Military Families & Couples

After an hour-long rally at Crawford Park, a long caravan of vehicles did the five miles in about fifteen minutes to the encampment where Cindy would speak.

Highlights from the rally: Iraq Veterans Against The War, Gold Star Mothers and Military Families (Speak Out). I wish when I was in the army in the sixties, we had an organization called Military Families Speak Out. It took us several years to organize Vietnam Vets Against the War, but everything is internet escalated in the 21st century and Iraq vets have this incredible support in place for themselves and families. Vets For Peace President spoke but I missed him.

Veterans from Oklahoma, all over Texas, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, California, are arriving, followed by vets and non-vets from Arizona, Colorado and Kansas. It does not slow down. Vets who never thought they would appear at something like this are surprised by their welcomes. We stopped by one Texas Cowboy Pick Up Truck on the way out of Crawford Park and I asked the guys, all over fifty-five, if they were veterans. Both said they were. When I asked if they were members of Veteran's For Peace, they said, "You're winning us over. "Is everything in Texas like football?
 

I don't know how to explain a twenty eight-year Marine Corps vet, single father of one remaining teen son who sat in his truck all day Friday with a large sign over the windshield "My Fallen Hero" over a large portrait of his Marine Corps son in dress blues who was KIA during the battle of Falluja last November. Dad's last combat assignment was Bosnia. He comes from a family of fighters. He was hurting, in deep pain. Slowly, he answered "fine" when asked about his remaining son, a sixteen year old giving his life for this country. He does not know where to turn in his grief and he does not omit the lure of Cindy Sheehan and her friends from his possibilities. On Friday, several of us, veterans and Gold Star Parents and one guy who is both, all independent of each other, spent some time with him. He stood silently on the other side of the street today with a couple dozen of his neighbors, locals whipped up by a Dallas nutcase radio announcer who came to insult Gold Star Mothers and question our service records. Some of us vets referred to them as "Cindy's Swiftboat assholes." After they left, this dad joined us at the Peace House, spent some time with Gold Star Parents for Peace, Cindy, and other vets. He'd be the last man in the world to say he was "questioning anything," but he is. The energy of the day had hardly subsided when the Rev. Lucian Walker and the Pastors For Peace bus pulled in. And then more veterans and a caravan from Oklahoma arrived. Cooks were in the kitchen cooking some fine nourishment for the house and the camp. Web masters in the backroom trying to figure out why the wireless signal goes to sleep around sundown. Media people picking up t shirts and everyone was sharing the latest political cartoons lambasting the president for not speaking with Cindy. Leaving this energy vortex for a good nights sleep on a motel bed is not easy, but necessary. <end>

Congresswoman Weighs In George W. Bush President of the United States 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC.   20050 August 15, 2005 Dear Mr. President: I am writing to request that you meet with Ms. Cindy Sheehan, grieving mother of Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, killed April 4, 2004 in Iraq. Mr. Sheehan was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, at Fort Hood in your own home state of Texas. Specialist Sheehan paid the ultimate price for our country and surely you can honor that sacrifice by meeting with his mother to discuss the issues that trouble her about her great loss. Mr. President, you asked many Americans to risk the ultimate sacrifice for this great nation of ours and thousands, including young Casey Sheehan, answered your call.  Unfortunately, thousands of mothers now know Ms. Sheehan's pain; millions more fear it.  Now is the time to honor these young men and women, and to honor Ms. Sheehan's request.  One way we honor those who died in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom is by respecting the needs of the families they left behind. I understand, Mr. President, that you have seen Ms. Sheehan on at least two occasions as you drove past her encampment near your ranch in Crawford, Texas. Please, Mr. President, don't drive by a mother who has lost her son in a war you fully support.  America cannot stand another drive by.  Meet with her, Mr. President, or surely she will be joined by many other grieving mothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, brothers, and fathers whose loved ones lost their lives for you in Iraq.  The meeting she seeks is to discuss the circumstances of her son's death. Her request is reasonable and I support her call to meet with you. Mr. President, the parents of troops still stationed in Iraq, and the parents of young Americans who may be called to Iraq or who are currently being recruited to join the military are watching you right now. I ask that you reconsider your decision not to meet with Ms. Sheehan and offer her your personal condolences--not just for her, but for our country and the millions who are now watching both you and her. Sincerely, Cynthia McKinney Member of Congress

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Lane Anderson is a Viet Nam combat veteran and a member of Cindy Sheenan's Veterans for Peace escorts on the ground in Crawford, Texas