Camp Casey Detroit

Sept 24/DC antiwar photo/journal

2005-10-06T19:05:00.000-04:00

Dear friends

I was fortunate to be among the 300,000 (at least) persons in Washington, DC for the mammoth "End the War On Iraq" rally and march on September 24, and have put up an online photo/journal of my experiences there. The URL is

http://www.windchimewalker.com/-webpages/9-24-05-antiwar-photos.html

I know a good number of you were there too. Wasn't it amazing?!!

By the way, if you have dial-up internet, it will take a goodly while to download all the photos, but there's plenty of text to read while you're waiting.

Hard as it may be to believe if you get your news from mainstream sources, we Americans who see that Bush's war is a disaster are FINALLY in the majority. And we say BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!

in peace
Patricia Lay-Dorsey

pictures and story

2005-10-02T10:32:00.000-04:00

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/flanders290905.html

Cindy Sheehan: My First Time

2005-09-27T09:32:00.000-04:00

The fine for "demonstrating without a permit" is $75.00. I am certain that I won't pay it. My court date is November 16th. Any lawyers out there want to help me challenge an unconstitutional law??

Cindy Sheehan: My First Time Today 5:57 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cindy-sheehan/my-first-time_b_7923.html

The rumors are true this time. I was arrested in front of the White House today. It was my first time ever being arrested.

We proceeded from Lafayette Park to the Guard House at the White House. I, my sister, and other Gold Star Families for Peace members and some Military Families requested to meet with the President again. We again wanted to know: What is the Noble Cause? Our request was, to our immense shock and surprise, denied. They wouldn't even deliver any letters or pictures of our killed loved ones to the White House.

We all know by now why George won't meet with parents of the soldiers he has killed who disagree with him. First of all, he hates it when people disagree with him. I am not so sure he hates it as much as he is in denial that it even happens. Secondly, he is a coward who arrogantly refuses to meet with the people who pay his salary. Maybe the next time one of us is asked by our bosses to have a performance review, or we are going to be written up for a workplace infraction, we should refuse to go and talk to our bosses citing the fact that the President doesn't have to. The third reason why he won't talk to us is that he knows there is no Noble Cause for the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq. It is a question that has no true answer.

After we were refused a meeting with the Disconnected One, we went over to right in front of our house...the White House (in front of the gate of course) and we sat down and refused to move until George came out and talked to us. We actually had a good time singing old church songs and old protest songs while we waited. I tied a picture of Casey on the White House fence and apparently, that is against the law, too.

After three warnings to get up and move off of the sidewalk in front of our house, we were arrested. It is so ironic to me that the person who resides in our White House swears to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The person who is the (p)resident of the White House now has no concept of the Constitution. He was appointed by the Supreme Court for his first term, invaded and continues to occupy a sovereign country without a declaration of war from the Congress, and violated several treaties to actually invade, Iraq too. Not to mention the condoned torture that pervades the military prisons these days. These are all violations of the Constitution. The Patriot Act and denying us our rights to peaceably assemble are serious breaches of the Bill of Rights. George is so hypocritically concerned about Iraq developing a Constitution when he ignores and shreds our own Constitution.

Being arrested is not a big deal. Even though we were arrested for "demonstrating without a permit" we were protesting something that is much more serious than sitting on a sidewalk: the tragic and needless deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Americans (both in Iraq and here in America) who would be alive if it weren't for the criminals who reside in and work in the White House.

Karl Rove (besides just being a very creepy man) outed a CIA agent and was responsible for endangering many of our covert agents worldwide. Dick Cheney's old company is reaping profits beyond anyone's wildest imaginations in their no-bid contracts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and New Orleans. John Negroponte's activities in South America are very shady and murderous. Rumsfeld and Gonzales are responsible for illegal and immoral authorization, encouragement and approval of torture. Not to mention, violating Geneva Conventions, torture endangers the lives of our service men and women in Iraq. Along with the above mentioned traitors, Condi lied through her teeth in the insane run-up to the invasion. The list of crimes this administration has commited is extensive, abhorrent, and unbelievable. What is so unbelievable is that WE were arrested for exercising our first amendment rights and these people are running free to enjoy their lives of crime and to wreak havoc on the world.

The fine for "demonstrating without a permit" is $75.00. I am certain that I

Over 3,000 people marched and rallied in Salt Lake City

2005-09-27T09:26:00.000-04:00

I got this on the net.

Charles

^^^^

Dayne Goodwin

Over 3,000 people marched and rallied in Salt Lake City on September
24. Saturday's demonstration was organized around unity on one
political issue: "Support the Troops, Bring Them Home Now! U.S. Out of
Iraq." The crowd was fairly representative of the (limited) diversity
of Utah's population.

The rally at the city government building included anti-war songs,
hip-hop, poetry and speakers in the following order: Salt Lake City
Mayor Ross "Rocky" Anderson, Reverend Dan Webster of the Episcopal Peace
Fellowship, United Steelworkers union representative Julie Holzer of
U.S. Labor Against the War, Isaac Giron of Youth for Socialist Action
(who participated in World Youth Festival in Venezuela in August), Tala
Fakhouri of Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land, Gina Cornia of
Utahns Against Hunger, Robert Littlehale, M.D., of Veterans for Peace
and Joan Maymi of Gold Star Families for Peace.

In addition to the growing opposition to the war, the mayor's support
for the protest had a lot to do with it's relative success. I met Rocky
Anderson when he became an activist in the Central America solidarity
movement some twenty years ago; he is an unusually independent-minded
and radical Democrat. Last month an Anderson e-mail promoting protest
when President Bush came to Salt Lake to speak to the Veterans of
Foreign War national convention (August 22) was leaked to the press.
Instead of etreating, Anderson stepped up his support for that protest
(of around 2,000 on short notice) and he sent out a letter supporting
the local September 24 demonstration.

Whereas the August 22 anti-Bush protest was a happy, united affair
among the liberals and 'radical' Democrats who naturally took
leadership, preparing the September 24 protest was difficult, with
tension among organizers over issues that brought out political
differences between Democrats, 'radicals' who want to influence the
Democrat Party, revolutionaries who want to build a politically
independent mass movement, and the local 'anarchist' expression of
ultraleftism. The continuing bitter split in the Utah Green Party
(between those who supported the independent Nader-Camejo 2004
presidential campaign and those who supported the GPUS national officer
clique in _de facto_ support of John Kerry) and the resultant overlay of
personal antagonisms that involve some key local anti-war activists,
exacerbated the usual challenges facing a small group of volunteer
activists.

Although we weren't a very happy group, and organizing work suffered as
a result, we still managed to work together and mobilize a strong
anti-war demonstration that was even larger than the pre-war early 2003
demonstrations in Salt Lake City.

We are the ones we've been waiting for

2005-09-27T08:34:00.000-04:00

Monday's journal entry gave voice to what I saw and heard on that historic day of protest in our nation's capitol. It was a good place to start. This morning I awake early with the need to recall how it felt to be among over 100,000--in my opinion, more like 500,000--women, children and men on those streets and patches of earth where so many millions have stood and marched in demonstrations for peace and justice since Washington, DC first became the geographical center of our federal government.

There is an energy deposited there that you feel through the soles of your feet, or, in my case and that of my wheeled sisters and brothers, through the wheels upon which you ride. It is an energy of persistence in the face of seemingly impossible odds, an energy that says your presence matters, that each individual has a unique and essential place in the whole. We were not a mass of humanity on those streets, on the Ellipse or on the Mall. No, we were a collection of individual drops of heart, head, body and spirit that together flowed into a river of resistance, a sea of responsible action, an ocean of intent. Separate drops of water take millennia to change the surface of a stone upon which they fall; rivers, seas and oceans transform seemingly solid realities in an instant.

September 24, 2005 was just such an instant.

It was the day our country manifested a new reality, the truth that the majority of people who live in this well-meaning but often unthinking nation do NOT go along with their president's war on Iraq. They do not believe his protestations that we must "stay the course." They say, "Get out now and bring our troops home where they belong!"

At least a half a million people said that with their presence in DC, and probably a million more said it with their presence at rallies and marches in cities and towns across our country. Not to mention our sisters and brothers in other countries.

To be in the presence of such determination, such extreme concern and deep-felt conviction was like getting a transfusion of hope. This is who we are, not the lemmings we'd feared were following their leader off a high cliff. Every one of the individuals who showed up in Washington, DC on Saturday paid for that experience with comfort, convenience, money, time and in many cases, the approval of their family and friends.

It wasn't just that we had travelled--many of us hundreds and even thousands of miles--to be there, it was that many of us had travelled uncounted miles of changed attitudes and deepened commitment to the principle that true democracy means our voices count, that we are the democracy in which we believe. There were more first-time protesters than at any previous national demonstration, perhaps in history, persons for whom it was not the norm to take to the streets, especially not the streets of their nation's capitol.

Think of it: hundreds of thousands of individual women and men who made the decision--for many an agonizing decision--that enough was enough! This president and his administration have taken a wrong turn and are leading our country on a path that leads to ruin. Each person marching beside the majestic houses of government on those historic streets, sitting and standing during the rally at the Ellipse, stopping to meditate on the true cost of war at the 1,910 crosses, Stars of David and crescent moons planted in the earth under the Washington Monument, dancing to the music of politically aware performers at the concert on the Mall...each of us carried the seed of change within our hearts and minds, each of us is an essential part of the transformation our world and planet needs to survive. As the song goes, "We are the ones we've been waiting for."

As the day wore on, as marchers who had been on the street for hours passed by 14th Street and New York Avenue, NW, where I stood as my friend Lisa waited in a l-o-n-g line for sandwiches for herself, Jessi and me, my sign drew hundreds of smiles, cheers and thumbs up. Earlier in the day it had drawn no response, but by 5 PM on Saturday, September 24, 2005 on the still-crowded streets of Washington, DC, people knew in their guts what my sign really meant. It said, "Look around you--See Our Power!"

And our power is what we need to recognize and use in order to take our country back from leaders whose inclinations and actions lead to death and destruction for all but their favored few. Stopping the war on Iraq is just the beginning. We need to keep Saturday's momentum going and growing with grassroots mobilization of concerned citizens and non-citizens alike. Each town and city must become a center of thought and action where people come together to reclaim their power locally and nationally. But it must go beyond that. We must coordinate our efforts so our true power is felt. The things that divide us must be put aside, at least for now. We must find and build on what unites us. Within that shared consciousness, we'll find that our differences will enhance not separate us; they are the building blocks that strengthen rather than the barriers that divide.

The internet is an effective tool to use in this country-wide mobilization, but there must be opportunties to come together regularly, face-to-face and voice-to-voice. We need to continue to take to the streets, but even more than that, we must sit in circles and discuss what we think and determine what actions we need to take. It seems to me we can use the model created by those for whom civil disobedience is a tool of change: local affinity groups and regional spokes councils. Each affinity group would meet regularly and then send a member or two to a regional spokes council where decisions would be made by consensus. And, in this case, each regional spokes council would choose members from its body to meet regularly in a national spokes council.

We cannot wait; time is of the essence. I see the groups and individuals who organized this September 24th national mobilization as the natural leaders of our movement. Cindy Sheehan and her co-workers from Camp Casey Crawford and the Bring The Troops Home Now! Tour, Medea Benjamin and her sister organizers of Code Pink, the folks at United For Peace & Justice, and A.N.S.W.E.R. are a just a few national leaders who come to mind.

Let us not stop now. Saturday's march and rally, Sunday's trainings and meetings, and Monday's civil disobedience and Congressional lobbying were just the start. Now is the time to work together to make the changes we know must be made. WE are the ones we've been waiting for!

--posted by Patricia Lay-Dorsey

September 24, 2005 in Washington, DC...from my perspective

2005-09-26T17:32:00.000-04:00

There were signs that made you laugh (a man carrying a sign with a picture of a strawberry and the words "Just another Fruit For Peace") and some that made you cry (an African-American woman with her son, carrying a hand-lettered sign that read "No Iraqis left me on a roof to die"). There were more handmade signs than I've ever seen before.

There were more people per square inch than you can imagine. There was a mile-long march that took five hours for everyone to complete. There were chants, drums, trumpets, saxophones, whistles, flutes, tambourines, and spontaneous cheers that erupted every couple of blocks. There was more focus, passion and seriousness of purpose than I've seen at any of the 6-7 DC rallies/marches I've attended. At the same time there were more smiles and expressions of love than I've ever seen or experienced in such a large gathering of "strangers"...even on the Metro subway train where we were packed tight as sardines in a can.

Cindy Sheehan spoke, the Rev. Jesse Jackson preached, Joan Baez sang, Sweet Honey In the Rock performed, and lots of us late-night folks danced. There was a Code Pink pre-rally rally at 10:30 AM at the Freedom Plaza (14th & Pennsylvania), the MAMMOTH official rally at 11:30 AM at the Ellipse, a peace & justice festival with tents and booths under the Washington Monument from 10 AM-10 PM, a march route that took us by the White House for the first time in years, and an Operation Ceasefire concert on the Mall with the largest stage and speakers I've ever seen, including two mammoth screens so even us folks way at the back could see and hear the wonderful performances and speeches that ran from 5 PM-1 AM.

There was also row after row after row of white crosses, Stars of David and crescent moons planted in the ground beside Cindy Sheehan's "Bring Them Home Now! Tour" tent on the Mall. More than 1,900 young American men and women dead in Bush's war on Iraq, and that doesn't begin to mark the uncounted--over 100,000?--Iraqi women, children and men dead. And the numbers grow every day.

There were WW II, Vietnam and Iraqi veterans, Gold Star families who have lost loved ones fighting in Iraq, untold numbers of peace groups marching together, grey-haired Vietnam-era activists, young people with black bandanas covering their noses and mouths, families with small children, high school and university students, busloads of folks from Florida to Vermont and Virginia to Oregon, and individuals from every state in the nation and many other countries. There were Muslim women in scarves, a stiltwalker whom I've seen for years at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and an Ann Arbor woman in a wheelchair whose bare breasts were taped over in strategic places with blue duct tape that matched her outfit.

There was the man dressed in military fatigues, carrying a "Troops Out Now!" sign, who when I asked if he had fought in Iraq said, "No, but my two brothers are over there now. I'm here for them." There was the white-bearded man dressed in a suit and tie who sat in a wheelchair at the Constitution Avenue side of the Ellipse holding a sign that said, "WW 2 Vet For Peace." There was the man who walked by me on the march carrying a sign that said, "To our soldiers: Thank you for your blood, sweat, tears & service--but it is time to come home. We will work to bring you HOME!"

There were the mixed feelings of pride and shame I always get when I march by the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House where my father had an eighth floor corner office as Executive Secretary of the National Security Council during the Truman and Eisenhower presidencies...pride that I am now doing all I can to stop US imperialism and war-mongering, and shame that my idealistic, ambitious father didn't seem to recognize how he was adding to those disastrous American attitudes and actions.

Lisa, Jessi (from Lansing) and I (from Detroit) had a wonderful but long 11 and 1/2 hour journey to DC on Friday and again today (Sunday) with stops for food and such. We stayed in a pleasant, reasonably-priced Holiday Inn in Chevy Chase, MD just blocks from a Metro Station. We three got along great even though we didn't get enough sleep and had a VERY long, VERY active day on Saturday. Like so many others in DC on this grey, occasionally damp day, this was Lisa and Jessi's first-ever antiwar demonstration. We all agreed we wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Who knows? Maybe we'll look back and say, "Remember September 24, 2005? That was the day the people rose up and STOPPED Bush's war on Iraq!" May it be so.

--posted by Patricia Lay-Dorsey

Interviews with demonstrators

2005-09-26T14:16:00.000-04:00

day of walking and intensive talking still gave me only the smallest
sampling of such a demonstration. To my amazement, on my way to the Metro
heading back to New York at about 5:30 (almost seven hours after I first
set out for the Mall), I was still passing people marching. So I can't
claim that what follows are the voices of the Washington demonstration,
just that they're the voices of my demonstration, some of the thirty-odd
people to whom I managed to talk in the course of those hours. They are but
a drop in the ocean of people who turned out in Washington, while the
President was in absentia and the Democrats nowhere to be seen, to express
in the most personal and yet collective way possible their upset over the
path America has taken in the world. As far as I'm concerned, we seldom
hear the voices of Americans in our media society very clearly. So I turn
the rest of this dispatch over to those voices. Dip in wherever you want --
as if you were at the march too.

