea of flag-waving supporters, clad in red, white and blue, lined Deer Hill Road to greet the caravan. The crowd, which included members of the Lafayette Flag Brigade, far outnumbered the 15 or so war protesters on the hillside.
Both sides carried signs reading "Support Our Troops," but they had opposite interpretations of what that meant.
"What more could you wish for for each soldier than to bring them home alive to their loved one," said Sara Lake, a Lafayette resident and cross supporter.
Ethel Gilmore of Castro Valley, who came to greet the caravan, said: "Yes, we want them all home safe, but we support what they're doing there."
The gathering was mostly civil, with people on both sides generally keeping to themselves, and it never escalated physically. But there was some name-calling and shouting. The most passionate exchanges involved parents with children in the military.
A cross supporter said as he climbed the hill, "If you think I'm going to send my little boys over there ..." But Danville resident Sherry Perussina drowned him out with, "You just let other people do it for you."
Perussina, whose 21-year-old son spent a year in Iraq and is expected to be deployed again, said of the crosses, "This to me is the worst thing I've ever seen. It's shameless. It's bigotry. Stealing identities to make their political statement is shameless."
Lafayette resident Steve Boutte disagreed.
"I respect those who have died," said Boutte, a cross supporter. "Those who live on will look back at this as not a memorial of death but a memorial of freedom of speech to make Americans aware we are happy without war."
A dozen Lafayette police officers and Contra Costa sheriff's deputies kept watch over the crowd. They stood nearby as Conover and then Perussina confronted cross organizers Jeff Heaton and Louise Clark.
The caravan of at least 35 vehicles left Lafayette at 11 a.m. and planned to stop in Vacaville next. It expects to reach Washington, D.C., on March 17. The flags they collect from supporters along the way will be displayed in a "Flag City" at a rally and then sent to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Move America Forward, which organized the caravan, was founded by former Republican state Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, who helped lead the 2003 recall effort against Gov. Gray Davis. In 2005, its members organized a "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" caravan to Texas to counter war protester Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq.
Members send medical supplies to troops overseas. They oppose MoveOn, a group against the Iraq war that organized a January candlelight vigil at the crosses after President Bush announced plans to send more troops to Iraq.
As he surveyed the crowd gathered at the crosses he spearheaded, chief organizer Heaton said, "It seems they have a macho idea that once you get into war, you have to keep fighting till the end, even if the reasons you went to war were dishonest and a lie."
And there you have it!
The saddest thing about all of this is that it isn't even about the war. It's about hating President Bush.
"my little boys..."
Excuse me, lady, but if your kids are adults they can think for themselves, so YOU ain't sending them anywhere. And the Bush Administration is not stealing kids in the middle of the night, so just cut the high drama.
Also love the dingbat with the "we are happy without war." Yeah, so are the rest of countrymen, dummy, but unfortunately the splodydopes are happier WITH one.
Not of they're raised by radical lefties. Even at 30, 40. 50, 60 years old, these aging hippes are still "little girls and boys" and will probably will never be adults. Which is scary because based on their chonological age, they're allowed to vote.
Casey made his own choices in spite of having Moonbat Sheehan as his mother.
Good point, but I thought she claimed that she didn't become a radical leftie until AFTER Casey died?
Sudden Moonbat Syndrome?
I don't think so.
Cindy has a history of leftie causes - considering that she rooms with a pair of moonbat lawyers who hung a soldier in effigy (which is interesting, since they in essence hung her own son.
Ann Coulter has made a lot of comments from time to time that may seem harsh and that I can't quite get on board with - but her assessment of Cindy's exploiting of her son's death is spot on. I don't call her the Craftsman Madonna for nothing - she's the biggest tool in the moonbat box.
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