Well, I finally made to the Crawford site today.

BleedingHeartPatriot

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Thu Aug-11-05 03:30 PM
Original message

Well, I finally made to the Crawford site today.

I'm so glad I'm here.

My daughter and I started the day at the Crawford Peace House. There's lots of activity there, which feels like controlled chaos; and the folks who run the place are doing a fantastic job keeping everyone supplied in food, water, t shirts, umbrellas and other essentials.

They are also providing rides back and forth from the site.

We decided to drive up ourselves to get the "lay of the land."

After a nine (?) mile drive we came upon the large encampment that has sprung up around Cindy and her group.

The edict is given to everyone; do not infringe on the road. So, the gathering is a line up of canopies, tents, lawn chairs and vehicles, going up a side road, which is perpendicular to the main road to "the ranch."

We drove about 1/4 mile up ,parked at end of the line, and walked to the main group, accompanied by two charming young ladies from Code Pink..Susie and Heather.

On arrival, I was immediately struck by the number of press people there. Some were local, I met reporters from Dallas and Austin. I also met one from the Iconoclast. I also spoke to a "stringer" from CBS, as well as a group of South Korean journalists.

I met Vince, a fellow DU'er,vincardog(sp?) and he graciously steered me toward Will Pitt, who told us about the night they had experienced.

I spoke to Cindy to thank her for her courage and willingness to speak. She is being interviewed constantly, and when she's not being interviewed, she's constantly surrounded by well wishers.

I had a couple of moments to speak with her, and when she heard where we came from, she embraced me and said in my ear, "We just need to keep telling them, we won't let them do this anymore." I started tearing up and said, "Thanks for being so brave" and she said,"I'm not brave, I'm just saying what needs to be said."

She is a remarkable presence and I was so moved. She is very warm and hugs most people that she speaks to.

Well, as we hugged, I vaguely heard shutters going off, and when I walked off, three reporters ran up and started peppering me with questions.

"Who was I?", "Where was I from?", "Was I the mother of an Iraq soldier?"...this was somewhat upsetting because I was walking up to my daughter to share the moment with her and these folks jumped in between. I was still tearful and as my new friends, Susie and Heather said, "They intruded on your personal moment."

However, nothing could put a damper on that moment and I felt even more conviction to continue to speak out and do what I can to bring an end to this war and eventually, this corrupt regime.

That said, things are running fairly smoothly, and the main discussion was the arrival of condi and rummy. Right before we arrived at site this morning, we heard that three helicopters passed overhead, heading to the ranch.

I assisted for a while with the placement of the thousand crosses and acted as a shuttle for a couple of the folks at the site, back to the Peace House.

There are about 100 people here, and 75 or so at the Peace House. Everyone is eager to do something to help, so I had more "downtime" than I expected.

I listened in as a sheriff's deputy spoke with a reporter about the triangle of land that the group had been removed from.

The sheriff's deputy was actually friendly to all of us, and told the reporter he wished he owned that parcel.

When the reporter asked him if he would have let the protesters on his land, he replied "sure I would, and I would have made a fortune off the rent."

The locals here told me that the local law enforcement often feels "caught in the middle" when they are asked to do something at the behest of the SS.

My daughter and I need to pick up a couple more items, so we came back here to re-organize for our second trip to the Crawford Peace House and the site.

Of course, in the time we're doing this, I just had to post an update.

I'll try to post again, later. MKJ