Angry Graphic Designer: On the corner by the Metro, we meet Bill Cutter and
a friend. Cutter is carrying a sign with a Bush image and enough words to
drown a city. We stop to copy it down. It has a headline that asks, "What
did you do on your summer vacation?" Inside a bubble is the President's
reply: "Well, I rode my bike, killed some troops, killed even more Iraqis,
raised lots of money for my friends, ignored a grieving mom and, for extra
credit, I destroyed an American city!" Cutter, a forty-five year old
Washingtonian with a tiny goatee, says simply enough, "I'm just an angry
graphic designer with a printer." The previous day he made his sign and his
friend's (an image of Bush over the question, "Intelligent design?"-- and,
on the back, Dick Cheney with quiz-like, check-off boxes that say, "Evil,
Crazy, or Just Plain Mean, Pick any three!" We're all looking for the
demonstration's initial gathering place, and so we fall in step and begin
to chat. A sign-maker will prove an omen for this day -- the march will be
a Katrina, a cacophony, of handmade signs, waves and waves of them,
expressing every bit of upset and pent-up frustration that the polls tell
us a majority of Americans feel.

Cutter explains his presence this way: "I figure that if we live here and
don't do something, it's ridiculous. Cindy Sheehan's sacrifice is so much
huger than anything anyone has done, so how could we not?"

On what is to be done in Iraq itself, he first says, "It's a tough one" --
a comment I will hear again and again, even from those intent on seeing
American troops withdraw immediately. On this day, you would be hard
pressed not to come away with a sense of Americans in protest over Bush's
war and the mess he's brought to our very doorstep, and yet deeply puzzled
by what is now to be done and how exactly to do it. "We've gotten ourselves
down a rat hole," he continues. "I don't know what to do. Ultimately, I
think it's going to end up as a civil war there and we'll have caused it. I
only wish the Democratic Party had the balls and would seize the moment.
It's like they're practicing the politics of safety. Do what's safe, not
what's right." He pauses. "It's the politics of expediency," he adds with
disgust just as we arrive at a plaza filled with a sea of pink balloons --
a sign that the antiwar women's group Code Pink is gathering here. We part
at this point with him saying brightly, "I'm not sure 'enjoy yourself' is
quite the right thing to say... but enjoy yourself!"

Disabled (Peacetime) Vet: On the plaza we run into 48 year-old Steve
Hausheer ("How-ser," he says, "but if you look at the spelling, you'll
never pronounce it right.") -- or rather he rolls past us at quite a clip
in his wheelchair. He's dressed severely in black, but has a kindly, open
face. When I stop him, he swivels around, removes his black-leather
wheeling globes ("my hands are a mess...") and shakes firmly. "I'm
disabled," he says, "but I was in the peacetime military. I'm a peacetime
vet. Seventy-six, seventy-seven. I just missed the Vietnam War." He's
unsure about giving an interview. "I get really excited. I'm impassioned
about this cause, but then everything just flies out of my head!" He's from
New York, he tells me, and adds, excitement in his voice, "I've looked
forward to doing something more than just talk to my friends and donate.
I'm just so tired of seeing this country head in the wrong direction. It's
time to get proactive!

"We need to support the troops," he insists with feeling and then, after a
pause, "by bringing them home. We're stuck now. We've torn Iraq apart and
there are going to be no easy answers. George Bush has taken us so far down
the wrong road that it's going to be very difficult to find our way back.
My wish is that the people speak up until Congress and the other forty
percent of America that still thinks he's doing a good job change their mind.

"The men we're trying to bring home are true heroes and we need to treat
them as such. It isn't bad enough that he put them in harm's way through a
lie, now he's working to treat them as anything but heroes. Can you believe
it? He wants to cut their disability payments!"

I thank him, we shake hands, he begins to don his gloves and then, at the
last second, he calls me back. "One more thing," he says and begins to give
me this final comment in a slow, measured way as you might dictate to a
stenographer: "I want to put this country back into the hands of men and
women who are dedicated to serving the American people instead of
themselves and their cronies." He stops, satisfied, and then adds, "This
would be my quote, if you have to pick one."

full: http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=24319

campcaseydc

2005-09-24T15:13:00.000-04:00

Huge
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 2:57 PM

Absolutely massive. Loud. Pissed. Beautiful. Did I mention loud?

Haven't seen the riot cops yet.

________________________________

Cops
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 2:31 PM

I just overheard ten cops getting new orders to move barricades and open the streets further. They are scrambling to control the size of this thing.

The march has finally begun again, and a light rain is falling.

________________________________

Holy Crap
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 2:23 PM

CNN is estimating the crowd here to be more than six hundred thousand strong.

If CNN says it, it must be true.

Wow.

________________________________

Restless
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 2:14 PM

The crowd is getting restless. They want to march. I cannot find the front of the thing. It is splayed in all directions.

Jessica Lange is speaking from the stage, but I can't hear her because of the helicopter overhead.

________________________________

Mammoth
By Scott Galindez

Saturday 24 September 2005 1:54 PM

Huge is an understatement. The march has surrounded the White House.
Hundreds of thousands. This is the largest march I have seen in the over two decades that I have been attending.

The crowd is diverse, a true cross-section of American culture.

________________________________

Too Big
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 1:46 PM

The march is unable to move because there are so many people coming in from all directions. Constitution Avenue is a wall of humanity. I am up on the hill that holds the Washington Monument, looking down on the crowd. This is a massive, massive showing.

Hot damn.

________________________________

Riot Cops
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 1:25 PM

Kevin Spidel of PDA ran up to the front of the march. Apparently, there is a huge gathering of cops in battle gear up the line waiting for us. The march has stopped again and I don't know why.

The Amtrak line is running again.

________________________________

Stops
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 1:17 PM

There are apparently several lines of the DC Metro shut down, supposedly for electrical problems. The Amtrak line from New York is also closed.
Convenient.

________________________________

The Long Line
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 1:11 PM

They are running a long rope through the crowd. Attached to the rope are pictures of every soldier who has died in Iraq. It took a long time to pass my spot. Next to me was a woman whose son is over there. She had a look on her face I can't describe.

The march is underway.

________________________________

Rolling
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 12:56 PM

The crowd is all lined up and ready, shouting, "Let's go!" in one voice.

________________________________

The Count
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 12:42 PM

It is pretty safe to say that there are more than a hundred thousand people here. Many more. Welcome to the majority.

________________________________

Moving
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 12:28 PM

I think the ANSWER rally is ending and people will begun feeding into the street.

Funny moment. Mimi Kennedy is standing here trying to give someone directions to this spot: "Walk past the peace signs and through the pink balloons. Turn left at the Abu Ghraib guy and pass the giant Bush head."

Hee hee hee.

________________________________

Patriotic Dissent
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Speech

Saturday 24 September 2005

Ahhhh, I love the smell of Patriotic Dissent in the afternoon!

As we stand here on the grounds of a monument that is dedicated to the Father of our Country, George Washington, we are reminded that he was well known for the apocryphal stories of never being able to tell a lie. I find it so ironic that there is another man here named George who stays in this town between vacations, and he seems to never be able to tell the truth. It is tragic for us that our bookend presidents named George have two completely different relationships with honesty.

Read the complete article
.

________________________________

Huge
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 12:06 PM

The march just got huge all of a sudden. Medea Benjamin has taken control of things here on the street. Cindy Sheehan just took the stage and the whole place went berzerk.

________________________________

Coming Together
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 11:48 AM

It is something indeed to watch a bunch of groups trying to get organized amid a crowd of thousands and thousands of people. The speeches have begun on the ANSWER stage.

The soldiers are here, too, doing their martial law exercise. The Raging Grannies are getting ready to sing. The people keep coming.

________________________________

Clot
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 11:31 AM

We have to march around a clot of counter-demonstrators who are being thunderously shouted down.

The Iraq veterans are here. The streets of DC are wild.

________________________________

PDA's Corner
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 11:13 AM

Here at 14th and Constitution, all the PDA caucuses and members are gathering. The crowds around us are swelling, and the shouting has already begun from the stage.

A lot of the people here are protesting the war for the first time. I am also seeing a lot of young people. Good stuff.

________________________________

Chanting at Penn Station
By Scott Galindez

Saturday 24 September 2005 11:00 AM

Amtrak service from New York has been delayed for 2 hours. A spontaneous demonstration erupted at Penn Station as delayed passengers chanted, "Bring the troops home now!" All service has now been restored.

________________________________

Big Stuff
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 10:55 AM

The crowd here is incredibly large already, and the march itself is still more than an hour off. I am standing in the middle of Camp Casey, transplanted to DC.

The funny part is that all the rebels and so-called outsiders here are suddenly in the majority according to all the polls. Roll, wheel.

________________________________

Here We Are Again
By William Rivers Pitt

Saturday 24 September 2005 10:00 AM

Here we are again. White skies and relative cool in DC today. Need to find some coffee.

Let's go march.

________________________________

History in the Making
By Scott Galindez

Saturday 24 September 2005 8:15 AM

We are preparing to leave our hotel in Washington, DC. In the lobby there is a picture of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Later today, all eyes will be on a grieving mother who has emerged as a leader of the movement to end the war in Iraq.

I observed Cindy Sheehan rise to the occasion many times in Crawford, Texas. She responded to the media with a calmness that takes most people years to learn. I watched her take her message to a new level during the first Saturday rally at Camp Casey.

Today, however, the eyes of the world will be on her, and for that reason George W. Bush and his administration should be nervous. The Congress that authorized the war has good reason for concern as well. If Cindy Sheehan delivers today she may emerge as not just a leader of the anti-war movement but a leader of our country.

Come Sunday morning Cindy may just be the leader of the opposition to the current government. No Democrat has really stepped up to fill that hole.
After spending three weeks covering Cindy in Crawford, I think she can do it.

There is excitement in the air here - everywhere you go you see groups of protesters. We will keep you up to date throughout the day. Well it's time to head for the White House and watch history develop ...

________________________________

Why We're Marching
By Medea Benjamin
Common Dreams

Friday 23 September 2005

On Saturday, September 24, tens of thousands of Americans from all walks of life will come together in Washington, DC to call on Congress and President Bush to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home now.

When hundreds of thousands of us marched against this war before it began, the Bush administration called us a "focus group." Now that focus group represents the majority of the American public, who in all the most recent polls are saying this war was a mistake, it's unwinnable, it makes us less safe at home and it should end.

Read the complete article
.

________________________________

When Rose Met Cindy: The Case against the War in Iraq
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK

Friday 23 September 2005

On both sides of the Atlantic, two mothers who lost sons in Iraq have launched campaigns to end the conflict. One camped outside George Bush's ranch. The other stood in the general election. This week, they came face to face for the first time. Andrew Buncombe reports.

Along the sunbaked sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue came the sound of singing. It was music from an earlier generation, but as relevant now as it ever was. "All we are saying is give peace a chance," chanted the group of demonstrators as they made their way to the north-west gates of the White House. "All we are saying is give peace chance."

At the head of the huddled group was Cindy Sheehan, the woman whose soldier son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year and whose campaign to demand an explanation for the war from President George Bush took her to the gates of his Crawford ranch, made headlines around the world and - seemingly almost single-handedly - re-energised the US peace movement. At her side was Rose Gentle, a woman whose son, Gordon, was also killed in Iraq and who has launched a similarly relentless campaign to demand answers from Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"It's exciting to be here, to let George Bush know what we think about the war," Mrs. Gentle said moments afterwards, standing at the junction with 17th Street, carrying a photograph of her son wearing his uniform of Royal Highland Fusiliers. Asked if she thought he would have approved of her campaign, she glanced at the photograph of the young man, 19 years old, and
replied: "Gordon would have wanted this. His pals are still there [in Iraq] and he would have wanted them home safe. They still keep in touch."

Read the complete article
.

________________________________

Anti-War Rally Will Be a First for Many
By Petula Dvorak
The Washington Post

Friday 23 September 2005

Focused message draws protesters of all stripes.

The seasoned protesters who organized tomorrow's antiwar demonstration are well-versed in many other causes. They have marched and rallied against police brutality, racism, colonialism and the policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

But their message on the Mall tomorrow will be singular: "End the war in Iraq."

Because of that sharp focus, they will be joined by novice protesters such as Patrice Cuddy, 56. Interviewed by phone yesterday, the former public school teacher in Olathe, KS, said she had to pull off her gardening gloves each time a neighbor interrupted her yardwork to ask about joining the bus she had chartered to go to the nation's capital.

Read the complete article
.

Debating Cindy Sheehan

2005-09-24T14:57:00.000-04:00

September 16, 2005

Debating Cindy Sheehan

Bill O'Reilly vs. Phil Donahue

By CounterPunch News Service

Transcript from the O'Reilly Factor, FoxNews

O'REILLY: In the past Miss [Cindy] Sheehan has criticized Israel,
saying it is occupying Palestine, has called Iraqi insurgents
"freedom fighters," has accused Americans of killing people ever
since we stepped on this continent, has threatened Hillary
Clinton with the loss her job unless she calls for a pullout of
US troops from Iraq and has called the US action against
Afghanistan a failure. Quite a resume and with us now is Phil
Donahue, who supports Miss Sheehan's "dissent." So, I'm assuming
you don't - you don't support all her positions that I just
chronicled.

DONAHUE: Let's understand what's happening here. Once again we
have a woman who got to be just a little too famous for the
people who support this war, a minority of the American population,
by the way, and so the effort to marginalize this woman is
underway and you're helping out.

O'REILLY: I'm the leader of the pack!

DONAHUE: You're suggesting ...

O'REILLY: I'm the leader of the pack!

DONAHUE: First of all, Cindy Sheehan is one tough mother and
nothing you say or anyone else is gonna slow her down.

O'REILLY: That's fine. She has a right to ...

DONAHUE: You can't hurt her. She's already taken the biggest
punch in the nose that a woman can take.

O'REILLY: How?!

DONAHUE: She lost a son.

O'REILLY: Oh. OK.

DONAHUE: She's lost a child.

O'REILLY: But look - I'm not puttin' words in her mouth ...

DONAHUE: And by the way, she is going to be at the center of
one of the largest rallies since the Vietnam War. Proud, patriotic
Americans who will show up in Washington this week for one of
the most massive, largest demonstrations - protest demonstrations
...

O'REILLY: OK. And we'll cover it.

DONAHUE: ... right outside the President's window.

O'REILLY: And we'll cover it.

DONAHUE: And FOX is in the business of saying that this woman
is somehow saying un-American things - hyperbole.

O'REILLY (getting angry): No. No. No. No.

DONAHUE: Listen to what she's saying.

O'REILLY (checking his notes): Nobody said she said anything
un-American. We say that her positions are radical. And they
are radical!

DONAHUE: Let me tell you what's radical. (getting a little angry
himself) What's radical is to send more Americans to die in this
war, which is a monumental blunder by a President ...

O'REILLY (under his breath): Alright.

DONAHUE: ... who swaggered us into it with - by the way - the
at least tacit approval of the Democratic Party.

O'REILLY (shifts in his chair, upset): You know what's radical
...

DONAHUE: There's a lot of sin to go around here!

O'REILLY (angry, wags finger at Donahue): What's radical for
this -

DONAHUE (won't let O'Reilly finish sentence): Do you want to
send more people to this war?

O'REILY: Hey listen ...

DONAHUE: Is that your postiion?

O'REILLY: If we cut and run outta there, like you wanna do, we
would be putting every American in a thousand times more jeopardy
than they're in now.

DONAHUE (forcefully): We're going to cut and run anyway, Bill.

O'REILLY: Well, that's your opinion. I don't think we are.

DONAHUE: It's not my opinion. American military leaders have
said we're gonna draw down beginning next year. The reason
they've said that ...

O'REILLY(angry now): There's a difference between drawin' down
and cuttin' and runnin'!

DONAHUE: Alright....

O'REILLY (angry, jabs finger at Donahue): You're a cut and run
guy and I don't want my family in danger because of you ...

DONAHUE: You wanna stay the course, don't ya'?

O'REILLY: Look.

DONAHUE: You don't ...

O'REILLY (getting angrier): Here's what I want to do. I want to
give the Iraqis a chance to train their army so they can defeat
these people who are tryin' to turn it into a terror state.

DONAHUE (calmly): Bill

O'REILLY: That's what I want to do! Go!

