Posted on 08/15/2007 6:40:17 PM PDT by kristinn
While US public has heavily turned against the Iraq war, the protest site near President George W. Bush's Texas ranch had just one permanent demonstrator Wednesday -- two if you count the dog.
"She's full time, and I'm full time," Carl Rising-Moore, 61, said cheerfully of "Sunny," a frisky stray dog bounding around the arid grounds of the camp that anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan set up in tribute to her slain Iraq soldier son.
Rising-Moore, a Canadian-born naturalized US citizen, said he runs workshops on how to hold non-violent protests and that the goal is to "create a movement here" and put pressure on lawmakers to remove Bush from office.
The five-acre plot's new owner, television personality Bree Walker, wants to turn it into a "permanent, active" base to nurture "a national effort, in its infancy" against preemptive war, according to Rising-Moore.
But on this scorching day -- about 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) in the sparse shade at the camp -- reporters easily outnumbered protesters while Bush enjoyed his annual August vacation from Washington just a few miles (kilometers) away.
The three demonstrators included "Reno," a self-described US navy veteran who would not give his last name but explained that he had grown conflicted about the use of violence during his service in the Kosovo conflict.
Reno, sitting at a picnic table not far from the dormant firepit used to roast hot dogs, said he had joined the navy in 1995 because "I wanted to go around kicking people's asses like they do on TV."
"I'm still for killing, to be perfectly honest," he said, drawing a nervous chuckle from his audience.
The sparse attendance -- a stark difference from the thousands who packed the site when Sheehan first launched her protest in 2005 -- came despite US poll numbers showing that the public mostly opposes the war.
Rising-Moore doesn't mind: "I love the Texas people. We don't agree a lot about politics, but when we talk as friends and people, we get along fine.... You can disagree, but you can still be neighbors."
“How much action did he even see in Kosovo?”
Well, he might have hallucinated some “action”, when the schizophrenia started acting up...Sounds like he’s missed a few doses of medication!;)
There would have been a huge crowd there if that hottie babe Cindy Sheehan would have been there. (Barf)
And watching too much "Under Seige."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.