http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=top... Crosses vandalized at antiwar mom's Texas camp site
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - A pickup truck ran over wooden crosses erected at anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's campsite on Monday night, in the latest sign of tension over the peace vigil outside vacationing President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.
Larry Northern, 46, of nearby Waco, Texas, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief in connection with the incident, Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore said.
....
The small, white wooden crosses erected at the site are hand-painted with the names of soldiers killed in Iraq.
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Michelle Mulkey, a spokeswoman for Sheehan, said protesters were still awake on Monday night when a truck dragging a pipe and chains drove over a portion of the area where the crosses were standing.
http://www.truthout.org/cindy.shtmlt r u t h o u t | One Mother's Stand
By Japhet Els and Emily Sharpe
Monday 15 August 2005
11:15 PM
August 15, 2005 | Rude Awakening: Around 10:00 PM local time, someone drove over some of the crosses in the Arlington West Cemetary at Camp Casey.
(Photo: Japhet Els and Emily Sharpe)
About an hour ago, wegot a phone call from our friends up at Camp Casey saying that the line of gravemarkers along the road (Arlington West) had been run over. People there said that as they were talking to a few members of the press, a pick-up truck came down the road and stopped at the fork by the edge of the tents. The driver then jumped out and attached a pipe to the undercarriage with a chain and began to "swerve into the line of crosses," said Tammara Rosenleaf from Montana. "Then we heard the pipe being dragged over the gravemarkers and the pick-up's wheels crushing them."
Out of the 800 crosses, 500 were knocked down and 100 are irreperable. However, the driver was arrested by the local authorities. This is a prime example of how the Crawford sheriff's department has helped to protect us and our freedom of speech over the past week and a half. A big thank you to them!
Regardless of who did this, the fact is that respect for this country's dead is not a partisan issue. Putting up memorials of our country's fallen is not a "liberal" act. It is an American act. Even a group of counter-protestors from Dallas last week draped flags and flowers over many of the gravemarkers, and many were moved to tears at the sight of the long line of dead soldiers. It's too bad that someone else who disagrees with Cindy felt they needed to wipe out the memory of our fallen in such an obscene manner.
Now, more than ever, is the time for us to come together. We need your voice and your help to bring America closer to an ideal that all of us hold in our hearts. Cindy Sheehan is bringing us closer to that ideal and demonstrating its power to change this country.
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