ADDITIONAL info re- folks at Camp Casey

[snot]

Here's what I just mass-emailed to folks re- the video I posted here a little while ago. Free feel to copy if you like:

Hi, there.

Last Wednesday, 8/10/05, Ben and I went to Crawford, TX and shot about 3 hours of footage of Camp Casey. At that point, there were only about 100 protesters, and I think we got some really good footage. We’ve made a short video of the highlights, which you can view at:

http://www.sortor.com/casey

I was pretty knocked out by some of the folks we met there. Don’t want to bore, but if you’re interested in knowing more about them, see below.

Carolyn

For more info or to help, go to

Gold Star Families for Peace at www.gsfp.org
Code Pink at www.codepinkalert.org
Veterans for Peace at www.veteransforpeace.org
Military Families Speak Out at www.mfso.org
Crawford Peace House at www.crawfordpeacehouse.org
or www.democraticunderground.com

To contact your governmental representatives including the White House, as well as the media, go to

www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media

To contact various media outlets, you can also go to

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cu/cu.php?az=blaster

About the people we met in Crawford:

Cindy Sheehan. We did not get a formal interview with her but were able to see her being interviewed by others and to speak with her briefly. She was consistently and completely gracious, intelligent, down-to-earth, and real. Sorry if this sounds hokey, but she almost seemed like a reincarnation of Ghandi.

Celeste Zappala, a co-founder of Goldstar Families for Peace. I’d been trying to interview her for a while, when she finally got free, strode over to me, grabbed my hand warmly, and apologized for not getting to me sooner. She radiates warmth. See her on the video.

Ann Wright, with Veterans for Peace. She functioned as the camp commandante and diplomat. Unfortunately, our interview with her was interrupted, but but before we had to stop, we learned something about her background. She started out in the military and had a long career there—around 15 years or more, in various capacities including psy-ops, and in countries all over the world. Then she had a second career in the U.S. diplomatic corps and was there for another 15 years or more. She was deputy ambassador to Mongolia at the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and on that date she resigned from the State Department, after having served under seven Presidents. You can read her resignation letter here: http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0303/032103wright.htm . She told us that when she resigned, she received hundreds of e-mails from others in the State Department expressing agreement with her position, and she also said that many others throughout all departments of the government strongly disagree with Bush Administration policies.

Diane Wilson, a co-founder of Code Pink. She’s the one I’d like to party with—she’s an absolute hoot. She is a third-generation fisherwoman from Seadrift, TX. She lacks both health insurance and a college degree, but she’s smart as a whip. The Army tried to recruit her daughter by promising she’d be able to go to any school she wanted and by giving her the impression that she’d only be in the Coast Guard—and THEN they started going after Diane’s autistic son! She also told great stories about sneaking into Congressional hearings and Bush official speeches including the inauguration—after which, one security agent said, “With all the money we spend on security, how the hell do these women keep getting in??” She mentioned that a preacher had told her she was “possessed by the devil,” because of her protest activities. Diane began a hunger strike at the inception of Camp Casey; see the www.codepinkalert.org for info about how to join the strike.

Jodie Evans, I believe another co-founder of Code Pink. She wore a huge pink hat and functioned as combo-guardian angel for Cindy and administrator for the camp. The video includes snippets of both Jodie and Diane Wilson.

These women, to my mind, were the “Graces” of Camp Casey.

[Karenina]

1. It's high time MOMS

send the boys to their rooms for a "time out" before they destroy the planet.