DONAHUE: Bill. This - Iraq was not a terrorist state.

O'REILLY (exasperated): Oh, no!

DONAHUE: I hope I don't patronize you for saying ...

O'REILLY (dismissive hand gesture) : Saddam was a swell guy!!

DONAUME: Saddam ...

O'REILLY (loudly, sarcastically): He was just a great guy!!

DONAHUE (louder): Saddam - Saddam was a bastard, but he was our
bastard!!

O'REILLY: He wasn't anybody's ...

DONAHUE: Donald Rumsfeld shook his hand in the 80s.

O'REILLY: Alright. Well that's great.

DONAHUE: You saw the pictures! (reasonable tone of voice) Now
listen - listen. You wouldn't send your children to this war,
Bill.

O'REILLY (very angry, pointing): My nephew just enlisted in the
Army. You don't know what the hell you're talkin' about!!!

DONAHUE: Very good. Very good. Congratulations! You should be
proud ..

O'REILLY (starts to lose it, shouting, pointing finger, hand
shaking): And he's a patriot, so don't denigrate his service
or I'll boot you right off the set!!!

DONAHUE: I'm not ... I'm not ...

O'REILLY (very, very loud): That boy made a decision to serve
his country!!! Do not denigrate him or you're outta here!!!

DONAHUE (calmly): I'm not Jeremy Glick, Billy.

O'REILLY: That's right!!

DONAHUE: You can't intimidate me!!

O'REILLY: You're a little bit more intelligent that he is!!

DONAHUE: I'm not somebody you can come and just spew all your
...

O'REILLY: Don't tell me I wouldn't send my kids.

DONAHUE: Loud doesn't mean right!

O'REILLY: My nephew just enlisted. You don't know what you're
talkin' about!!

DONAHUE: Your nephew is not your kid. You are like ...

O'REILLY: He's my blood!

DONAHUE: You are part of a loud group of people who wanna prove
they're tough ...

O'REILLY (shifts angrily in his chair, under his breath): Aw
fer ...

DONAHUE: ... and send other people's kids to war to make the
case.

O'REILLY (very loud): You have no clue ...

DONAHUE: This ..

O'REILLY: ... about how to fight a war on terror or how to defend
your country. You are clueless! So is Miss Sheehan and for Miss
Sheehan to say that the insurgents have a right to kill Americans
and you're shakin' her hand! You oughta just walk away.

DONHUE (quieter): How many more young men and women are you
gonna send to have their arms and legs blown off ...

O'REILY: Hey, this is a war on terror!

DONAHUE: ... so that you can be tough (points his finger at
O'Reilly) and point at people in a kind of cowardly way..

O'REILLY (disgusted, under his breath): Oh, yeah.

DONHUE: Take people like Jeremy Glick who comes on to - in memory
of his parents ...

O'REILLY: Oh bull.

DONAHUE: ... and you go off on him.

O'REILLY: Jeremy Glick accu ...

DONAHUE: ... like a big bully.

O'REILLY: Hey!

DOAHUE: Billy, you hafta be - you hafta feel sorry ...

O'REILLY: Mr. Donahue, with all due respect ...

DONAHUE: Have you apologized to him for that?

O'REILLY: Baloney!

DONAHUE: Do you know ...

O'REILLY: Jeremy Glick came on this program ...

DONAHUE: Do you know what I'm talking about?

O'REILLY: ... and accused the President of the United States
...

DONAHUE (sarcastically): Oh, and you had to ..

O'REILLY: ... of orchestrating 9/11. That's what he did. Right
after 9/11!! Do you know what the pain that brought the families
who lost people in 9/11?

DONAHUE: This war ...

O'REILLY: You buy into left-wing propaganda ...

DONAHUE: This war ..

O'REILLY: ... and you're a mouthpiece for it. (shifts in seat,
clenched mouth) Go ahead.

DONAHUE: This war is not fair to the American troops. This war
is unconstitutional. This war turned its back on the people who
framed the most fabulous document in the history of civilization.
I speak of the United States Constitution.

O'REILLY: Alright. Why ...

DONAHUE: This ... By the way ...

O'REILLY: Why isn't the Democratic party speaking that way?

DONAHUE: I'm sorry that it isn't. I am. But let's understand
something
...

O'REILLY: Are we all ...

DONAHUE: Excuse me.

O'REILLY: Are well so misguided ...

DONAHUE: Excuse me. Twenty-one Democrats in the Senate voted
against this war as well as Jeffords, an Independent, and- may
the Lord shine His blessings down upon Lincoln Chaffee ...

O'REILLY: Alright. I'm gonna say something and I'm gonna ...

DONAHUE (louder, refuses to be stopped): I'm almost finished,
Billy!!

O'REILLY: I'm gonna give ya' the last word.

DONAHUE: I'm almost finished!

O'REILLY: Alright.

DONAHUE: Lincoln Chaffee, the only Republican in the Senate to
vote against this war. We should be building statues to all
these people. October 2002 ...

O'REILLY: Alright;

DONAHUE: ... they stood up to as President and they knew that,
first of all, only Congress can declare war. Why is that
unimportant to you, Billy?

O'REILLY: Listen. It's not - I'm not ...

DONAHUE: Become the patriot that your loud voice proclaims you
to be
...

O'REILLY: The loud voice ...

DONAHUE: ... and stand behind the Constitution and insist that
we never go to war again without the approval and the consent
of the United States Congress.

O'REILLY: Alright . That's why we have the Congress. If they
want to take action, they can take action. Now I'm gonna say
somethin' then I'll give you the last word. The Iraq War is not
something I embrace.

DONAHUE makes surprised sound.

O'REILLY: It absolutely could be a tactical error.

DONAHUE: Well you should ...

O'REILLY (louder): Just listen.

DONAHUE: It's hard to know this.

O'REILLY (louder): Listen ta' me ..

DONAHUE: It's hard to know this.

O'REILLY: ... and I'll give you the last word. Not something
they embrace. Could be a tactical error and we have not waged
it the way I had hoped we would wage it.

DONAHUE: But, what?

O'REILLY: But ,,,

DONAHUE: You want to send more kids ...

O'REILLY: The war on terror ...

DONAHUE: ... to die.

O'REILLY: We're in a war on terror. Our cause is noble.

DONAHUE: It has nothing to do with the war on terror.

O'REILLY (louder again): Yes, it does. And if you don't understand
geopolitics, if you don't understand Iraq would be a terrorist
state if we pulled outta there...

DONAHUE (loudly): It's a mistake.

O'REILLY: ... then you don't know anything. Go ahead.

DONAHUE: It was poorly planned ...

O'REILLY: Go ahead.

DONAHUE: ... and poorly executed but Bill O'Reilly wants to send
more kids to fight and die. We've already had two thou - almost
thousand - (gestures for O'Reilly to hold off) - just let me
have the last word. In the last year two things have doubled.
The number of dead American troops in Iraq has doubled and you
know what else doubled, Billy? The price of Halliburton stock.

O'REILLY (upset): Alright.

DONAHUE: From $33 to $66. That doesn't shame you? That doesn't
make you wonder ...

O'REILLY: I'm not upset by Halliburton stock.

DONAHUE: ... whether this is an enterprise that is worth the
support of the American people. We need you at this rally on
Saturday, Billy..

O'REILLY: OK. I'm not gonna be at your rally.

DONAHUE: We need you out there in front of it to protest.

O'REILLY: I'm not gonna be at your rally.

DONAHUE: There is no democracy without dissent.

O'REILLY: I'm not gonna protest.

DONHUE: You should be proud of people who stand up and dissent.

O'REILLY: I am. I respect your ...

DONAHUE: A lot of fine men died to give me that freedom.

O'REILLY: You got. You got it. I respect your dissent. I think
you're way off in your analysis of the war on terror.

DONAHUE: You want to send more people to die? Is that your
position?

O'REILLY: I wanna win the war in Iraq.

DONABHUE: Win. What does "win" mean?

O'REILLY: Means ...

DONAHUE: Tell me what "win" means?

O'REILLY: Means those people have a chance at democracy.

DOPNAHUE: How long's that gonna take.

O'REILLY: I gotta go. I gotta go.

DONAHUE: How long's that gonna take?

O'REILLY: Those people deserve a chance at freedom.

http://counterpunch.org/oreilly09232005.html

Cindy Sheehan: American Mother Has Iraqi Audience

2005-09-24T14:52:00.000-04:00

Cindy Sheehan: American Mother Has Iraqi Audience

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Cindy Sheehan's message resonates in Iraq today. She's become the
best-known and most articulate and clear-sighted leader to have
come out of the anti-war struggle at this time. I'm sure efforts
to find dirt on her must be going on 24-y, but she hasn't made a
single false move to date and she also give the Democratic Party
no slack for its complicity, either. A great example for us all!)
=================================================================

THE WORLD
American Mother Has Iraqi Audience
By Borzou Daragahi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews>

September 22, 2005

BAGHDAD - Khalda Khalaf feels Cindy Sheehan's pain. She's been there, too.

Her 28-year-old son, Majid Khalid Kabi, died in 2004 fighting on the
opposite side in the same months-long stretch of clashes between
Shiite militiamen and U.S. soldiers in which Spc. Casey Sheehan
perished.

"Of course, she's a mother and just like our people are hurting,
she's hurting too," says Khalaf, a 52-year-old resident of Sadr City,
the east Baghdad slum where Sheehan's son died in April 2004. "Just
as she wants America out of Iraq, so do we."

Sheehan, the antiwar mom who is due to lead thousands of
demonstrators converging on Washington on Saturday to protest the
U.S.-led war, has become a minor celebrity in Iraq as well. The same
satellite channels that bring quick, often gruesome coverage of the
violence in Iraq to the nation's TV screens also gave regular updates
on Sheehan's lengthy vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch.

Forty years ago, during the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh and his top
deputies kept a close eye on U.S. public opinion and the antiwar
movement. Now on the streets of Baghdad, Najaf and Mosul, even
ordinary Iraqis have heard of Cindy Sheehan and formed opinions about
her and her movement.

"I sympathize with her and her cause, but I don't think that the
American administration will be affected by such a thing," said
Hassan Hashim Mahmoud, a 32-year-old government employee in Najaf.

Television and newspapers have reported the upcoming marches. And
footage of her speaking before previous rallies, aired on television
channels such as Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and Al Sharqiya, has made
Iraqis aware of the antiwar movement in the United States.

Even poor families such as Khalaf's know about Sheehan via "news"
videos distributed by political parties, such as the radical Shiite
Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr's movement, for whom Kabi died in August
2004 in Najaf.

To some Iraqis, Sheehan's stand at Bush's ranch and her continuing
opposition to the war make her a hero.

"The president doesn't have the credibility to face the mother of the
U.S. soldier who was killed in a war that many in the U.S. say was a
fatal mistake," columnist Muthana Tabaqchali wrote in the Iraqi daily
Azzaman, which the U.S. Embassy considers hostile to the American
mission in Iraq.

"Sheehan was a lady who stood like a lioness with her lofty staff in
front of the president," he wrote. "She collected all her strength
and motherhood to face the strongest president in the world to tell
him enough!"

Others, however, view her with cynicism.

"This might be a part of a political game, like when pictures of
prisoners' abuses in Abu Ghraib prison were published, just to harm
President Bush's reputation," said Hameed Shabak, 35, a Mosul
resident.

In front of the Faqma ice cream shop in Baghdad's Karada district,
Fathel Saad, a silver-haired professor of philosophy and theology at
Babel College south of Baghdad, debated a friend about Sheehan while
finishing up an ice cream cone.

"I think she is misguided," Saad said. "What the Americans have given
Iraq is the greatest gift: the freedom to think."

His friend, schoolteacher Fares Mukhlis, disagreed. "This is a brave
woman standing up for her principles that are correct," he said.

Nabeal Mohammed Younis, a professor of political science at Baghdad
University, recalled seeing Sheehan's image on Al Jazeera, the Arab
news channel, while having lunch at a Baghdad hotel with colleagues.

"We said that this woman is not very different from the women in Iraq
who've lost their sons," Younis recalled. "We started talking about
Cindy Sheehan and started to distinguish between how the women are
affected by the war and how the men are affected."

With thousands of Iraqis killed in violence since the March 2003
invasion and with the legacy of Saddam Hussein's tyranny still
haunting them, Iraqis are inclined to sympathize with a grieving
mother, regardless of their political views, Younis said.

"Most of them are with her and share her misery for losing her son,"
he said.

Sheehan's plight, as well as the news of thousands of Americans
voicing concern about the troubles in Iraq, helped Haqqi Fathulla, a
33-year-old Mosul resident, feel personally connected to Americans.

"The stand of this woman emphasizes the fact that there are no
hostilities between Iraqi and American people," he said.

Times special correspondents in Najaf and Mosul contributed to this
report.

Patriotic Dissent

2005-09-24T14:36:00.000-04:00

Patriotic Dissent
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Speech

Saturday 24 September 2005

Ahhhh, I love the smell of Patriotic Dissent in the afternoon!

As we stand here on the grounds of a monument that is dedicated to the Father of our Country, George Washington, we are reminded that he was well known for the apocryphal stories of never being able to tell a lie. I find it so ironic that there is another man here named George who stays in this town between vacations, and he seems to never be able to tell the truth. It is tragic for us that our bookend presidents named George have two completely different relationships with honesty.

I also find it ironic and heartbreaking that my son, Casey, who was a brave person, tall and proud, who loved his country and was honest beyond measure, could be sent to his death by someone who is even too cowardly to meet with a broken-hearted mom, let alone go and fight in the illegal and immoral war of his generation. We are losing our best and our brightest in a country that we are destroying, that was no threat to the United States of America. Iraq was and still is no danger to our safety and security, or to our way of life. The weapons of mass destruction and mass deception reside in this town: they are the neocons who pull the strings and the members of Congress who have loosened the purse strings with reckless abandon and have practically given George and company a blank check to run our country into monetary and moral bankruptcy. We are out here in force today to take our country back and restore true democracy and sanity to our political process. The time is now, and we are here because we love our country, and we won't let the reckless maniacs destroy her any further.

We, as a young colony of Great Britain, broke from another tyrant, King George the Third. Well, I wish our George the Third were here today to see us out here in force protesting against his war and against his murderous policies. George is not here, though, because he is out galavanting around the country somewhere pretending that he cares about the people who are in the path of hurricane Rita. We know that he cares nothing for the people of America: Katrina, Iraq, and his idiotic response to 9/11 are evidence of that. He is just out and about play-acting like a President whose country is in crisis, just like he pretends to be a Commander in Chief and a Cowboy (I wonder if before he took off to Texas or Colorado or wherever he went, he watched a movie like Independence Day to see how that other fake president acted?). The reason he is out today is that his handlers told him that he got a little flak for playing golf and eating birthday cake with Senator McCain while some of his employers were hanging off rooftops and treetops in New Orleans. He swaggers around arrogantly like he is a macho dictatorial tyrant who doesn't have to answer to his employers, the people of the United States of America. Those days are over George, we are here today to tell you that we are a majority and we will never rest until you bring our young people home from the Middle East, and until you start putting money into rebuilding OUR communities: the ones natural disasters destroy with your help, and the ones which your callous and racist war economy are decimating. We won't allow you to take anymore money out of social programs to finance Halliburton to rebuild the Gulf States: there is no money. Our bank account is empty. George, this is our rainy day and you have failed us miserably. Stop pouring money into the pockets of the war profiteers and into building permanent bases in Iraq ... It is time to bring our billions of dollars home from Iraq too!!!

One thing the Camp Casey movement that hunkered down in Crawford, Texas, this past August taught us is that we the people of America have the power and we can and should name our national policy and make sure it is carried out. I constantly get asked if we are making a difference and if we think (like we're naïve boobs) that we will actually stop the war. Well, looking back at how Vietnam was ended and looking back in the history of our country, most notably in the suffragette, union, and civil rights movements, we the people are the only ones who have been able to transform history and affect true and lasting change here in America: so to those people who question if we are making a difference: I tell them to go back to school and read their history books!! And another thing these questioners overlook is that WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!! And we are here to tell the media, Congress, and this criminal and criminally negligent administration: WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY!!!

