Sheehan marches in Austin

[sabra]

http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=144593&SecID=2

Sheehan marches in Austin

Cindy Sheehan met with hundreds of supporters at the State Capitol Wednesday evening and then marched to Austin City Hall.

Sheehan was camping outside President Bush's Crawford ranch. She lost her son in the Iraqi War and says she wants to talk to President Bush, face-to-face. Her camp has grown into a large anti-war movement over the last month.

Some people at Wednesday's rally were refugees from Hurricane Katrina, and the disaster in the Southeast wasn't far from anyone's minds.

"I think it's important to connect these two things. We should be focused on America right now, not what's happening in Iraq with this natural disaster. It's important to have as many of our National Guard folks back here to support that effort," Sheehan said.

[despairing optimist]

1. We need 100 Cindys in the Senate and 435 Cindys in the House

How's that cloning coming along?

[Iowa]

4. And a Cindy in the White House

[IconoclastIlene]

8. Yeah, blame it all on Israel, Cindy!!!!

I feel sorry for your loss; Israel is not to blame; blame the chimp in the whitehouse who refuses to speak to you again.

[ray of light]

9. um...geee....

a little snark? If you read FURTHER on what she said, you'd see she wasn't blaming Isreal.

Besides, she's already blaming the chimp and asking him the right questions.

As we all know, it's easy to "misspeak" in the heat of the moment and say something that isn't exactly what comes across later, she is not the one who set up the policy.

So save the snark for Bush and lay off Cindy.

[Rose Siding]

2. Oh, my. Are any of the blogs covering that march?

I'd love to get some more details about that.

[Vogon_Glory]

7. A Few More Details

I did attend the march and rally myself--my lady friend gave me a nudge forward and I thought that I ought to see this grieving woman who found herself catalyzing much of the anger felt about the Iraq invasion and occupation.

The crowd mix was that of young and old--not like the Vietnam-era marches, where the crowds tended to be younger and had a higher proportion of draft-age males. There were also far, far fewer hard-left genuine, accept-no-substitutes Marxists than I remember from demonstrations back in the 1970s--I'd say they were outnumbered by the vegetarians. While perhaps a bit tilted towards the Bohemian/liberal mindset, I'd say this crowd looked a lot more like the famous "middle America" conservatives once crowed about.

There was also a sprinkling of veterans--people who had been in the line of fire. While perhaps not in as high a proportion in the peace rally as in the right-wing counter-demonstration across the street, there were a lot more veterans from Vietnam and other wars out to see and hear Cindy Sheehan than out beating the drums for Gee Dubya Boojum.

Right-wing political hacks tempted to write off the sorts of people who went out to see Cindy Sheehan as a bunch of "socialistic," "anti-Amurrican" "leftists" do so at their own peril.

[acmejack]

3. I attended & got lots of pix.

Will post them in the AM. We had Eliza Gilkyson & also the Flatlanders play afterwards. Tremendous turn out and a great event!

[Carmerian]

5. What a nice end to it all

I took the bus downtown, and actually could have had a front row spot to see her if I hadn't been lured by the siren call of marching. A guy with an American flag led us up Congress to meet the large march that was heading down from the Capitol. The best part for me came at that point. To be able to get there on time, I had left straight from work. I was still dressed in my work clothes. Some guy next to me was shouting Pro-retard slogans at the marchers, and kept turning to me looking for support (I'm guessing he thought that since I was dressed so Republican, that I must be one). I finally looked him in the eye, then raised the peace sign over my head with my hand and joined the march.

After two treks to Crawford to see Cindy, it sure was surreal to see her standing there in my town, with the river in the background. She didn't talk for long, but she packed a lot into it. The story doesn't mention it, but she said she likes Austin and has come here before when Casey was stationed at Fort Hood. She then offhandedly said that maybe she'll run for mayor of Austin, at which point the crowd roared. I don't think Will Wynn would like competition ;)

If I had to guess, I'd say there were 800-1000 Cindy supporters there, and maybe 30-40 Pro-retards. For the most part they stayed on the south side of Cesar Chavez. They were a nuisance, and no more than that.

I hope Cindy gets crowds like this one at every stop!

[Vogon_Glory]

6. The Freeperstanis

My own observation was that there weren't more than 25 Freeperstani counter-demonstrators. I stayed away from them, but I couldn't resist the temptation to zing them with the fact that if Boy George had been anywhere near there, the peace activists would have been corralled in a so-called Free Speech Zone half a mile away.

I did take a look at the counter-demonstrators. Some of them, like some over at the peace rally, looked like they were either members of military families or ex-military themselves. I do hope that one of the progressive veterans did cross the street and ask one or two of the pudgy twenty-something male Freepers whether and when they were planning to enlist to fight in the "W"ar.