New Bush neighbor picks place for peace
Posted on 03/10/2003 6:38:35 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
New Bush neighbor picks place for peace
Crawford residents say he chose wrong town for anti-war effort
03/10/2003
CRAWFORD, Texas - The anti-war effort has traveled to President Bush's doorstep.
A Dallas-area man recently purchased a home in Crawford, which he plans to transform into a haven for peace pursuits and a convenient location from which to launch protests against a war with Iraq.
"It has a lot to do with Bush being near," said John Wolf, the activist who purchased the home. "But the area really needs an interfaith center and a spiritual presence."
Residents of the tiny town are already outraged.
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The city's mayor agreed.
"We're not going to let them turn our town into a three-ring circus," said Crawford Mayor Robert Campbell. "If they want to protest, let them go to Washington. I know what they want, but I don't think they're going to get it."
The house sits at the edge of downtown Crawford and is one the first homes visible after entering the city and passing the large billboard that reads "Home of President George W. Bush." It had been used as a rental property by an absentee landlord, who sold it through a real estate agent for $54,000.
The small white home with aluminum siding is catty-corner to the Coffee Station, the city's popular restaurant, and a few yards from Crawford City Hall.
"I can wave at the police chief from the back porch," said Mr. Wolf, who hopes to entice a nun to take up residence in the house.
In Washington, deputy White House press secretary Scott McClellan said he wasn't familiar with the peace house backers' plan, "but like other groups and individuals in America, they have a right to express their opinions. That's a foundation of American democracy."
"If the people of Iraq try to speak out," he said, "they have their tongues cut out by the brutal regime."
Peace house supporters said the center would be used for more than protesting war, although they hoped it would influence Mr. Bush's position on a conflict with Iraq.
MONA REEDER / DMN John Wolf (left) and girlfriend Michele Sandlin plan to turn a Crawford, Texas, home into a center for peace pursuits. |
"We need a spiritual center in Crawford that's for peace and justice," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. "I hope it causes some soul searching with the president."
Mr. Burnam is also director of the Dallas Peace Center.
War protesters have called on Mr. Bush to abandon plans to topple Saddam Hussein. And, they believe, developing a peace center in Crawford will help their cause.
Mr. Wolf, a contractor who lives on a farm near Rockwall, said operating the house would be a collaboration of area peace activists, including members of the Dallas Peace Center.
Sitting on three lots, it has enough space for a planned independent media center, prayer center and a lavish peace garden.
"We're in the infant stages right now," Mr. Wolf said. "But we hope to get it all done."
On Saturday, Crawford residents moved about without knowing the plans of their new neighbors.
Tourists gathered at the Coffee Station and various souvenir shops.
Signs on nearly every Crawford building, including City Hall, read: "We Support Our Troops."
"I really don't want that type of place here," said 44-year-old Crawford resident Lonnie Self.
Mr. Self, who shoes horses for a living, said the city is firmly behind Mr. Bush.
"They are not going to get a good reception," he said.
Outside a shop called the Yellow Rose of Texas, a tourist complained the peace house would create conflict.
"They have a right to be here," said David Speed, a 54-year-old teacher from Ranger, 95 miles northwest of Crawford. "But they should really stay home."
Some Crawford residents feared large protests or an influx of peace advocates would turn the city into a battleground.
And they also were concerned about the safety of peace house residents.
"Freedom of speech is important, but this is crazy," said Debbie Ingram, 45, ringing up sales on the Coffee Station's cash register while standing beside a life-size cutout of the president. "Don't they know Bush lives 7 ½ miles away from here? He's doesn't live in Crawford."
Ms. Ingram said she and her fellow Crawford residents are generally friendly. Still, she doubted that the community would warm up to the peace house, even if it included a nun.
"She should be careful," Ms. Ingram said out of concern for the planned occupant. "Something could happen to the house."
Mayor Campbell said the town has confronted other challenges to civic tranquillity since Mr. Bush moved to the area.
"We have ordinances in place because of that prospect," he said. "We're tired of these folks who want to use our town for massive demonstrations. We want to live our lives."
Peace advocates offer an opposing view, saying it's important to bring the debate about Iraq to Mr. Bush's back yard.
They said the peace house's other objectives are also important.
"It will be available to international visitors and [to] give things a different perspective," said Mr. Burnam. "It would be disingenuous to say the location wasn't picked because of Bush, but we need a spiritual center."
E-mail gjeffers@dallasnews.com
I want to buy the house next to yours an set it up as a half-way home for sexual deviants and drug addicts.
Will that be OK with you?
I promise that your kids will be fine.
Cross my heart.
Luis, decent people accomplish the exact same thing by Deed Restrictions and Covenants freely entered into between individuals, not by intrusive and inherently corrupt Government Regulation.
So9
I, too, am LOL! Sort of reminds me of the classic Southern defense in murder trials:
HE NEEDED KILLING.
That might be fun ! . . .
Better hurry, Apeasement Monkey. War will be over and done before you can get the UHaul unloaded.
Not so fast! Reliable rumor has it that there are some Methodists nearby. You know they "sprinkle" don't you?
Sort of makes your blood run cold.
Zoning laws, if abused, can lead to intrusions on private property ownership. On the other hand, they also protect property owners from having their property value destroyed by those who acquire adjacent property.
For example, suppose you have a nice home in a reasonably well-to-do neighborhood with a value of $150K (for the sake of argument). I buy the lot/house next door and pay slightly over market value at $170K. Since there are no zoning laws, I convert the house into a dealership in porn, sex toys, and herbal products. You suspect (along with your neighbors) that my property is also being used for prostitution and possibly drugs, but after several visits by the police (I have now filed a harassment complaint against you and the police department) there has been not even a whiff of anything that could remotely be described as evidence of any crime.
Before long, several of the neighbors decide to move away (their right and yours to move if you don't like my exercise of my property rights), but because of the very obvious sign on my place of business, they have trouble getting a decent price for their homes. They begin to panic and take huge losses on their property, accepting $50K to $60K for their $100K+ homes. By the time you decide to sell, the most you can get for your $150K home is $45K, which I am willing to pay you since it will give me room to expand my business. Of course, once I have bought your property and those of several of your neighbors, I own a great deal of prime real estate in this neighborhood that will appreciate in value once I shut down my porn/sex-toy/herbal product operation or move it to a more commercial location. You and the neighbors are hosed, but after all, I was just exercising my property rights.
Sometimes, limited zoning regulations are appropriate.
Financed/backed by the Socialists in this country that would love to tear us down. These are Liberal Loser Peacenik Goobers. They don't see or want to think about what Liberation will do to help a people that live in fear of their lives every day. Funny, what they support as a "Peace" movement is actually giving support to a Tyrant that has murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And the Peacenik Goobers would love to see it continue.
I'm glad we have President Bush instead of that algore critter in office . . .
Truer words than he usually utters, to be sure.
"Luis, decent people accomplish the exact same thing by Deed Restrictions and Covenants freely entered into between individuals."
Then again, we don't generally need protection from decent people, do we?
You can have all the Deed Restrictions and Covenants you want, but if I decide they mean nothing to me, how do you enforce them?
I buy the house next door to yours, and in violation of any and all covenants set up by decent people, I throw up a huge neon billboard, and open "Porn-O-Rama" for business.
Now what do you do?
With him and his live-in girlfriend. Kinky.
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