We in the peace movement need to agree on one thing: yes we need an exit plan, but it is not a strategy, it is a command. The command should be: have all of our military personnel and paid killer mercenaries out of Iraq within 6 months, and the generals carry out the command. Simple, it's not brain surgery, and I think it is so easy even George Bush can sign the order. We can't give the homicidal maniacs any wiggle room or long-term strategy sessions. For one thing, when our leaders strategize, we are put in even more jeopardy - they have proven that they are not too bright or even a little compassionate. But the most important thing is that people die every day in Iraq for absolutely no reason and for lies. We have to say NOW because the people on the other side are saying NEVER. We can't compromise, we can't say please, and we can't retreat. If we do, our country is doomed. We have to honor the sacrifices of our loved ones by completing the mission of peace and justice. It is time. Bring our troops home, NOW!

-------

New -- and Old -- Antiwar Protesters Hope to Turn Momentum Into a Movement

2005-09-23T15:44:00.000-04:00

washingtonpost.com
Peace by Pieces
New -- and Old -- Antiwar Protesters Hope to Turn Momentum Into a Movement

By David Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 22, 2005; C01

One after another their trails led them here -- from California, New York,
Baltimore -- disparate members of the same movement, drawn by some strong
instinct that told them: Now is the time. This is the place.

Folded into a couch at one end of the restaurant is Tom Hayden,
silver-goateed eminence of antiwars past, while huddled with colleagues at
a long table is Leslie Cagan, doyenne of the peace movement's present.
Looking wan and wrung out in yet another corner stands Tia Steele, whose
stepson was shot in the throat and killed in Fallujah.

It's not just the usual peacenik suspects. Washington Wizard Etan Thomas
bounds up on the restaurant's stage to perform his updated Gil
Scott-Heron-style poetry -- They knock down doors to start wars / With
hands stained by the blood of foreign sands -- for a packed house that
includes David Meggyesy, the former Cardinal who quit the National Football
League in protest of the Vietnam War.

Vietnam? The unquiet ghost, the untamed analogy, is loose in the air.
There's that old nervy feeling that Something Is Happening. Here. Now. But
you could be mistaken.

Every movement needs a crossroads, a watering hole, an asylum. Busboys and
Poets -- part restaurant, bookstore, theater -- opened a couple weeks ago,
at 14th and V streets NW, just in time for the peace movement's headiest
days in forever.

Plump couches, radical books, free WiFi, $5 microbrews, killer sound
system, a menu that runs from catfish and collard greens to peanut butter,
banana and honey sandwiches: a cool, comfortable, slightly bourgy haven for
a hot, bothered, slightly bourgy peace movement.

Critics cannot easily dismiss this incarnation of antiwar enthusiasm as a
fringe passion of anarchists, communists and freaks (though an author still
tried to make that case last month at a Heritage Foundation forum). Recent
polls say a majority of Americans -- as many as 59 percent -- think the war
in Iraq is a "mistake" and the troops should be brought home. (Brought home
when? That's another question.)

The news is almost too much to handle. Demonstrators walk around saying, We
are the majority, trying it on like unfamiliar clothes.

It has been half a lifetime since the peaceniks felt so . . . mainstream.
The last time a majority became disenchanted with a conflict as shots were
still being fired -- including the Gulf War, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan --
was August 1968, when Gallup first detected that most Americans considered
the Vietnam War a "mistake."

Cindy Sheehan, the movement's own Mother Courage, commands the kind of
obsessive cable coverage usually lavished on titillating crimes. Her
caravan from Crawford, Tex., rolled into Washington yesterday and 17
television cameras documented her first step onto the soil of the nation's
capital in her quest to ask President Bush in person: "What is the 'noble
cause' for which you sent our country to war?"

Seeking to capitalize on the momentum, Cagan's United for Peace and Justice
and the ANSWER Coalition have organized a rally and encirclement of the
White House on Saturday morning that they hope will draw 100,000. That will
be followed by Operation Ceasefire, an 11-hour concert featuring Joan Baez,
Steve Earle, Thievery Corporation and the Coup. United for Peace and
Justice is planning more antiwar activities for Sunday and Monday. The
overall message: Bring the troops home now .

Until then, it has been long days of testifying on the Hill, haranguing in
Lafayette Square, fundraising, phone-banking, pounding out e-mails at 2:37
a.m. -- Re: FW: FW: FLYERING!

Then nights at Busboys and Poets, where members of the new not-so-silent
majority are ushered to the restaurant's theater for "Fear Up," a play
about the new American style of interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, or a
screening of "Operation: Dreamland," a grunt's-eye documentary about the
occupation of Fallujah.

"I think the depression and malaise that followed not being able to stop
the war and not being able to do anything after the election has shifted,"
Steele says, "and people who felt deflated and defeated are now coming
together in recognition that we can do something and we are doing something."

"I've opened many restaurants," says Andy Shallal, an Iraqi American who
owns Busboys and Poets. "This is the most bull's-eye I've ever shot. This
one people came in and got it right away. I think it's about timing."
The Roots of Protest

They converge, then disperse to "organize."

Whether Something really is Happening is difficult to measure. The polls
offer clues, but also caveats.

Americans were much quicker to decide that Iraq was a mistake than Vietnam,
says Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll. It took three years
in the case of Vietnam, just 15 months for Iraq.

However, Newport says, the peace movement's claims to rising momentum are
more tenuous. Since a majority first called Iraq a mistake more than a year
ago, the number has fluctuated rather than increased steadily. Polls in the
last week have suggested an uptick.

Hurricane Katrina and now Rita may be sucking publicity from peace. On the
other hand, the movement has struck a chord with some people by using
Katrina to further question Bush's competence and priorities.

If this weekend's demonstrations do draw 100,000, they will rival a prewar
peace march in Washington that police suggested involved more than 100,000
and was considered the largest antiwar rally since Vietnam. Organizers
claimed 500,000 attended that march.

So if you want to learn about the movement, you need to track the
characters back up the solitary trails of tears that brought them here. The
journeys involve the main questions facing the peace movement:

If the troops come home now, won't there be even more chaos and deaths of
innocents in Iraq?

How can you support the troops and not the war?

If we don't fight the Enemy in Iraq, will we someday fight him here?

Isn't it a good thing that Saddam Hussein is toppled and facing trial?

If we "cut and run" and do not "stay the course," will the fallen have died
in vain?
Empty Boots on the Ground

On a recent Saturday, Tia Steele is contemplating a field of black boots in
Baltimore. The pairs are arranged in neat ranks like a negative image of
the white crosses in Arlington Cemetery. One pair for each of 1,895 dead
soldiers and Marines by this point in the war.

It's the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit arranged by the American Friends Service
Committee at Johns Hopkins University. The exhibit has toured 65 cities
since January 2004, when there were only 504 pairs of boots, and has been
seen by more than 500,000 people, organizers say. About 6,000 people
attended in Baltimore.

The boots are symbolic, purchased from surplus, not worn by the honored
dead, but on a table is a special display of boots donated by families.

Next to a pair worn by Pvt. Robert Frantz are two photographs. One shows
him and his smiling recruiter, the other shows his tombstone.

Thick-soled and toe-scuffed are the boots of Spec. Casey Sheehan,
posthumously famous son of Mother Cindy. The leather is stamped "Made in
the U.S.A."

And there are the boots of Lance Cpl. David Branning, Tia Steele's stepson.

A woman approaches shyly. In her hand is an official paper: "Report of
Casualty." It's what Yvonne Green has now instead of her daughter. It says
Spec. Toccara Green, 23, of Rosedale, Md., was killed in action in the "War
on Terrorism/Operation Iraqi Freedom." The death is so recent that boots
for her are being added only today.

Steele embraces Green. Two mothers with wet eyes.

This is the feeling side of the peace movement. Steele, 56, a Baltimore
research psychologist, believes minds are changed not by information as
much as by experience. It's what happened to her.

She was stunned when David signed up for the Marines, but she didn't try to
talk him out of it. He was a thoughtful young man, figuring out his own
path. He took "War and Peace" to the battlefield.

He was killed kicking down a door in Fallujah. He was 21.

To her, none of the administration's evolving justifications for the war
withstood scrutiny -- 9/11, weapons of mass destruction, global war on
terrorism, building democracy. But she did not openly dissent until she got
her own Report of Casualty. She quit her job to coordinate "Eyes Wide Open"
and now hopes to find work in the movement.

"David can't have died in vain," she says. "I have an obligation to his
honor and to the David that I loved to do something about this craziness. .
. . This war is a lie. To keep perpetuating it is to cause more damage."

The View From Here

A huge collage covers one wall of Busboys and Poets, a scrapbook of a
century's worth of struggle for peace and justice. Portraits of Martin
Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Joseph McCarthy. Demonstrators being beaten.
The naked napalmed Vietnamese girl running down the road.

Painted across the top are the simple words of Langston Hughes:

Let America be America again

Let it be the dream it used to be

This is the fundamental yearning of protesters who consider themselves
patriots.

Shallal, 50, painted the mural himself. His family came to Washington in
the mid-1960s, when his father was ambassador of the Arab League. After
Saddam Hussein seized power, they could not return.

Shallal became a researcher in medical immunology at the National
Institutes of Health, then switched to the restaurant business -- he also
owns Mimi's American Bistro and the Luna Grill near Dupont Circle -- and
became active in peace issues. He camped in Crawford, Tex., with Cindy Sheehan.

He expects a lot of the land where now he is a citizen.

"I don't want it to be another country with better plumbing," he says.

Before the invasion, members of his family, some of whom still live in
Iraq, were divided on the prospect of war. Some thought removal of Hussein
was worth the price of invasion. Others questioned the legitimacy.

Shallal thinks toppling the dictator could have been achieved peacefully
with more time. The violence, he says, undermines U.S. claims to be doing
anything good for Iraq. Life in Baghdad for his cousins is more primitive
and dangerous than under Hussein, he says.

The presence of American troops is breeding more terrorists, making America
less safe, he says, so bring the troops home now.

"The U.S. is only creating more conditions for civil war," he says. "The
Iraqis need to figure this out for themselves."

From War to Peace

Tia Steele's path leads to Charlie Anderson, who came home in one piece,
physically. He has donated his own boots to the exhibit.

"These boots were worn during the invasion of Iraq and the occupation of
Crawford, Texas," he says.

Navy Petty Officer Anderson, 28, was a hospital corpsman assigned to a
Marine tank battalion. He says five men he felt close to were killed. He
stands in the field of boots with his head bowed and wipes his eyes. He
flinches at the bang of nearby construction equipment.

He had a job stocking shelves in Ohio when he enlisted a decade ago hoping
for a better future. He kept reenlisting: He felt he didn't have a choice
with a wife and daughter and no immediate prospects outside the service.

When the war came, he supported it without much thought. He couldn't
believe his country would launch it without good reason and hard evidence.
Turning against the war was a slow process.

"To admit that everything we gave up in order to do this was for nothing,
that's a hard sell," he says.

Seeing the country for himself, he became dubious of the supposed terror
threat to the U.S. homeland, "as if Hassan with a bookstore on Haifa Street
is going to wreak havoc on Sylvania, Ohio." The alternative justification
of planting democracy seemed futile to him. "Then I was pinned down to
weapons of mass destruction," he says.

Ha.

He joined Iraq Veterans Against the War before his discharge in March. The
group claims about 300 members and is growing quickly after public exposure
this summer alongside Cindy Sheehan. In comparison, Vietnam Veterans
Against the War took about two years to form and another couple years to
gain traction, Anderson says.

Anderson has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Now he is
a student in Virginia Beach and an activist.

He sees yellow ribbon magnets on cars, he hears talk about how you have to
"support the troops." He wants to ask the ribbon people if they ever wrote
a soldier to tell him? He wants to ask, How much support was there to send
the troops with proper armor? As some come home battered, how much support
is there for the budget of the Veterans Administration?

Anderson says American troops are "phenomenal people who are willing to
sacrifice everything" to complete a mission, but in Iraq "the mission keeps
morphing."

"What is the mission? Tell me what the mission is."

A Distant Echo

A bare stage with nine actors. The theater is the room with the mural and
the hovering prayer to let America be America. An audience of about 70
fills nearly every seat.

An actor playing a troubled FBI interrogator says:

"Some of these techniques, I don't want to see, or be a part of. I took an
oath to the Constitution to uphold the laws against enemies both inside the
U.S. and out. . . . The [Pentagon] guy got really upset. He said he took
the oath, too. I told him that we must have different interpretations, then."

"Fear Up" is set in Baghdad and Guantanamo Bay. It's nonfiction, drawn from
testimony, memoirs and journalistic sources, like that quote from a recent
New Yorker article.

A few days before opening night, the two assemblers -- not playwrights,
exactly -- meet in a Capitol Hill coffee shop over a laptop and do final
tinkering. One -- Karen Bradley, 54, director of graduate studies in dance
at the University of Maryland -- had demonstrated against the Vietnam War
as a college student, and she recalls the possibility and power in the
movement then. She detects something similar in the air now.

"People are angry, but they're focused," she says. "It's not blind rage.
People are sober, and very determined."

Part of Bradley's evidence that Something Is Happening is that she knows so
many people who have never demonstrated before who are on their way to
Washington for this weekend. People like Michael Kahn, 46, an oncologist
from outside Chicago. ("This is a critical point for our country," he
says.) And Susan Krueger, 44, a mother who home-schooled her children in
small-town Michigan. ("We have to make a big noise and a continuous noise,"
Krueger says.)

The other creator of "Fear Up" -- Marietta Hedges, 44, assistant professor
of acting at Catholic University -- reaches back to the same point of
reference.

"The September 24 demonstrations could be a pivotal turning point like you
remember from the Vietnam War," she says.

But knowing when Something Is Really Happening has always been tricky.
Hedges was in London when hundreds of thousands marched for peace shortly
before the invasion, in an effort to forestall war. It was a stirring
experience. Hedges remembers what a woman marching beside her said: "I
think we're going to stop this war. I think we're going to prevent it from
happening."

NATIONAL ANTI-WAR TOUR

2005-09-23T14:27:00.000-04:00

NATIONAL ANTI-WAR TOUR

Lila Lipscomb, whose son Mike was the first soldier from Michigan to be killed in Iraq, and who was featured in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11, opens a rally of family members of other soldiers killed there, as her granddaughter Destiny and the Rev. Edwin Rowe listen on-stage. The families are on a national tour originating at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas, and spoke at Detroit’s own Camp Casey Sept. 10.

“It’s ironic to me that so many of our soldiers have been forced to tear up someone else’s homes in Iraq instead of rebuilding homes for people displaced from Hurricane Katrina,” said Lipscomb. She said she would be testifying in Washington, D.C. at an upcoming hearing into the Downing Street memos, which allegedly show that President George Bush knew there were no “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq.

“How much more proof do we need?” asked Lipscomb. “Is my son’s blood not enough? He was number 54; now there have been nearly 1,900 U. S. soldiers killed in Iraq.”

Numerous events featuring the family members were held in Detroit over the week-end, including a welcoming event at Central United Methodist Church Sept. 9, the five-hour rally Sept. 10, and church events scheduled in Detroit and Ferndale Sept. 11.

Organizers of the event also called for Detroiters to participate in a national anti-war march on Washington, scheduled for Sept. 24. Buses will leave from Detroit, with information available by calling 313-680-5508.
Photo by Diane Bukowski

"See you there this weekend"

2005-09-22T18:39:00.000-04:00

Published on Thursday, September 22, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

See You There This Weekend
End the war on Iraq! Sept. 24-26 Washington DC
Three days of Mass action
by Janet Bates

"Come gather round people where ever you roam and admit that the waters around you have grown and accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone if your time to you is worth saving"
-- Bob Dylan

"There comes a time when silence is betrayal"
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

That time has come with regards the Iraq war. It is time for every man woman and child to take to the streets and say enough is enough! Far too many people have died needlessly in a war that to date, no-one has given a satisfactory reason for. This was made blaringly obvious this summer, when President Bush was unable to answer Cindy Sheehan's seemingly straightforward question, "Why did my son die?" "What was this noble cause you talk about?"

That question above all must be answerable, if not; the war has no noble cause.

Now the war must end. It has no noble cause. Bush's silence has made that clear.

If you feel that a war should only be ever fought for the noblest cause, then you better get out this weekend and say so. There will never be a better time. There may never be another time, period. Your rights have changed. Come out and join us to end the war in Iraq. If you cannot make it to Washington, there are events all over the US, just go to www.unitedforpeace.org and search for an event close to you.

