by Stefan Wray Tuesday, Aug 9 2005, 6:44pm
stefwray (nospam) io.com
national / war and peace / feature

Here is an update from VFP member Dick Underhill regarding Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, including a list of needs.

Cindy Sheehan is still outside Bush Ranch in Crawford waiting for Bush to come out and face up to her..and thereby face up to the truth about what he has done to this nation and the world.

The Crawford Peace House, Code Pink, MFSO, VVAW, VFP and a host of other organizations are working together to support Cindy...Many thanks to Cindy and the Volunteers.

It rained real hard this morning things are wet...but they are holding out and standing up magnificently. We have some needs. More info follows listing:

1: A camcorder to record any confrontations with authorities or hecklers.
2: 30 people to help set up 1000 crosses and someone to take charge of this effort
3: People to manage the Crawford Peace House...answer phones, keep in clean, make
sandwiches etc.
4: Someone to help organize a commemorative/interfaith service for Sunday
5: A BIG TENT say 8-10 feet wide and 15 feet long, other tents?
6: People on site
7: Jail Watch

We are told that Condi Rice and Rumsfield are coming to Crawford on Wed or Thur for a party of $100,000 fund raisers at a ranch near the Bush ranch and along the street where the encampment is set up. They may declair the encampment a threat to National Security and demand we clear out. I'm not 100% sure what Cindy will do..she has declaired that she will stay until the President talks with her, she is arrested (which she is prepared to accept), or until the end of August.

Now a review of our needs by the numbers..

1: We really need one or more camcorders to record any confrontations with hecklers or authorities. Make sure batteries are charged. I am going to and from Crawford daily and will take care of transortation if necessary..better yet..take it to Crawford yourself.

2: The folks from Arlington West are bringing our 1000 crosses to set up a memorial for the US dead in Iraq. We need 30 people to help set them up on Wednesday...probably starting between 9 and 10 AM. We also need a volunteer coordinator for this task. Someone with email and a cell phone who can keep a volunteer contact list and coordinate...

3: We need a volunteer Coordanator and volunteers to be in and manage the Peace House. Keep it neat, make coffee and sandwiches and....answer phones, and...

4: We need volunteers to organize and folks to attend a commemorative or interfaith service for Sunday..

5: Any one who can loan us a big tent say 8-10ft wide and 15ft long..please let me know. We might also need some smaller tents. There is room for storage at the Peace House. Be sure to tag any 'loaned tents' with your name and contact information.

6: We need people in Crawford. Folks are coming in from around the Nation and the World. The next 2-3 days are critical...start your engines and point your nose toward Crawford ASAP.

7: In case Cindy or others are arrested we will need to discuss a 'jail watch/vigil' If you can volunteer for this, let me know.

Cindy has given us a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the pendulum moving toward a peaceful tomorrow...press all over the nation and the world are paying attention. Take Vacation, Play Hookie, Run away from home...what ever it takes...get in your cars and get to Crawford.

On behalf of Cindy Sheehan and all the voluteers,

Dick Underhill 512-799-9379




Join Cindy's Struggle NOW
by CJ Tuesday, Aug 9 2005, 4:00pm

By now you should have read the media stories about Cindy Sheehan who is camped outside of President Bush's ranch in Crawford. Her only
request: to have the President come out and explain why he lied about going to war in Iraq...a war that resulted in the death of her son, 24-year-old Casey.

It would seem a simple thing, to ask the "servant of the people" to actually respond to a person. But it's not.

Cindy has traveled all of the way from Vacaville, California to be here in Texas. Now she's sweating out in the sun in a ditch by the side of the road where she has been forced to camp out by local security forces.

But, folks around Texas are learning about her struggle and are volunteering to join in.

DO SOMETHING. JOIN IN CINDY'S STRUGGLE TO GET THE PRESIDENT TO TALK.

Join Cindy, for a few hours or as many days at it takes. Come out to Crawford and help speak truth to power.

