Protesters outside Bush ranch fume
By KEN HERMAN
Cox News Service
Monday, August 15, 2005
CRAWFORD, Texas � Crawford, Texas � On the hot pavement on a hot Texas Sunday afternoon, a mother walked slowly, looking for her son.
About halfway down the long row of white crosses, she found one bearing his name � Ryan M. Campbell � rubber-banded to the cross.
"It's OK," said Mary Ann MacCombie of Atlanta as she saw the cross that served as another reminder that her boy had been killed in Iraq. "It's not OK, but, I don't know. I don't know."
A deep sigh punctuated her words as tears welled in her eyes.
"It's going to take a long time to really, really accept," she said.
MacCombie, like many, has made the trek to Crawford in support of Cindy Sheehan of California, the grieving mother who has camped out here for more than a week while demanding to be allowed to ask President Bush why her son had to die in Iraq.
Campbell, 25, died on April 29, 2004, the victim of a suicide bomber.
For mothers like MacCombie, time at "Camp Casey" � an area just outside Bush's ranch, named for Sheehan's late son � has sparked a variety of emotions.
"It's meant a great deal to see this kind of love and support and a common cause," MacCombie said Sunday, prior to separating from the crowd for her solitary walk down the row of crosses. "I spent over a year grieving in private. And I'll never been the same. Bush will be the same. I won't."
On Sunday, anger and hurt joined other emotions MacCombie endured as she heard a recording of Bush's Saturday comments about not meeting with Sheehan. The president, whose Saturday included a bike ride and a Little League game, as well as briefings and meetings, said "it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say."
But he added that many people have "something to say to the president."
"So I'm mindful of what goes on around me," he said. "On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live, and will do so."
After hearing the recording, MacCombie said, "It hurts, because my son does not have a life to live. He can't ride his bike again."
Other Georgians came despite not having relatives in Iraq. For Mary Ellen Sheehan, an out-of-work teacher, not coming was not an option.
"I think it's very, very important that we support Cindy Sheehan and try and stop this war in Iraq," said Sheehan, who is not related to Cindy Sheehan. "When I heard what she is doing, I thought, 'This is what it is going to take to put a stop to the insanity.' Bush is out of control."
Two other Georgians who have spent several days at Camp Casey do have direct family links to the war.
"We have three sons and two grandchildren that are all veterans of this war," said Linda Waste, who traveled here with her husband, Philip, from their home in Shellman Bluff to show solidarity with Cindy Sheehan and to press Bush to develop a strategy for speeding the return of U.S. troops.
"It's a war based on lies," Linda Waste said Friday, "and we need to bring our troops home."
The couple has three sons on active duty in the Army. All have served tours in Iraq, and one is serving his second tour now in Baghdad. They have a granddaughter in the Army and a grandson in the Navy. Both of them have served in the Iraq campaign as well. The couple wouldn't give the names of their offspring for fear that they might be punished, but they showed photos of them all in uniform.
"We're not traitors," said Philip Waste, a retired elevator mechanic who said he spent four years in the Navy.
Glancing toward his wife, Waste, who hears echoes of Vietnam in administration rhetoric about Iraq, said: "She bore three boys and suckled them and raised them into adulthood and raised them to be patriotic. They served their country. They were misused. They were sent to another no-win war. I don't know why we're in this war."
The Wastes were annoyed Friday when Bush passed twice in his motorcade � heading to and returning from a GOP fund-raising event � without stopping.
"He zipped by with the Secret Service," Philip Waste said. "I don't believe the man has a heart."
"I believe Clinton would have stopped. Carter would have stopped. Kennedy would have stopped," he added. "A man with compassion would have stopped."
Ken Herman writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: kherman@coxnews.com
===============================
America's Heroes!
Mother Cindy Sheehan & Son Casey
Iraqi War - George W. Bush's Accountability ("What noble cause??...Cindy)
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/sheehan.htm
Check in with Earnest Hancock and Mari Connor from Air America Phoenix as they journey to Crawford TX to stand side by side with Cindy Sheehan as she waits for the President.