It is possible. I believe that there is a critical number that will be hard for him to ignore.

That number needs to get out this weekend and make a stand!

To end, I feel that Arlo Guthrie put it best in Alice's restaurant:

"And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant." And walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement."

And friends, that is what it is, it is the movement to end the war in Iraq, and it is happening this Saturday Sept 24th in a city near you. Be there!

For more information, go to www.unitedforpeace.org.

Janet Bates is a singer/songwriter headed from her home in Oregon towards Washington, DC. www.janetbates.com

Cindy & Bring Them Home Now tour members arrive in DC

2005-09-21T22:42:00.000-04:00

Cindy Sheehan Caravan Stopped by Capitol Police
By Sarah Ferguson
The Village Voice

Wednesday 21 September 2005

Bring Them Home Now treks afoot to press conference.

Washington, DC - At just past noon on Wednesday, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and the rest of the Bring Them Home Now tour were stopped by a pair of squad cars two blocks from the US Capitol by members of the Capitol police force. Officers explained that they wanted to use bomb-sniffing dogs to inspect the caravan of three RVs and several cars.

The officers said it was standard practice to inspect large vehicles in the area. "RVs aren't allowed on Capitol Hill," one said. "That's standard procedure. Any trucks that come on Capitol Hill are stopped and turned around." Campers aren't allowed at all, the officer said, "unless they've been previously authorized."

Officers told the peace activists they couldn't park at the Capitol because they don't have the proper permits. Sheehan and company then began preparing to make the rest of the trek on foot. Awaiting them near the Capitol steps were a crowd of television cameras for a scheduled noon press conference.

Earlier this week in New York City's Union Square park, police officers unplugged Sheehan's microphone, saying she didn't have a proper permit for that either.

People with Bring Them Home Now seemed unfazed. "It's always something," said Stacy Bannerman of Military Families Speak Out, whose husband spent a year fighting in the Sunni Triangle. "It's just part of the deal."

The conference is being held by Sheehan and the others to announce their arrival in Washington and to kick off a weekend of resistance that is expected to include a march of 100,000 people and mass civil disobedience.

At 1:30 p.m., Sheehan and her allies plan to head to the White House, where they'll attempt to give President Bush a letter asking him to answer the question, "What noble cause are our loved ones dying for?"

Labor and the Iraq War

2005-09-21T14:39:00.000-04:00

The following article comes as no surprise to those of us who were down at Camp Casey Detroit as 47,000 union workers and their families marched by in the Labor Day Parade. No wonder they were so open to our message and eagerly waved the "No War" signs we passed out by the dozens. We should also not be surprised that the mainstream media has kept this anti-war sentiment and official resolution passed at the AFL-CIO convention quiet. It bodes ill for the continuation of Bush's war(s).

Patricia

Labor and the Iraq War
Written by Charlotte Dennett
Monday, 19 September 2005

There's an old adage among investigative journalists: if you want to know what's really going on, ask the workers.

If you want to know what's really going on in Iraq - to American soldiers, to their families back home, to Iraqi women - read this column, and learn what I did at the historic AFL-CIO convention held this summer in Chicago.

If you find yourself hesitating, your mind's eye imagining a smoke-filled room full of union toughs battling over issues that have no relevance to your life, believe me: this convention defied all stereotypes.

Predictably, the mainstream media would have you believe that the only thing that happened at the convention was negative: the much anticipated (and widely decried) walkout and disaffiliation, before the convention began, of two of the nation's largest unions, the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters. True, the defection cast a temporary pall over the AFL-CIO's 50th anniversary celebration. But something else happened that caused the remaining 2,000 delegates to stand tall and walk with a spring in their step. For the first time in the history of the trade union movement, they voted nearly unanimously to break with the federal government over a foreign war while it was still being fought. They passed a strongly worded resolution against the war in Iraq, and demanded that American troops be brought home, not merely "as soon as possible," but "rapidly." And rapidly, according to one of the makers of the motion, was to be interpreted as "immediately."

"Our soldiers," the resolution read in part, "come from America's working families. They are our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, our husbands and wives. They deserve to be properly equipped with protective body gear and up-armored vehicles. And they deserve leadership that fully values their courage and sacrifice. Most importantly, they deserve a commitment from our country's leaders to bring them home rapidly. An unending military presence will waste lies and resources, undermine our nation's security and weaken our military."

The mainstream press did not cover the resolution, even though the convention hall erupted with cheers and applause when it passed with resounding "ayes" and only one "no." I asked the New York Times reporter why he neglected it. "The AFL-CIO isn't as important as it used to be," he replied smugly, then confessed, perhaps realizing that his comment belied why he was there at the convention, "and besides, my editors told me to focus on the split." continue reading article...

Cindy Sheehan Takes on the Democrats, Hillary Clinton

2005-09-21T12:36:00.000-04:00

The anti-war activist has plenty to say—and it’s not all about Bush

by Kristen Lombardi

September 20th, 2005 2:27 PM

http://villagevoice.com/news/0538,lombardiweb,68015,2.html

Cindy Sheehan, the rising star of the anti-war movement, remembers when
people used to think of her as one of those crazy activists, speaking out
for a cause, inconveniencing all who stumbled onto her path. She remembers,
from her days camped outside President Bush’s ranch in Texas, how some
drivers would shout out at her, "Get a job!"

Her response was always the same. "I’d say to them, ‘I have a job,’ "
Sheehan explained Monday night at the last of her New York events, at the
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. "I’d say, ‘It’s a full-time job,
and it’s to hold George Bush accountable.’ " With that, the 1200-strong
crowd of peace activists, war veterans, ministers, and high-school students
went wild.

Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, has become the
persistent thorn in George Bush’s side and, in the process, an icon for
Americans angry with the way the president and his administration is
handling the war. Monday night, she drew out the anti-war sentiment in New
York, making her last stop in well-publicized three-bus Bring Them Home Now
Tour launched from Crawford, Texas, on August 31. The tour has traveled to
51 cities in 28 states.

Audience members packed into the cavernous hall wearing T-shirts with block
letters, that read: I SUPPORT CINDY SHEEHAN. BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. Others
donned baseball hats, VETERANS FOR PEACE, or carried makeshift signs, CINDY,
YES. BUSH, NO. They waited to hear the celebrity guest for an hour,
listening to emotional stories of other military families. The message? Don’
t keep our troops fighting a war based on lies. Instead, get on the bus and
protest in Washington, D.C., the site of a three-day anti-war rally this
weekend.

When Sheehan assumed center stage, she kept her focus on Bush, calling him
"a liar" whose "reckless, callous, and moronic policies have made our
country vulnerable." Bush, she said, had proven himself a coward who cares
little about the troops in Iraq.

"I hate to be harsh," she said, "but we’re not accepting any excuses for not
bringing our troops home."

But Sheehan isn’t stopping her critique with Bush. On the contrary, she has
begun to set her sights on Congress and the Democratic Party as well. When
she spoke in Brooklyn on the night before, she took note of the fact that
Senator Hillary Clinton voted to authorize Bush to use force in Iraq and–
like most Senate Democrats–has done little to bring the troops home.
Clinton, in fact, has filed legislation calling for more troops.

In an interview after her speech, Sheehan told the Voice she was "so
frustrated" by leading Democrats like Clinton "who should be leaders on this
issue, but are not." Already, she has set up a future meeting with New York’
s junior senator this weekend. And she plans to sit down with the state’s
senior senator, Chuck Schumer, too. "It’s time for them to step up and be
the opposition party," she said. "This war is not going to end unless the
Democrats are on board with us."

Local anti-war activists agree, and are busy strategizing on how to kick up
the pressure. "There is a real push to put members of Congress on the hot
seat," says Bill Dobbs, of the New York City chapter of United for Peace and
Justice. "It’s one thing to put the blame on Bush for this whole mess, but
it’s Congress who has the power to stop it. We’ve got to make them pay a
price for keeping this war going."

Erika from Ohio's pics of her & Jessie's overnight at Camp Casey Detroit

2005-09-21T00:10:00.000-04:00

The world is watching...

2005-09-20T14:51:00.000-04:00

My brother Rabih Haddad in Beirut, Lebanon sent me these cartoons with the note, "I thought you might get a kick out of these."

Patricia

2005-09-20T13:09:00.000-04:00

just to clarify...i don't believe cindy sheehan herself was arrested.

From the Village Voice
http://villagevoice.com/news/0538,fergusonshee,67983,2.html
NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan
City’s Finest pulls move even Bush wouldn’t have tried

by Sarah Ferguson
September 19th, 2005 5:54 PM

Cindy Sheehan speaking out in Union Square with Al Zappala, who also lost a son in Iraq
photo: Sarah Ferguson
See also:

The New Fight Against the War
by Jarrett Murphy

Cindy Sheehan may be the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement. But that didn't stop members of the New York Police Department from marching into the crowd of about 150 people gathered in Union Square Monday to hear her speak and yanking away the microphone.
The NYPD pulled the plug just as Sheehan was calling on the audience not to lose heart in the fight to end the war in Iraq.

"We get up every morning, and every morning we see this enormous mountain in front of us," said Sheehan, speaking on behalf of the other parents and family members of fallen soldiers who have taken up the crusade to bring the troops home.

"We can't go through it, we can't go under it, so we have to go over it," she continued, just as the cops rushed the makeshift podium.

Police dragged away Paul Zulkowitz, a.k.a. Zool, an organizer with “Camp Casey NYC,” the small encampment that he and other activists set up a month ago in Union Square in solidarity with Sheehan’s vigil outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The New York branch existed much to the ire of the city’s Parks Department. Today, Zulkowitz was arrested for failing to obtain a sound permit—a charge that normally warrants no more than a summons.

Moments earlier, Zulkowitz had been chastising Parks officials for refusing to grant a permit to the encampment, and accusing the police of trying to harass the antiwar protest away. Contrasting the liberal Big Apple with the hostile environs Sheehan faced in Crawford, Zulkowitz told the crowd: "You would think that here in New York City, at Union Square—our Hyde Park—you would think that we would little difficulty having a 24-hour vigil to oppose the war. In fact, we've had two arrests and eight summonses and endless harassment from the police for doing what we do."

As the activists hustled away Sheehan and the other family members on the Bring Them Home Now tour, an enraged crowd of about 50 people stormed after the police, chanting, "Shame! Shame!" Meanwhile Iraq war veteran and now peace activist Jeff Key played "God Bless America" on his trumpet.

"Since when can't you talk out here in Union Square?" demanded an Upper West Side social worker who identified herself as Quha, who said she'd taken her lunch break to hear Sheehan because she has a 20-year-old son who is considering enlisting. "I've seen everyone and their mother come out and speak nonsense out here in this park, and for them to shut down Cindy Sheehan is just not right."

"They came in like gangbusters. It was really ridiculous," said Margaret Rapp, a retired teacher from Inwood who added that she planned to file a complaint after an officer forcibly shoved her in the chest. A mother of a 19-year-old, she said she'd come to hear Sheehan because she lost her fiancee during the Vietnam War. "This is very close to home. There is a chord that Cindy hits among people that have lost people in this war and other wars, or who have draft age children like me. We're scared to death.”

Inspector Michael McEnroy, commander of the 13th Precinct, insisted the shutdown order had nothing to do with the content of Sheehan’s speech, but was instead about the "provocation" caused by Zulkowitz. “This has been going on for much longer than today,” McEnroy said, adding of Sheehan, “I don’t even know the woman.” That last part prompted one pissed-off onlooker to shoot back: “Haven’t you watched the news or read a paper in the last three months? ”

Sheehan has been touring the country for the last month with members of Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak out, and Iraq Veterans Against the War. They will be speaking tonight at 6:30 at St. John the Divine (Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street), part of the lead up to Saturday’s big anti-war march in Washington, D.C.

posted by: Isis

BREAKING: Cindy Sheehan arrested in Manhattan

2005-09-19T17:24:00.000-04:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: MA PA
Date: Sep 19, 2005 2:26 PM
Subject: [anti-allawi-group] BREAKING: Cindy Sheehan arrested in Manhattan
To: drymarc2003 at yahoo.ca

BREAKING: Cindy Sheehan arrested in Manhattan
by Five of Diamonds
Mon Sep 19th, 2005 at 12:42:39 PDT

I witnessed this with my own eyes. Here is my account.

Cindy Sheehan was arrested moments ago in Union Square, Manhattan for
allegedly speaking in the square without the proper permit.

A small group of police began to congregate around 2:00 on the south
east corner of Union Square. Cindy and her peace entourage were
slightly late to the event, contending with public transportation.

Upon her arrival, applause and cheers filled the crowd awaiting her
speech. A few other members of the tour movement spoke. Afterward,
about 2:50, Cindy began her speech. It was friendly and empowering.
She was grateful for the support and urged everyone to go to
Washington DC on the 24th of September for a march on Washington.

At the conclusion of her speech, from my perspective, a few loud and
impassioned boos erupted, then I saw a hand come from behind Cindy and
grab her shoulder-strap on her backpack. The arm jerked her
backwards, with such force as to snap her head forward, and she fell
from my view.

The crowd erupted in booing and jeering. The crowd rushed the
elevated park where she once stood, not to fight but to witness what
was happening. People crowded the police, who had formed a
semi-circle around what was happening to Cindy (which I could not
witness from my vantage point).

"Nazis," "Gestapo," "free speech," "burn the constitution,"
"traitors," "you can't have her," could be heard from all sides of the
angry crowd. The police stood shoulder-to-shoulder with emotionless
looks on their faces. One woman from the tour, I did not see who,
urged everyone to that it is a waste of energy to yell at the police,
we can't stop it from happening, but what we can do is trumpet this
event to the rest of the United States.

Many media cameras were there. One New York Times reporter was also
there (at least), and she was moving around the crowd asking
questions. Upon the arrest, she inserted herself into the middle of
the screaming, recording it all with her mini-recorder.

I'm not sure the details of the permit situation. The announcer said
they sought a permit for weeks with no response from the city
government.

Spread the word Kossaks! More as it unfolds.
UPDATE: Details prompted by comments There was no violence, no violent
rhetoric, and the spirit of the event was positive and strong. She was
only there for about 10 minutes before she spoke, and spoke for about
5 minutes. The crowd was respectful and peaceful. Cindy and the other
speakers were using a microphone and speakers, which may have caused
the problem with the permits. The announcer told the crowd that they
had been officially warned before Cindy got there. I'm trying to find
out the permit stuff right now. She was speaking at "Camp Casey NYC"
in Union Square. It was a planned event, advertised in the newspaper.
And from what I heard (Union Square is a noisy place), they tried to
get a permit but did not get a response from city government after
many messages were left. My view was not the best, so I did not see if
it was a cop behind her that jerked her away. The immediate booing and
rushing of the "stage" (a large part of the park raised by about 3
steps) made me believe it was the police. I could not see if she
resisted or not. Sorry for the bad view...I wish I had more. Watch the
wires, this will be out soon.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mparent7777/2913402.html

More at:
CRIMES AND CORRUPTIONS OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWSWIRE - September 19th, 2005

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mparent7777/2913402.html

MARC PARENT

Wake Up

2005-09-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

Wake Up
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Monday 19 September 2005

So we have come to cash this check - a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
-- MLK, Jr. Aug. 28, 1963, I Have a Dream speech

What Bush's Katrina shows once again is that my son died for nothing. If you listen to Bush - and fewer and fewer are, thank goodness - we are in Iraq in part due to 9/11. All our president has been talking about has been protecting this country since 9/11. That's why people voted for him in the last election. Katrina shows it's all as sham, a fraud, a disaster as large as Katrina itself.

Hundreds of billions and tens of thousands of innocent lives wasted later, what have we achieved? Nothing. Casey died for nothing and Bush says others have to die for those that have died already.

Enough, George! What is disgusting is not, as the first lady says, criticism of you, but rather the crimes you've committed against this country and our sons and daughters. Stop hiding behind your twisted idea of God and stop destroying this country.

This week I arrive in Washington DC to begin my Vigil at the White House just like I did in Texas. But this time I'll be joined by Katrina victims as well. In your America we are all victims. The failed bookends of your Presidency are Iraq and Katrina.