Here are some things you can help by bringing:

Food and Water
Coffee
Tarps/canopy
Flashlights and Batteries
Wet wipes
Bug spray
Ice chests/ Ice

LINKS WHERE YOU CAN FOLLOW THE STORY:

Mr. Bush, Let's Talk (Boston Globe) -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxHbnKv4mb/
President Bush Ditches Mother of Slain Soldier (Crawford Iconoclast) -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxIbnKv4mb/
Mom of Slain GI Holds Vigil in Crawford (The Guardian) -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxJbnKv4mb/
Sheehan Draws Tears of Support -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxKbnKv4mb/

OTHER RELATED LINKS:

Casey's Peace Page -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxLbnKv4mb/
Honor the Fallen, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxMbnKv4mb/
Dear George and Dick, by Cindy Sheehan -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxNbnKv4mb/
Crawford Peace House -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxObnKv4mb/
Texans for Peace End the War in Iraq -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxPbnKv4mb/
On the Front Lines -
t4peacenewsletter.c.topica.com/maadQcSabjjxQbnKv4mb/

add your comments

Flood the White House with Calls!!
by CW Tuesday, Aug 9 2005, 4:07pm

Flood the White House with phone calls. Let them know that people in every corner of this country support Cindy and that we want George W.
Bush to go out and meet with Cindy! The number for the White House comment line is 202-456-1111.


Also, help ensure local news outlets are covering this story. Call the editors of broadcast media, and producers of radio shows to encourage their ongoing coverage of this important news.

enator sees 'echoes of Vietnam' in vigil to meet president.

Crawford, TX - A mother whose son was killed in Iraq says she is prepared to continue her protest outside President Bush's ranch through August until she is granted an opportunity to speak with him.

Later, in a TV interview, a Democratic senator from California said the episode evokes images that were commonplace during the Vietnam War.

Cindy Sheehan's 24-year-old son -- Army Spc. Casey Sheehan of Vacaville, California -- was killed in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 4, 2004. The Humvee mechanic was one of eight U.S. soldiers killed there that day by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. (Full story)

They are among the 1,829 American troops, including 31 this month, who have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

The president -- who is spending a nearly five-week-long working vacation at his Texas ranch -- said in a speech Wednesday that the sacrifices of U.S. troops were "made in a noble cause." (Full story)

Sheehan said she found little comfort in his comments.

"I want to ask the president, why did he kill my son?" Sheehan told reporters. "He said my son died in a noble cause, and I want to ask him what that noble cause is."

Sheehan said hers was one of a group of about 15 families who each met separately with the president one day last June.

"He wouldn't look at the pictures of Casey. He didn't even know Casey's name," she told CNN Sunday. "Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject."

Sheehan said she was so distraught at the time that she failed to ask the questions she now wants answered.

"I want him to honor my son by bringing the troops home immediately," Sheehan told reporters Saturday. "I don't want him to use my son's name or my name to justify any more killing."

Sheehan, who co-founded the anti-war group Gold Star Families for Peace, led about 50 demonstrators near the Bush ranch Saturday. Some protesters were with the group Veterans for Peace, which was holding a convention in Dallas.

The protesters stopped their bus miles from the ranch in Crawford, and walked less than a half-mile before being stopped by local law enforcement officials.

A message on the Gold Star Families Web site says, "We want our loved ones' sacrifices to be honored by bringing our nation's sons and daughters home from the travesty that is Iraq IMMEDIATELY, since this war is based on horrendous lies and deceptions.

"Just because our children are dead, why would we want any more families to suffer the same pain and devastation?"

The message also urges Bush to send his twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, to Iraq "if the cause is so noble."

The site says the group is made up of families of soldiers who have died as a result of war, primarily in Iraq.

Joe Hagin, White House deputy chief of staff, and Stephen Hadley, national security adviser, met with Sheehan for about 45 minutes Saturday, according to White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

Sheehan said that the two men "were very respectful."

"They told me the party line of why we are in Iraq," she said. "I told them that I don't believe that they believed that."

Duffy said Saturday that "many of the hundreds of families the president has met with know their loved one died for a noble cause and that the best way to honor their sacrifice is to complete the mission."

Bush has refused to provide a time frame for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, saying American forces will return home when Iraqis can take care of their own security.

"President Bush wants the troops home as soon as possible, but the U.S. will not cut and run from terrorists," Duffy said.

Sheehan elicited sympathy from both sides of the political spectrum on Sunday.

"What you're seeing with that mom trying to meet with President Bush is echoes of Vietnam," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat. "Because no one is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel."

"I think the president ought to meet with this mother," said Sen. George Allen, a Virginia Republican. "What I would say to her is her son will always be remembered as a great hero and a patriot, advanced freedom in Iraq and the Middle East, has made this country more secure."

Boxer said her own message would be different: "I would tell her to do everything she could to spare other families this grief, to get us off this cycle of violence."

Recent surveys have shown decreasing public support for the war.

In a Newsweek poll released Sunday, 64 percent of those asked said they do not believe the war in Iraq has made Americans safer, and 61 percent said they disapprove of the way the president is handling the war.

The telephone poll of 1,004 adults was taken from Tuesday to Thursday last week and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.