AUDIO FILES: CINDY REPORT 8/15/05 FOR KXXT 1010 AM PHX AZ
http://www.crawfordorbust.com/
By KEN HERMAN
Cox News Service
Monday, August 15, 2005
CRAWFORD, Texas � Crawford, Texas � On the hot pavement on a hot Texas Sunday afternoon, a mother walked slowly, looking for her son.
About halfway down the long row of white crosses, she found one bearing his name � Ryan M. Campbell � rubber-banded to the cross.
"It's OK," said Mary Ann MacCombie of Atlanta as she saw the cross that served as another reminder that her boy had been killed in Iraq. "It's not OK, but, I don't know. I don't know."
A deep sigh punctuated her words as tears welled in her eyes.
"It's going to take a long time to really, really accept," she said.
MacCombie, like many, has made the trek to Crawford in support of Cindy Sheehan of California, the grieving mother who has camped out here for more than a week while demanding to be allowed to ask President Bush why her son had to die in Iraq.
Campbell, 25, died on April 29, 2004, the victim of a suicide bomber.
For mothers like MacCombie, time at "Camp Casey" � an area just outside Bush's ranch, named for Sheehan's late son � has sparked a variety of emotions.
"It's meant a great deal to see this kind of love and support and a common cause," MacCombie said Sunday, prior to separating from the crowd for her solitary walk down the row of crosses. "I spent over a year grieving in private. And I'll never been the same. Bush will be the same. I won't."
On Sunday, anger and hurt joined other emotions MacCombie endured as she heard a recording of Bush's Saturday comments about not meeting with Sheehan. The president, whose Saturday included a bike ride and a Little League game, as well as briefings and meetings, said "it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say."
But he added that many people have "something to say to the president."
"So I'm mindful of what goes on around me," he said. "On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live, and will do so."
After hearing the recording, MacCombie said, "It hurts, because my son does not have a life to live. He can't ride his bike again."
Other Georgians came despite not having relatives in Iraq. For Mary Ellen Sheehan, an out-of-work teacher, not coming was not an option.
"I think it's very, very important that we support Cindy Sheehan and try and stop this war in Iraq," said Sheehan, who is not related to Cindy Sheehan. "When I heard what she is doing, I thought, 'This is what it is going to take to put a stop to the insanity.' Bush is out of control."
Two other Georgians who have spent several days at Camp Casey do have direct family links to the war.
"We have three sons and two grandchildren that are all veterans of this war," said Linda Waste, who traveled here with her husband, Philip, from their home in Shellman Bluff to show solidarity with Cindy Sheehan and to press Bush to develop a strategy for speeding the return of U.S. troops.
"It's a war based on lies," Linda Waste said Friday, "and we need to bring our troops home."
The couple has three sons on active duty in the Army. All have served tours in Iraq, and one is serving his second tour now in Baghdad. They have a granddaughter in the Army and a grandson in the Navy. Both of them have served in the Iraq campaign as well. The couple wouldn't give the names of their offspring for fear that they might be punished, but they showed photos of them all in uniform.
"We're not traitors," said Philip Waste, a retired elevator mechanic who said he spent four years in the Navy.
Glancing toward his wife, Waste, who hears echoes of Vietnam in administration rhetoric about Iraq, said: "She bore three boys and suckled them and raised them into adulthood and raised them to be patriotic. They served their country. They were misused. They were sent to another no-win war. I don't know why we're in this war."
The Wastes were annoyed Friday when Bush passed twice in his motorcade � heading to and returning from a GOP fund-raising event � without stopping.
"He zipped by with the Secret Service," Philip Waste said. "I don't believe the man has a heart."
"I believe Clinton would have stopped. Carter would have stopped. Kennedy would have stopped," he added. "A man with compassion would have stopped."
Ken Herman writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: kherman@coxnews.com
===============================
America's Heroes!
Mother Cindy Sheehan & Son Casey
Iraqi War - George W. Bush's Accountability ("What noble cause??...Cindy)
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/sheehan.htm
Check in with Earnest Hancock and Mari Connor from Air America Phoenix as they journey to Crawford TX to stand side by side with Cindy Sheehan as she waits for the President.
AUDIO FILES: CINDY REPORT 8/15/05 FOR KXXT 1010 AM PHX AZ
http://www.crawfordorbust.com/
