Bree Walker
Posted on 06/16/2007 6:21:03 PM PDT by rface
DEL MAR – A lifetime of quiet activism propelled ex-anchorwoman Bree Walker to take over what many consider ground zero of the anti-war movement.
Last Saturday, she handed a check for $87,000 to peace activist Cindy Sheehan for 5 acres of Texas scrub near President Bush's Crawford ranch.
Bree Walker
“This is the first time in my life I had a moment like this,” Walker said.
Sheehan had bought the land using the insurance payment she received when her soldier son, Casey Sheehan, was killed five days after his deployment to Iraq. He was 24.
Camp Casey. That's what Sheehan called the place where she camped in the August heat of 2005. What brought her there, she told journalists from around the globe, was to ask the president why her son died, for what purpose?
Sheehan's protest helped turn public opinion against the war. Nearly three-quarters of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the war, according to a May 24 New York Times/CBS News poll.
Walker, 54, is a college dropout who worked her way up from rock 'n' roll disc jockey to star anchorwoman in America's biggest media markets, from San Diego to Los Angeles and New York. The three-time divorcee lives in an $1.8 million Del Mar home after walking away from her network career to raise two children.
So what is Walker doing with Camp Casey?
“You mean, I don't have a dead son, so what right do I have?” she said.
Her husky voice softened as she admitted, “I've tried to put myself in Cindy's shoes, and I can only imagine the pain.”
Advertisement Walker and Sheehan bonded 18 months ago when they met, Walker said. She wanted to buy Sheehan's life story for the television production company she owns with ex-husband Jim Lampley, an HBO commentator with whom she remains close.
Over Memorial Day, Sheehan announced her retirement from the peace movement, citing failing health and frustration with Congress for continuing to fund the war. The woman some have called the Rosa Parks of the peace movement was selling Camp Casey on the Internet auction site eBay.
Move America Forward, a group based in Sacramento with links to conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, wanted to buy the land. Walker, a liberal talk-radio host on Air America's Los Angeles affiliate, immediately offered the asking price, which she said is what Sheehan paid for it, plus improvement costs such as running water and a gravel road.
“I felt like this was hallowed ground,” Walker said. “How often do you get a grass-roots movement out of one woman's heartbreak?”
Walker cashed in the stock portfolio she painstakingly built during her network news years. It wasn't easy, she said, for she had grown up poor in Oakland and Minnesota. She saved 45 percent of every paycheck, fearful of returning to poverty.
But she also had grown up in the 1960s and felt the pain of a family divided, as much of the country was then. Her older brother was drafted, and she protested the Vietnam War.
As Carol Jahnkow, director of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, said, “Bree stepping in and buying it is a testament to the work that Cindy did and also recognizes that the war continues and people are dying every day, and the peace movement needs to have a continued presence there.”
In a statement, Move America Forward urged Walker to work with families who have a different view of the war so that the land will become “a place where the troops can be honored without the anti-troop rhetoric that Ms. Sheehan has become famous for.”
For now, Walker's plans for Camp Casey include keeping it available for anti-war protests. Maybe she'll build a memorial, maybe a playground for the children of the 700-person town of Crawford, or maybe start a school for nonviolence training for youth. She will see the land for the first time during a three-day gathering of anti-war advocates beginning July 6.
Walker knows stepping forward carries a price – she has already received hate mail – but she has weathered personal storms before.
She has ectrodactylism, a genetic bone deformity of the hands and feet. Her brother and her children, Andrea, 18, and Aaron, 15, have it. When she was pregnant with her son, she publicly challenged a radio talk-show host who had focused national attention on her and her right to have children. Walker became a high-profile spokeswoman for disability rights because of her openness about her genetic disorder.
Earlier this year, she checked herself into a 30-day alcohol-abuse treatment program in West Los Angeles. There was no major crisis, she said, but a lifelong interest in health issues – she had wanted to become a doctor – helped her see danger signs.
“I'm proud of putting myself into treatment. That takes a certain amount of courage to admit that you have a problem that could get a whole lot worse.” She continues her sobriety in a 12-step program.
Of Camp Casey, she said: “There will be people who say that I am not supporting the troops, and that is not the truth. I support the troops because I want them home.”
I think you are right
Correct.
Ba-da-bum.
R. Dangerfield, RIP
I am sick to death of weird old hippy chicks.... We are not going to win a war again until the rich old hippies drop dead.
54 and trying to look 19. Poor thing should spend a few dollars at the nearest shrink who could tell her that you cannot buy back your youth.
What the hell is this making the news for?
They promised no more "Cindy" stories!
At least she can still get a part in Hollywood — if they do a remake of Mr. Limpet.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006JMSL.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
And that was the moment I couldn't hold the puke back longer.
Another ugly face from plastic surgery.
She was married to Jim Lampley (spelling may be wrong on last name). Last I heard JL was spouting “truther talk.” Both of them were Los Angeles media types (news and sports anchors). Liberal then, loonie now.
Was beautiful.
Is a monster.
Looks like someone ordered the Angelina Jolie Lip Kit from QVC.
Who is Erin Brokovitch gonna sue when all the calves within 5 miles of Camp Media Whore are born with 2 heads?
Get another facelift, lady.
I remember her from when I lived in So Cal in the ‘80s.
She hasn’t aged well.
I hear that Walker and Sheehan are actually going to be starring together in a re-make of the Disney Classic, ‘Beast and the Beast’.
Be sure to miss it.
I think I'm gonna puke.
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