It is time for all of us to stand up and be counted: to show the media, Congress, and this inept, corrupt, and criminal administration that we mean business. It is time to get off of our collective behinds to show the people who are running our country into oblivion that we will stand for it no longer. That we want our country back and we want our nation's young people back home, safe and sound, on our shores to help protect America. That it is time for a change in our country's "leadership." That we will never go away until our dreams are reality.

We have so-called leaders in our country who are waiting for the correct "politically expedient" time to speak up and out against the occupation of Iraq. It is no sweat for our politicos to wait for the right time, because not one of them has a child in harm's way. I don't care if the politician is a Democrat or a Republican, this is not about politics. Being a strong leader to guide our country out of the quagmire and mistake of Iraq will require people of courage and determination to stand up and say: "I don't care if I win the next election, people are dying in Iraq every day and families are being decimated." We, as the 62% of Americans who want our troops to begin coming home, will follow such a leader down the difficult but oh-so-rewarding path of peace with justice.

It is no longer time for the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. It never has been the time for that. Our "now" is so fiercely urgent. Like my daughter, Carly, wrote in the last verse of her "A Nation Rocked to Sleep" poem:

Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep?
Our leaders want to keep us numb so the pain won't be too deep,
But if we the people allow them to continue, another mother will weep,
Have you heard the sound of a Nation Being Rocked to Sleep?
Wake up: See you in DC on the 24th.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information os September 24th go to:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org.

- Charles

"This has everything to do with class and everything to do with race, and it's very, very frightening. "

2005-09-17T17:39:00.000-04:00

From DEMOCRACY NOW!...
Friday, September 16th, 2005
"The Militarization of New Orleans: Jeremy Scahill Reports from Louisiana"

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what you have been seeing, who you've been talking to this week?

JEREMY SCAHILL: Well, I mean, in the days that have passed, the week or so since you were here this past weekend, we have seen a real increase in the militarization of the city. It's turned into a much greater state of lockdown. You have more military checkpoints set up. You have less of a civilian presence in large parts of the city and much more of a military presence. I mean in fact, I still have only seen one FEMA vehicle, the entire time I have been here. That wasn't even staffed. It was just a FEMA vehicle parked on a median near the Hyatt hotel where the main headquarters is of the so-called Operational Emergency Command of the military and various branches of the government coordinating their so-called disaster response. But there are soldiers all over the city. What's incredible is that you see them doing almost nothing. They're either just standing around or sitting around. There's very little work being done by the military. You do see units like the 82nd airborne patrolling the streets. It looks like the aftermath of a massacre or war zone where you have soldiers patrolling around. You also see a tremendous increase in the number of private security contractors who have arrived on the scene. Read entire transcript...

What Noble Cause?

2005-09-17T14:47:00.000-04:00

What Noble Cause?
By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Saturday 17 September 2005

It has been one month, one week, and 4 days since I sat in a ditch in Crawford, Texas. My request was very simple: I wanted to speak to the man who has sent over a million of our young people over to fight, kill, and die in a country that was absolutely no threat to the United States of America. I wanted to ask him: "What is the Noble Cause that you keep talking about?"

Well, we all know now that George Bush never came down the road to talk to me. Thank God! Many people have been saying that I am the "spark," "catalyst," "face of the anti-war movement," etc. I beg to differ. George Bush and his arrogant advisers are the spark that lit the prairie fire of peace activism that has swept over America and the entire world. If he had met with me that fateful day in August it would not have been good for him (because I knew he was going to lie and I would have advertised that fact) but it would have had less of an impact on the peace movement if he had.

Upon reflection on the events of this past August, I have come up with two reasons why George could not meet with me: He is a coward and there is no Noble Cause. If George had as much courage and integrity in his entire body as Casey had in his pinky, he would have met with me. But, ironically, if George had that much courage and integrity he never would have preemptively invaded a practically defenseless country. His syncophantic cabinet and hangers-on are also incontrovertible evidence that he is a coward. No one had better dare disagree with him. How dare a mom from Vacaville, California, have the nerve to contradict the emperor of Prairie Chapel Road!!??

All of the "Noble Cause" reasons that George has variously given for the invasion and continued illegal occupation of a sovereign nation are also patently false and ridiculous. He has been claiming recently (since he admitted a long time ago that Iraq had no WMDs or links to 9/11) that this occupation of Iraq is spreading "freedom and democracy" in the Middle East. Really? Does he have any idea that the constitution that the Iraqi governing body is working on is based on Sharia and that it undermines the freedoms of women? Does he realize that for over 50 years women had equal rights with men in Iraq? Does George realize (of course he does) that the puppet government the US put in place in Iraq is comprised of the very same people who encouraged the invasion to line their own pockets? What kind of freedom and democracy is this? If George is so hell bent on freedom and democracy for Iraq, then why doesn't he practice it here in America? Up to 62 percent of Americans believe that what George has done in Iraq is a mistake and we should begin to bring our troops home. Well, George, 62 percent is a clear majority and you should begin to listen to the people who pay your salary.

He has also claimed that what we are doing in Iraq is "making America safer." Another statement that is easier to disprove than the "freedom and democracy" baloney. To disprove this little bit of deception, all we have to do is look at the Gulf States. Ask the people of New Orleans, especially, if they feel safer. By misappropriating all of our personnel, equipment and pouring billions of dollars into the sands of Iraq, George has made our country more vulnerable to attack by outside forces. Also, from the cold and callous statements of people like Michael Chertoff and George's own mama, the people of New Orleans seem to be "acceptable" collateral damage to the ruling elite of this country. It is my humble opinion that the only thing that will make America safer is to get George and his unfeeling and dangerously incompetent supporters out of our White House.

We all now know the reason that we are in Iraq. George told us so from a break he was taking from Crawford in San Diego on the same day that Katrina was hitting the Gulf States: it is for oil. It is so George, Dick, and their evil buddies can rape more profits from our children's flesh and blood. This is not a Noble Cause - as a matter of fact, it is the most ignoble cause for any war that has ever been waged. We as Americans knew either in the front of our brains, or in the back of our consciousness, that this war was to feed the corporations. 15 brave young Americans have been killed so far this month while our attention has been focused, and rightfully so, on the Gulf States. Over 200 innocent and unfortunate Iraqis have been killed in this week alone. How much more blood are we as Americans going to allow George, Congress, and the corporations to spill before we demand an end to this war and an accounting for the lives that have been needlessly ruined?

It is also time to stop hemorrhaging money in Iraq. I witnessed the abject poverty and sense of abandoment the less fortunate people of New Orleans were living in even before the levees broke. It is time to start pumping hope back into our own communities. It is time to start taking care of Americans. How many millions of our tax dollars are we going to allow George, Congress and the corporations to misuse and waste in Iraq?

Not one more drop of blood. Not one more life. Not one more penny for killing.

If you love our country and want to see a change for the better, come to DC on the 24th of this month and stand up and be counted for peace. The entire world is counting on you.

-------

a survivor's story: Katrina in New Orleans

2005-09-16T15:02:00.000-04:00

What follows is a forwarded email I received today from a friend.

Patricia Lay-Dorsey

Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:28:22 -0400
From: John Woodford
Subject: a survivor's story: Katrina in New Orleans

i heard from my aunt last night that my cousin Denise made it out of New Orleans; she's at her brother's in Baton Rouge. from what she told me: her mother, a licensed practical nurse, was called in to work on Sunday night at Memorial Hospital (historically known as Baptist Hospital to those of us from N.O.). Denise decided to stay with her mother, her niece and grandniece (who is 2 years old); she figured they'd be safe at the hospital.

They went to Baptist, and had to wait hours to be assigned a room to sleep in; after they were finally assigned a room, two white nurses suddenly arrived after the cut-off time (time to be assigned a room), and Denise and her family were booted out; their room was given up to the new nurses. Denise was furious, and rather than stay at Baptist, decided to walk home (several blocks away) to ride out the storm at her mother's apartment. Her mother stayed at the hospital.

she described it as the scariest time in her life. 3 of the rooms in the apartment (there are only 4) caved in. ceilings caved in, walls caved in. she huddled under a mattress in the hall. she thought she would die from either the storm or a heart attack. After the storm passed, she went back to Baptist to seek shelter (this was Monday). it was also scary at Baptist; the electricity was out, they were running on generators, there was no air conditioning.

Tuesday the levees broke, and water began rising. they moved patients upstairs, saw boats pass by on what used to be streets. they were told that they would be evacuated, that buses were coming. then they were told they would have to walk to the nearest intersection, Napoleon and S. Claiborne, to await the buses. They waded out in hip-deep water, only to stand at the intersection, on the neutral ground (what y'all call the median) for 3 1/2 hours. the buses came and took them to the Ernest Morial Convention Center. (yes, the convention center you've all seen on TV.)

Denise said she thought she was in hell.

they were there for 2 days, with no water, no food. No shelter. Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21 years old), and 2-year-old grandniece. When they arrived, there were already thousands of people there. They were told that buses were coming. Police drove by, windows rolled up, thumbs up signs. National guard trucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers with guns cocked and aimed at them. nobody stopped to drop off water. a helicopter dropped a load of water, but all the bottles exploded on impact due to the height of the helicopter.

the first day (Wednesday) 4 people died next to her. the second day (Thursday) 6 people died next to her. Denise told me the people around her all thought they had been sent there to die. again, nobody stopped. The only buses that came were full; they dropped off more and more people, but nobody was being picked up and taken away. they found out that those being dropped off had been rescued from rooftops and attics; they got off the buses delirious from lack of water and food. completely dehydrated. the crowd tried to keep them all in one area; Denise said the new arrivals ha mostly lost their minds. they had gone crazy.

inside the convention center, the place was one huge bathroom. in order to shit, you had to stand in other people's shit. the floors were black and slick with shit. most people stayed outside because the smell was so bad. but outside wasn't much better: between the heat, the humidity, the lack of water, the old and very young dying from dehydration... and there was no place to lay down, not even room on the sidewalk. They slept outside Wednesday night, under an overpass.

Denise said yes, there were young men with guns there. but they organized the crowd. they went to Canal Street and "looted," and brought back food and water for the old people and the babies, because nobody had eaten in days. when the police rolled down windows and yelled out "the buses are coming," the young men with guns organized the crowd in order: old people in front, women and children next, men in the back. Just so that when the buses came, there would be priorities of who got out first.

Denise said the fights she saw between the young men with guns were fist fights. she saw them put their guns down and fight rather than shoot up the crowd. but she said that there were a handful of people shot in the convention center; their bodies were left inside, along with other dead babies and old people.

Denise said the people thought there were being sent there to die. lots of people being dropped off, nobody being picked up. Cops passing by, speeding off. national guard rolling by with guns aimed at them. And yes, a few men shot at the police, because at a certain point all the people thought the cops were coming to hurt them, to kill them all. She saw a young man who had stolen a car speed past, cops in pursuit; he crashed the car, got out and ran, and the cops shot him in the back. in front of the whole crowd. She saw many groups of people decide that they were going to walk across the bridge to the west bank, and those same groups would return, saying that they were met at the top of the bridge by armed police ordering them to turn around, that they weren't allowed to leave. so they all believed they were sent there to die.

Denise's niece found a pay phone, and kept trying to call her mother's boyfriend in Baton Rouge, and finally got through and told him where they were. the boyfriend, and Denise's brother, drove down from Baton Rouge and came and got them. they had to bribe a few cops, and talk a few into letting them into the city ("come on, man, my 2-year-old niece is at the Convention Center!"), then they took back roads to get to them.

after arriving at my other cousin's apartment in Baton Rouge, they saw the images on TV, and couldn't believe how the media was portraying the people of New Orleans. she kept repeating to me on the phone last night: make sure you tell everybody that they left us there to die. nobody came. those young men with guns were protecting us. if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have had the little water and food they had found.

that's Denise Moore's story.

Lisa C. Moore

-----

John Woodford
Executive Editor, Michigan Today
412 Maynard
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399
Direct: 734-647-1838
Fax: 734-764-7084
Main: 734-764-7260
SIGN UP NOW!! for the new Michigan Today
monthly online publication--the News-e
at http://www.umich.edu/NewsE/
Subscribe/unsubscribe option is easy.

Cornel West says it like he sees it!

2005-09-15T00:08:00.000-04:00

This evening I was one of the privileged few hundred (300 were turned away for lack of room) who heard--more like experienced--Dr. Cornel West speak at the Main Branch of the Detroit Public Library. He was scheduled to read from his 2004 book, "Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism," but the events of the past weeks coupled his obvious delight at speaking to a predominantly African-American audience in the city he calls, "The Cultural Capitol of Black America" sent him off on an amazing journey into truth-telling, risk-taking and soul-searching that brought forth "Amen!", "Tell it, brother!" and assorted vocal affirmations that reminded me of revivals I used to attend back in the '80s when I was a member of a Black church on Rosa Parks Blvd. in Detroit. His talk was a wondrous mix of revival, political rally and university classroom. What follows are just a few of the words, phrases and sentences I managed to jot down as he spoke:

"It wasn't a big step from the slave ships to the living hell of the Superdome."

"What we have now is Social Darwinism--the survival of the slickest."

Regarding race relations, he said, "Some folks say we've got to build bridges. I say we've got to tell it like it is before we can build any bridges."

"They say we're always playing the race card...Heck, the whole deck is full of them!"

"When it comes my time to go, I want to go with a smile of integrity on my face."

Speaking of the youth, he said, "What would America look like if the creativity in their music were brought to the struggle for justice!"

"If there's a fundamental flaw among Black Americians and Americans at large, it's that we don't have enough people of courage."

He was saying that it does no good if he just struts around Princeton showing off. "Peacocks strut because they can't fly. We come from a people who fly!"

"What we need is leadership with no ego; leaders willing to say, 'I decrease as the movement increases."

Speaking of the history of slavery, he said, "The Union won the war. The Confederacy won the peace."

"Today's young folk ask 'Where are the examples of greatness?' They don't see greatness; they see success. If you're successful, I ask, 'What are you using your success for?"

"I say take [your history] out of the books and take it to the streets!"

"The tradition I'm talking about has to do with hope. Not optimism, but hope. They're totally different."

He spoke of the brutal murder of 14 year-old Emmett Till and his mother's courageous insistence that people see it like it was, how 50,000 people filed by Emmett's casket that his mother insisted remain open. He told of her refusal to hate and seek revenge, her saying,"I don't have a minute to hate. I'll pursue justice for the rest of my life." Dr. West said that was how we in America needed to respond to examples of violent hatred like those we experienced on September 11, 2001.

When asked about the risks to him personally of speaking truth, he answered, "Freedom is not free." He then told of the death threats he receives and the time his wife had a gun put to her head. He finished by saying, "Some of us must love enough to be willing to die."

--posted by Patricia

More Photos From The Bring Them Home Now Tour

2005-09-15T00:02:00.000-04:00

Report From the MECAWI Meeting

By Abayomi Azikiwe

More photos on the September 10 Rally Can be Viewed by Clicking on this Website:
http://flickr.com/photos/mecawi

There was a meeting of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) outside our offices at 5922 Second avenue on Wednesday evening. Perhaps the experiences at Camp Casey Detroit led to the decision to meet on the sidewalk in front of the building.

During tonight's meeting we evaluated both the Saturday rally for the "Bring Them Home Now" Tour as well as the Camp Casey Detroit project as a whole. In the aftermath of Camp Casey Detroit there is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for the future work of the organization. At present we have four buses reserved for the trip to Washington, D.C. on September 24. The buses are leaving from both Ann Arbor and Detroit the evening of Friday the 23rd.

MECAWI will print and circulate thousands of the brochures in Washington for the Naitonal Conference to Reclaim Our Cities which will be held the weekend of November 11-13. There was much discussion about how to build this event into a gathering that will have national significance.

Other reports were made related to the upcoming national moratorium on December 2 commemorating the 50th anniversary of Rosa Parks' action which sparked the modern civil rights movement in 1955.

In addition, there was a report on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Planning Committee 2006 which met for the first time this season on Saturday. The follow-up meeting will be October 8 at Central United Methodist Church. Last year's event drew the largest crowd of the two rallies and marches (2004-2005). There is a draft poster already and there will be a new theme incorporated into the publicity by next month.

The saddest part of tonight's meeting of course was the news that Frances Newton, a 40-year-old African-American woman in Texas, had been executed. There had been a considerable amount of campaigning on her behalf at Camp Casey Detroit with the circulation of a post card directed to the Governor of Texas. According to one MECAWI meeting participant, there are many crimes that this racist system will have to pay for in the future.

