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Sunday, Jul 12, 2009
As America's most famous antiwar activist takes her crusade on the road, supporters pack up their banners and rosary beads and promise Crawford will always remember "Sheehan's stand."
Aug 31, 2005 | On Cindy Sheehan's last Sunday in Crawford, Texas, the president finally came to Camp Casey II to meet and even pray with her. Not President Bush, which comes as no surprise, but TV President Jed Bartlet of "The West Wing," Martin Sheen.
The actor and activist arrived late in the day to a cheer from at least one bystander of "Bartlet for America!" He came to say a memorial rosary with his fellow Catholic Sheehan for her son and all the other servicemen who died in Iraq. It was the highlight of a Sunday at the ground zero of the new antiwar movement that included a morning visit from the Rev. Al Sharpton for prayer services, a Jewish kaddish, two weddings, and the sharing and solidarity that have become a trademark of Sheehan's inspiring vigil down the road from George W. Bush's pseudo ranch in the rolling farmland of Central Texas.
On Wednesday, Sheehan decamps from Crawford and heads to Austin. She will hold a rally at City Hall to kick off her bus tour that will end in Washington at a major antiwar demonstration planned for Sept. 24. Since she first camped out alone on the side of the road on Aug. 6 at what became known as Camp Casey I, thousands of Americans have also made the pilgrimage to the town and countryside near the president's vacation getaway to show their support. And millions have witnessed her crusade via the media.
Certainly the people who joined Sheehan at Camp Casey -- an estimated peak of 1,000 on Saturday and 500 or so on Sunday -- represented a vast swath of the American electorate. There were the fellow mothers and fathers of those killed in Iraq, and the activist organizations that are opposed to the war. There were military men and women, and veterans of Iraq, Vietnam and the peacetime armed services. Joan Baez and Steve Earle have performed, and on Sunday, Texas blues guitar wunderkind Carolyn Wonderland and Austin bluesman Frank Meyer won over the crowd.
And, yes, those who oppose Sheehan have also come to Crawford. But it's clear at Camp Casey II, as well as across the rest of the nation -- if current opinion polls are any indication -- that Sheehan, in her simple gesture of camping on Bush's doorstep, has united opposition to the war in Iraq as no one has done before.
"At least Cindy got the acting president of the United States," Sheen told the cheering crowd, when he took the stage for what he said were some unprepared remarks. "I don't need to tell you how many people are watching what's happening here, on what can only be called sacred ground. All over the country, people are watching. And many of us who have been silent for too long have begun to get behind these women, who are being led by Cindy Sheehan.
"I am so grateful to all of you for standing with her, for vigiling," Sheen continued in his best Bartlet style. "It is in the old Irish tradition that goes back centuries that when you had a rift with a landlord or an authority, you vigiled in front of their homes until they came out and confronted you. When I spoke with Cindy for the first time some few weeks ago, she told me she was Catholic, and that Casey was a devout Catholic and devoted to the Holy Mother. And when his remains were sent home, there were 11 rosaries found in his belongings. So I suggested we do the rosary to honor him and his fallen comrades. So that is really what this prayer service is all about."
Sheehan was moved by the rosary service. "It was very special," she said later. "Casey loved the church a lot. After he died, the chapel at his base started a new Knights of Columbus organization. And they named it the Casey Austin Sheehan Knights of Columbus Council, because he loved the church, he loved his community, he loved serving people. So they said he exemplified everything about what they want to stand for." Sheehan added that she was honored that among the many supporters who have visited her in Crawford was her "dream president." Echoing the feelings of many, she added, "He's a lot better than the other one."