MECAWI's next meeting will be Wednesday, September 21 at the organizational office.

A call for help from Camp Casey Covington, LA

2005-09-14T10:23:00.000-04:00

From: "Michael Moore"
Date: September 14, 2005 2:30:56 AM GMT-04:00
Subject: We've Raised a Half-Million Dollars and Sent Over 50 Tons of Food and Water
Reply-To: maillist@michaelmoore.com

Friends,

Last week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff down to New Orleans to set up our own relief effort. I asked all of you to help me by sending food, materials and cash to the emergency relief center we helped set up on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain with the Veterans for Peace. We did this when the government was doing nothing and the Red Cross was still trying to get it together. Every day, every minute was critical. People were dying, poor people, black people, left like so much trash in the street. I wanted to find a way to get aid in there immediately.

I hooked up with the Vietnam veterans and Iraqi war vets (Veterans for Peace) who were organizing a guerilla, grass-roots relief effort. They were the same group that had set up Cindy Sheehan's camp in Crawford and now they had moved Camp Casey to Louisiana.

I have good news and horrible news to report. First, your response to my appeal letter was overwhelming. Within a few days, a half-million dollars was sent in through my website to fund our relief effort. This money was immediately used to buy generators, food, water, a mobile medical van, tents, satellite phones, etc.

Others of you began shipping supplies to our encampment. People in communities all over the country started organizing truck caravans to us in Louisiana. Twenty-two trucks from southern California alone have already arrived. A semi-truck from Chicago delivered ten tons of food. A group of friends in New Jersey got two 24 foot trucks, got their community to load them up with goods, and arrived in Covington tonight. Fifteen iMacs are inbound from California. One man gave us his pick-up truck and another donated truck is en route from Houston.

Your response to my appeal has been nothing short of miraculous. And it has saved many, many lives.

A number of you decided to just get in your cars and drive to our camp to volunteer to help. We now have had 150 volunteers here doing the work that needs to be done. Last night they unloaded twenty tons of food from a tractor trailer in under two hours. Each day more volunteers arrive. Everyone is sleeping on the ground or in tents. It is a remarkable sight. Thank you, all of you, for responding. I will never forget this outpouring of generosity to those forgotten by our own government.

My staff and the vets spend their 18-hour days delivering food and water throughout the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. What they have seen is appalling. I have asked them to post their daily diaries on my website (www.michaelmoore.com) along with accompanying photos and video so you can learn what is really going on. What the media is showing you is NOT the whole story. It is much, much worse and there is still little being done to bring help to those who need it.

Our group has visited many outlying towns and villages in Mississippi and Louisiana, places the Red Cross and FEMA haven't visited in over a week. Often our volunteers are the first relief any of these people have seen. They have no food, water or electricity. People die every day. There are no TV cameras recording this. They have started to report the spin and PR put out by the White House, the happy news that often isn't true ("Everyone gets 2,000 dollars!").

The truth is that there are dead bodies everywhere and no one is picking them up. My crew reports that in most areas there is no FEMA presence, and very little Red Cross. It's been over two weeks since the hurricane and there is simply not much being done. At this point, would you call this situation incompetence or a purposeful refusal to get real help down there?

That's why we decided not to wait. And we are so grateful to all of you who have joined us. The Veterans for Peace and my staff aren't leaving (and that's why we are hoping those of you who can't get to Covington will make it to the Veterans for Peace co-sponsored anti-war demonstration in DC on September 24: www.unitedforpeace.org.)

If you want to help, here's what we need in Covington right now:

Cleaning Supplies (glass cleaner, bleach, disinfectant, etc.)
Aspirin and other basic over the counter drugs.
Bottled Water
Canned Goods
Hygiene Supplies
Baby Supplies - Baby Food Formula, diapers #4, #5, Wipes, Pedialyte
Sterile Gloves
Batteries - All kinds, from AA to watch and hearing aid batteries.
Volunteers with trucks and cars
Self contained kitchens with generators, utensils, workers

Consider sending supplies in reusable containers. List the contents on the outside of the package so the folks in the warehouse can easily sort the items.

Clothes are not needed. If you go, keep in mind that you MUST be self-sufficient. Bring a tent and a sleeping bag. People are driving to Covington from across the country and often have extra room in their cars for you or for an extra box of supplies. For more information, go to the Veterans for Peace message board: www.vfproadtrips.org/katrina/.

Send supplies via UPS to:
Veterans for Peace
Omni Storage
74145 Hwy. 25
Covington LA

Thanks again for funding and supporting our relief efforts. It has been a bright spot in this otherwise shameful month.

Yours,
Michael Moore
mike@michaelmoore.com
www.michaelmoore.com

Remembering Day 19

2005-09-13T23:55:00.000-04:00

It's hot again and all I can think about is what 90 degree weather would have felt like down at Camp Casey Detroit. We had so many warm-but-not-hot sunny days during our 21 days there, that us white folks all got farmers' tans--brown faces, necks, hands and arms up to our biceps. Our companions of color darkened considerably too. I'm as brown as I've ever been.

I miss my friends. Especially Abayomi, Pat, Willie, Jessica, Charles, Cheryl, David, Derek and his daughters Cydney and Kaylan, Andrea, Isis, Ann, Norm, Daniel, William, Vivian, Paul, Allen, Jim, Kevin, Violeta, Kelly, Rosie, Virginia, Marc Anthony, Syria, James, Chuck, Gretchen and the others.

I miss sitting around sharing stories, talking politics, eating yummy food like the pizza and foccacia Avalon Bakery donated to us, drinking refreshing cups of ice tea from the Brown Bean Cafe, going over to the ballpark and football stadium with signs to make a stand for peace, dancing to the Rolling Stones on the sidewalk outside Center Field, participating in rallies and turning the Labor Day Parade into a 47,000-strong anti-war march.

It feels strange to spend my days inside buildings. Even with my scootings around town, it's not the same as being outside 4-6 hours most days, or 10 hours like last Friday.

When I read the news, it's no fun not being able to discuss things with my buddies, to hear their perspectives on what's happening.

Oh my, I knew this would happen--I'm in Camp Casey Detroit withdrawal!

But, thank goodness, I have my pictures to help me recapture the feeling of being there. Let's go back to Friday, Day 19 at Camp Casey Detroit, our next-to-last day and night.

Friday was another of those beautiful sunny days. Most of us moved from sun to shade and back several times during the afternoon. Abayomi, Pat, Allen, Jim, Robert, Jessica and I were the mainstays (photos #1 & #2). We didn't have many visitors, but two women who stopped at our tables were from France and spoke little English. I think Abayomi managed to communicate why we were there even with the language barrier. I know they signed our petition to bring the troops home now.

David and Cheryl joined us after work, David with tables and chairs for the potluck and Cheryl with materials to make a box to hold the postcards she wanted folks to sign and send to the governor of Texas. She was doing everything she could to try to stop Wednesday's scheduled execution of Frances Newton, an African-American woman who is probably innocent.

By 6 PM, people were arriving with dishes to share.

Our reason for having a potluck on Friday was to welcome the bus from Cindy Sheehan's Bring Them Home Now tour when it arrived. We'd been informed they probably wouldn't get to Detroit until 9 PM. But, as with all our Camp Casey Detroit parties, we didn't really need a reason; we just liked being together (photos #1 & #2).

Channel 2, our Detroit-area FOX affliate, came out and interviewed Isis and Abayomi. Surprisingly, Channel 2 was the only TV station to cover Camp Casey Detroit during our 21-day encampment. Actually, they ran three different stories on us. Knowing how conservative the FOX owner, Rupert Murdoch, is, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that Channel 2 in Detroit operates independently from the national FOX networks.

Cydney and Kaylan, Derek's daughters, came to the party and showed their artistic talent and social consciousness in making two important statements--photos #1 & #2--with sidewalk chalk. Well, three if you count their "Camp Casey Detroit Welcomes You" message.

In an earlier entry I told the story of what happened when the bus actually did arrive in the Detroit area, so I won't repeat that here.

And now I've just gotten off the phone with a friend from California. His tendency to whine about the sorry state of affairs in this country drove me a bit crazy tonight. There's no question but that things are falling apart, but why would anyone be surprised? Even more disturbing to me are folks like my friend who moan and groan but do nothing about it. I want to say to them, get out there and DO something! Stewing in your juices does nothing to change things; only action can turn the tide. For each of us, the form that takes will be different. But it is long past time to talk the talk; we need everyone out there walking the walk. There's where you'll find your hope.

--posting by Patricia

Notes on the Camp Casey Detroit Project

2005-09-13T22:20:00.000-04:00

Notes on the Camp Casey Detroit Project

By Abayomi Azikiwe

This has been a tremendous three weeks since we set up Camp Casey Detroit on August 22, 2005 at the corner of Woodward and Adams in Grand Circus Park. I cannot recall anything similar in regard to the peace movement in the Detroit area. Special thanks should go out to all the members of the Michgian Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) and the many people who came and joined the Camp over the last several weeks.

Camp Casey Detroit lifted the anti-war and peace movement to a new level. This was no ordinary protest or conventional demonstration. It represented a community of activists making decisions and creating new forms of expression on a round the clock basis. The character of the debates and discussions during the last three weeks were highly charged and probative. In order for the Camp to survive sucessfully for 21 days it required a high degree of discipline, commitment and mutual respect among the participants.

The Camp had to make democratic decisions after weighing the merits of various issues. We had to work out how we would deal with each other as well as the supporters of the Camp. In addition, we had to develop strategies for dealing with the various people who stopped by the literature table to discuss a myraid of issues that the Camp represented. There were many pledges of support and we changed some minds and hearts as it relates to the war policies of the current government in Washington, D.C.

At the same time there were detractors who sought to upset the Camp participants with denunciations of the peace movement. Our response varied but we never reacted violently to any of the negative forces that came to our literature table. We often debated those who could not understand why it was necessary to stage an extended peace camp with such determination and vigour.

Moreover, we worked out means of relating to the various street people who approached the Camp in various ways. We fed and provided water as well as advice to many homeless and destitute people who live in and around Grand Circus Park because they have no where else to reside. We were provided with a glimpse of the depths of poverty, exploitation and oppression that far to many people have fallen victim to in Detroit. We saw clearly that there are at least three Detroits converging in downtown.

There are the successful business owners, professionals and retirees who represent the new emerging elites in the downtown area. These people live in the newly renovated lofts, apartments and condos. Then there are the working people who are struggling to survive and prosper in the economically distressed city of Detroit. Also there are the low-income people, the mentally ill, drug and alcohol addicted who have either accepted their plight or are struggling to rise above it and change the conditions under which they live.

To all of these residents and the people who transit through downtown going to work, to shop or attend entertainment centers, we brought an uncompromising anti-war message: "Bring the Troops Home Now, Money For Our City, Not For War."

Also the city of Detroit employees were highly supportive. There were bus drivers who took petitions calling for an end to the war. These petitions were delivered when the drivers returned from their routes. The work crews were quite accomodating and even assisted us in keeping the Camp clean by sweeping and empyting the garbage containers. Most of the top level police officials stated that they would not close down the Camp. We had problems with only three sargeants who sought to harass us by asking us to remove hanging banners and crosses that represented the war dead from Michigan.

Eventually we were granted a permit for the Saturday September 10 rally. Councilwoman JoAnn Watson attended the rally and spoke. Attorney Charles Brown, who works on Councilwoman Watson's staff served as the Camp's legal represntative in residence. Atty. Brown spent a considerable amount of time at the Camp both day and night. His participation was essential in keeping the entire process smooth and yet militant in its determination.

Our decision to end the Camp on September 11 was related to the visit and departure of the "Bring the Troops Home Now" Tour which left Crawford, Texas (home of the original Camp Casey) on September 1. The people who represented the backbone of the anti-war project in the heart of Crawford left the area surrounding the vacation home of President Bush on September 1 after Bush returned to the White House. They are travelling the country in three trailers. The visit of these unique and couragous inviduals represented the high point of the three week Detroit Camp Casey project.

Saturday's rally at the Camp was very inspirational as well as emotional. The speeches of local activists and the tour participants energized all of those in attendance. The potluck on Friday night when the tour participants arrived was a festive occasion of historical significance.

We had collected hundreds of signatures on a petition to President Bush calling for bringing the troops home now. These petitions were turned over to the tour participants who indicated that they would be delivered to the US Congress when they arrive in Washington, D.C. for the massive weekend of action starting on Saturday September 24. MECAWI and the Detroit Area Peace and Justice Network (DAPJN) are taking buses to the march which will begin outside the White House.

The Camp Casey Detroit project brought together a number of peace organizations including both MECAWI, DAPJN, Pointes for Peace, Peace Action, Women in Black, Veterans for Peace and others. The Camp represented how groups can work together on an equal and mutually respectful basis.

As a member of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) we wish to extend our deepest gratitude to all that made this important project a success.

the true cost of war

2005-09-12T21:04:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to note that one of the women mentioned in the previous post received a phone call on her cell from her son in Baghdad moments before she went and stood with the other military families in the front. When she spoke, she told us that her son's message from moment's ago was that we should "... go to DC on the 24th!" Our active duty troops are anti-war. They need our support, and the more they see a mass movement in this country and understand that we will protect and defend them, the more they will be able to resist.

jessica

No more business as usual!

2005-09-12T18:08:00.000-04:00

In all my years as a peace activist never before have I sobbed aloud at a rally. Tears in my eyes, yes. Maybe even tears rolling down my cheeks, but never uncontrollable sobs coming unbidden from my mouth.

I don't cry easily so when it happens it catches me by surprise. But what happened in the middle of Saturday's rally at Camp Casey Detroit honoring the folks on Cindy Sheehan's Bring The Troops Home Now bus tour, hit so deep I didn't have a chance to protect myself. All I could do was react. And I wasn't the only one.

This rally had already been more emotional than most. We'd heard from Lila Lipscomb, the Mom from Flint, MI whom Michael Moore had featured in "Farenheidt 9-11." She'd brought up to the stage her dead son's little girl. That was a moment. And then Al Zappala, the only tour member representing Gold Star Families for Peace, told us about his 30 year-old son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, who'd been killed in Baghdad on April 26, 2004. That was another moment. But these moments were to be expected. We'd known ahead of time that we'd be hearing from folks who had lost loved ones in the fighting in Iraq. It was what happened next that pushed me, and many of us, over the edge.

After Al had finished speaking, the Rev. Ed Rowe, MC for the rally, asked if there were any other families of troops fighting in Iraq who would like to come forward. Two women walked up and stood directly under Ed at the elevated ledge of Hazen S. Pingree's statue which we were using as a stage; one was blond and the other had long dark hair and looked to be Latina. Cradled in her left arm was a framed color photograph of a smiling young man in military dress uniform. Three children, ages 6-11 or so, came up holding signs that said "Bring the Troops Home Now!", and stood beside her.

The blond woman told of her son who had fought in Iraq, and, thank God, had gotten out alive. Then the mic was handed to the woman carrying the photograph. As soon as she started talking, she dissolved into tears and kept saying, "My life is over. My son is dead." She was crying so hard it was difficult to understand her. I never did hear her name or her son's name, when he had been killed or where in Iraq it had happened. That didn't matter. All that mattered was that we were in the presence of such a raw grief that, no matter how committed to peace we'd been before, now we knew why. We were finally seeing and feeling the true cost of war. A mother's pain. Her grief. Her inconsolable loss.

As soon as Lila Lipscomb saw what was happening, she rushed forward to stand beside this woman, to put her arm around her, to be a presence of support, because Lila and her husband know more than anyone except Al Zappala, how it feels to lose your child to war. Ed Rowe stepped down off the stage, stood on the other side of this woman and said, "We need hugs here." Now that may sound too touchy-feely for some, but he was right. Hugs were all that could speak to such depths of pain. Words were useless.

For the next twenty minutes, person after person came forward to hold this sobbing woman, to let her know she was not alone. Tammara Rosenleaf from the bus tour, a woman whose husband is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq in November, held her sister for endless moments. Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, the next speaker, stood beside these hugging, sobbing women and said over and over, "No more business as usual! No more business as usual! No more business as usual!" She finished with the cry, "Wake up, America!"

As I write this I am weeping again. My God! When will we wake up? When will the American people say, "Enough already!" I hope it won't take hundreds and thousands more sobbing, grief-stricken mothers before we see what this war on Iraq is costing us. For it's not just OUR loved ones who are dying, it's untold thousands and thousands and thousands of our sisters and brothers in Iraq. Who is giving them wordless hugs of love and support? Who is acknowledging THEIR pain and grief? Who will stop this war and BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!

--posted by Patricia

googling Camp Casey Detroit

2005-09-12T02:44:00.000-04:00

As of 2:45 AM this Monday morning, I found 694 links when I googled Camp Casey Detroit. I've been checking some of them out and was especially touched by the following entry on a blog called Daily Kos: Political Analysis and Other Rants on the State of the Nation. It was a comment posted in response to a diary entry by Cindy Sheehan.

Detroit (none / 1)

On the way to the game last night, wouldn't you know that there is a Camp Casey station set up at Grand Circus Park? I couldn't believe it, and it was wonderful to see it there, staffed by supporters of the cause(s) who had BEEN to Camp Casey in Crawford. I gave them money, of course, and Cindy, Goddess bless you and everyone in this epic and historic effort. I always, always think of Martin Luther King Jr.'s words: "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice" (source: wikipedia; from the speech "Where Do We Go from Here?" Aug. 16, 1967). Lest we overlook it, the onset of your own action to initiate these verbalized questions occurred in the same month, 38 years later, that Dr. King spoke out, also in the form of a question.

Don't be afraid to use the big words: Justice, Truth, Love, Democracy, People ... but you're doing just FINE with the words! I heard you on the radio last night during an interview on an Air America affiliate station--a perfect cap at the end of the night to the Detroit-based Camp Casey I saw before the game.

The person at Camp Casey Detroit invited me to come back and just sit and chat, which in and of itself astonished, floored me for its kindness and simplicity, and because I sensed a recuperative power of cultural communication that intrinsically recognizes the value of conversation (I would have been less surprised if I'd been asked for a manual task, for example). That refreshing invitational gesture ranks right up there for me in the Socratic tradition and quest--i.e., that it is in human/e relationship that we find one of the most essential building blocks of a genuine, functioning, healthy and moral democracy.

You know where you are going from here. We know where you are going from here. Let's hope many in the country design a viable direction for all for the future. We'll watch for the buses on their way East! ;)

Many, many prayers.

Sicut erat amor in principio, et nunc, et semper et in saecula, saeculorum

by Scholar on Tue Aug 30th, 2005 at 06:57:46 PDT

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 19 & 20 (Part 1)

2005-09-12T01:35:00.000-04:00

On Friday night, the Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour from Camp Casey Crawford, Texas arrived in Detroit. We at Camp Casey Detroit had planned to greet them with a potluck picnic supper, but those poor folks were too exhausted and stressed out to join us. So we partied ourselves.

At about 8:30 PM, I drove out to meet them at a Coney Island restaurant that was a few exits away from where they should have gotten off the expressway. Our directions had been confusing and they were going through serious group issues, so, at their request, I led them directly over to Day House where we'd arranged for them to spend the weekend.

Once there, the group needed to deal with what was eating at them, so I sat in my minivan and let them hash things out. After about 45 minutes, three of the tour members were ready to have me drive them the three miles over to Camp Casey Detroit.

Fortunately there were still a good number of people there, so our guests were made to feel welcome. In fact, Cody Camacho, who later received a call that, instead of spending the night at Camp Casey Detroit as he'd hoped, he was needed back at Day House, said to me on the drive back, "Your camp feels just like Camp Casey down in Crawford--full of love."

After a couple more trips between Camp Casey Detroit and Day House, Marci Young, a member of the tour, came home with me for the night. We stayed up until 2 AM talking.

By 11:15 AM on Saturday, we were back at Day House where we found Cody working on repairing the door of their mobile home with the help of Tammara Rosenleaf and Morrigan Phillips. I sat around taking pictures and offering moral support, but soon it was time for those who wanted/had the energy to attend the Detroit Area Women In Black vigil at Camp Casey Detroit at noon to make the trip over to Grand Circus Park. Al Zappala, Mike Ferner and Marci decided to join me.

This was my first time at a monthly Women In Black vigil here in Detroit--for years our Raging Grannies' monthly meetings were on the same day as the WIB vigils--so I was surprised to see so many people. I'd bet there were at least 125 in attendance. Marci marched with them while Al and I sat under the trees and talked.

We spoke of the stresses the group has endured in the nine days they've been on the road: the packed schedules of events and rallies in nine cities thus far; their sometimes going to two cities in one day; the counter-demonstrators that have heckled them; the different leadership styles that led to last night's interpersonal challenges; Al's having acted as mediator so that he'd gotten little sleep. When I encouraged him to take time for himself even if it meant not going to every rally and event, he smiled and said, "This is only three weeks out of my life. I want to do all I can. As the only representative of the Gold Star Families For Peace, I need to share my story at every opportunity. I'm retired so I can catch up on my sleep when I get home."

When Al spoke at our Detroit Peace Rally later that afternoon, I learned that his son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, had been killed in Baghdad on April 26, 2004. Sherwood left a 27 year-old widow and a nine year-old son. I was touched by Al's comment that every Gold Star family member knows what number death their loved one was--Sherwood was # 720--but "The Iraqis don't have numbers; this government is so racist it doesn't even count them."

Well, maybe Al can get by on just a few hours sleep, but not I. It's 1:30 AM and I've got to hit the sack. I have more stories to tell and more photos to share. And now that Camp Casey Detroit has closed down, I will have the time to do it.

--posted by Patricia

200 evacuees from New Orleans at Ramada Inn Southfield--They need our help!

2005-09-09T09:24:00.000-04:00

I received this message last night and verified it by calling the Southfield Ramada Inn this morning. It is true. May we help in whatever ways we can...

Patricia

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: September 8, 2005 4:04:20 PM GMT-04:00
Subject: 200 evacuees in Detroit north and need help

Evacuees at the Ramada Inn Southfield

I don't know if you all are aware that there are about 200 evacuees at the Ramada Inn in Southfield ( 9 mile and Lodge Fwy) from New Orleans. They arrived here on Sunday. I just spoke with the hotel manager and they are in need of the following:

- Toothbrushes
- Toothpaste
- Deodorant
- Soap
- Feminine Products
- Other toiletries
- Volunteers: babysitters, doctors, social workers, tutors etc.
- Baby items desperately: cribs, car seats, diapers, baby wipes etc.
- School supplies: pens, pencils, folders, binders
- Individually wrapped snacks: peanut butter crackers, granola bars,
poptarts...
- Women's and Men's underwear & socks

You can take these items directly to the Ramada Inn.

You can get more information about their needs by calling the hotel
248-552-7777

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 18

2005-09-08T23:30:00.000-04:00

At last night's MECAWI (Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice) meeting, it was decided to close down Camp Casey Detroit this Sunday, September 11. The consensus was to go out on a high note, and we're certainly anticipating that this weekend's visit by a busload of folks from the original Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas will provide just that opportunity. Besides, some of our most faithful Camp sitters must return to their jobs as teachers starting on Monday.

But what an accomplishment this has been! To keep a peace encampment going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 21 days in the middle of downtown Detroit has been an exercise in trust, commitment, community organizing and generosity. When I say that, I'm referring to generosity of time, creativity, hard work, food, money and community spirit. For Camp Casey Detroit has been all about community, and not just among us peace activists but among the men and women of our city who stopped to talk with us, shared our food and water, stayed to help us keep the Camp going, distributed our leaflets and petitions around the city, and became our friends.

And at the heart of it all was our shared commitment to bringing our troops home now!

So tomorrow night (Friday) we're inviting everyone to join us at Camp Casey Detroit for a potluck supper starting at 6 PM while we await the arrival of the Camp Casey Crawford busload of Militiary Families For Peace, Gold Star Families (those who have lost loved ones in the war on Iraq), and Veterans For Peace who are touring the country to demand our president Bring the Troops Home Now! Some of them will spend the night camping out with us at Camp Casey Detroit, and those who want a bed/couch, shower and the use of a washing machine will spend the night at our local Catholic Worker house--Day House--on Trumbull.

Saturday's activities will start with a Women In Black silent vigil at Camp Casey Detroit from 12 noon-1 PM, and will culminate in a massive peace rally at 3 PM sponsored by a coalition of Detroit peace groups and held in front of Camp Casey Detroit in Grand Circus Park (Woodward & Adams). At this rally we'll hear from our honored guests from Camp Casey Crawford. We're hoping to have a large turnout of folks from the Metro Detroit area, Ann Arbor and Windsor, Ontario.

Whoever chooses to will spend Saturday night at Camp Casey Detroit, and on Sunday our guests from Camp Casey Crawford will attend and speak at the 10 AM service at Central United Methodist Church across the street from our camp. On Sunday afternoon, they will get back on their bus and continue their cross-country journey toward Washington, DC and the huge Bring Our Troops Home Now! mobilization on September 24-26. Then we will strike Camp Casey Detroit and go home to our families who hardly know what we look like anymore.

As you can imagine, those of us who have spent a lot of time at Camp Casey Detroit over the past three weeks have mixed feelings about closing down the camp. On the one hand, it will be good to have the time and energy available for our pre-Camp lives, but on the other, we are going to miss one another and being part of such a tangible enactment of what we believe. I'm already feeling waves of loss wash over me every time I think of waking up Monday morning, knowing I won't be going down to the camp.

But we intend to keep the Camp Casey Detroit blog up and running even after the camp has closed. Hopefully it will provide an online community forum for Detroit area peace folks and others.

posted by Patricia

No More Katrina Help

2005-09-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

Hey MECAWI Fam!! Bad news--even after the Dean of Student said that they would back the group at Wayne State, somehow administration has pulled out and decided not to support our cause to let us set up shop to gather donations for survivors of Katrina. Currently, Britni is seeking new sources in her pursuit. I'll update you guys when I found out more. Later!!

Violeta

MECAWI--The Rally and Katrina Pt. 1

2005-09-08T00:10:00.000-04:00

"This group is for those who are willing to meet with me at a designated location in hopes of helping me gather and ship donations to the citizens who have been affected by the devastating hurricane Katrina! They are suffering severely and need all the help and support they can receive! Please only join this group if you are willing to dedicate your time in helping me bring relief to the people who are affected by this horrific disaster!"--Britni Wilson

These are the compelling words of Britni Wilson, a junior with concentration in Communication, of Wayne State University. Britni has formed an online group, via an online college networking site--The Facebook, in order to help those who are not just victims, but SURVIVORS, of this natural/national disaster. Anybody who knows anything about The Facebook knows that students are in all types of relevant and irrelevant groups from their universities just because but this group is different. Britni is actually hoping to form a community with the members outside of the cyber world and get together with her fellow Wayne State Students to support our brothers and sisters who were hit by Katrina. She has been working with Dean Strauss, the Dean of Students @ WSU, in this process. Consequently, Dean Strauss sent out a mass e-mail to all WSU Students and affiliates. Here is the e-mail:

***CLOTHES AND HYGIENE PRODUCTS COLLECTION FOR STUDENTS FROM
GULF COAST UNIVERSITIES ENROLLING AT WSU

Wayne State University has opened its doors to students who
were displaced from their Gulf Coast universities. Many of
these students had to leave the area immediately and had to
leave all their belongings behind. The Office of Admissions
is assisting these students with their enrollment at WSU and
the Office of Housing and Residential Life is assisting them
with housing. The Office of Marketing and Publications is
coordinating a clothing and personal hygiene supplies drive
for these students. If you would like to donate clothes,
hygiene, and school supply products, you can drop them off
at the Dean of Students Office in Room 341 Student Center
between 8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. and these supplies will be
delivered to the Marketing and Publications Office. You can
also drop supplies off directly in Room 3100 AAB. A new
student organization, Students For Hurricane Relief, will be
assisting with the collection and delivery.

***KAPPA DELTA SORORITY TOY DRIVE FOR HURRICANE VICTIMS

On Friday, September 16, the Kappa Delta Sorority will be
conducting a Toy Drive for those affected by Hurricane
Katrina. Toys can be dropped off to the Student Center
Ballroom between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Friday,
September 16.

***WAYNE STATE DONATIONS WEBSITE

Anyone interested in donating funds to assist WSU students
affected by Hurricane Katrina can do so at:

http://cwis-1.wayne.edu/katrina_aid/donor_form.php

All details regarding the Wayne State response to Hurricane
Katrina and services available can be found at:

http://cwis-1.wayne.edu/katrina_aid/

Many thanks to everyone. More details will continue to come.

Thank you.

David J. Strauss, Ph.D.
Dean of Students
Wayne State University
351 Student Center
5221 Gullen Mall
Detroit, MI 48202
313-577-1010

--For more information, I can be contacted at ap3136@yahoo.com. Britni can be contacted at britniw618@yahoo.com.

I'm out of here MECAWI/Camp Casey Fam! I'll try to have details by Saturday so we can get community support, as well. See you all this weekend! Bye!!
--Violeta

PS: NEEDED ITEMS:

Clothes, School Supplies, Hygiene Products, Food (non-parishible)

Clarification on specific items and to whom to make checks should be known some time tomorrow as Britni would have spoken to Dr.Strauss about the specifics by then. I'll update as soon as I am informed.

reflections at the end of Day 17 at Camp Casey Detroit

2005-09-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

If I may speak personally, these are amazing times for me. Never before have I felt so inspired, energized and committed to my work for peace. What is happening at Camp Casey Detroit is exactly what needs to happen, especially during these times of such a painful, tragic and inexcusable breakdown in the social fabric of my country.

New Orleans has shown that what we thought we had in this so-called "land of opportunity"--a safety net to catch us when we fall--was just an illusion. If there IS any net, it is only for the privileged among us. For those who are poor, black, young, old, infirm and/or without the resources to fend for themselves, life in these United States is a risk at best, a disaster at worst. Your government cares nothing about you, and, in fact, makes decisions every day that threaten your very lives.

Many of us had suspected this before, but now we know it is true.

So what do we do about it? We ask the hard questions publicly, we don't let them get off with their callously superficial answers, and we organize ourselves in such a way that coalitions are formed and movements are strengthened. No longer can we go off on our separate tangents. No longer do we have the time to waste bickering over the small stuff that divides us.

Now it is time to come together and say, NO to corporate control of our politicians, NO to our tax dollars going to war rather than to our society's very real needs, NO to our children being sent to fight, kill and die in countries that are no threat to us, NO to governmental leaders who curry favor with their rich campaign donors by allowing them to despoil the earth, divert the waters, destroy the wetlands, pollute the air, deforest our wilderness areas, choose oil over our safety and the safety of the countless species of life with whom we share this planet.

And it is time to say YES to creating the world we want, YES to respecting our wondrous diversity and calling forth everyone's gifts not just those who entertain us or play sports or find fame under some spotlight or other. We must say YES to community, to creativity, to critical thinking, to organizing for change, to looking for answers outside the box.

We cannot waste our precious time whining, complaining, blaming, or denying the truth of what is happening. NOW is the time, my sisters and brothers, and, as the song says, "We are the ones we've been waiting for."

For us at Camp Casey Detroit, we've seen what it feels like to come together as one people and stand our ground...literally. What we have found for the past 17 days and nights on that street corner in the middle of Detroit is a reason to get up in the morning, to stay informed and aware, to organize, strategize, create new options, form deep and lasting bonds with all kinds of people, and to simply keep on keepin' on no matter what they do in Washington, DC or anyplace else when human rights and needs are ignored.

Yes, WE are the ones we've been waiting for. And how grateful I am to be a small part of it all.

--posted by Patricia

Defacing The Police Officer's City

2005-09-07T14:29:00.000-04:00

The Labor Day Parade was an event charged with an assertion that the working class citizens have the power to control big corporate concessions and unfair labor practices when they unite. But they must begin to act on one accord, for one purpose, and for one cause to achieve this.

Before the Labor Day Parade, Police officers have driven by Camp Casey, day in and day out without a word. In fact, some have come to the table to tell us that they appreciate what we were doing. I have counted at least 100 patrol cars that have driven past the site as if it were a fixture of freedom of speech and the right to dissent against a form of government that have become destructive to the point that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government. (Words taken from "The Declaration of Independence"!

After the parade, a police officer descended on Camp Casey Detroit telling the members to take down the sign draped between two trees (for 2 weeks) and the crosses that represent our fallen soldiers who gave their lives in this illegal, immoral war. "Take it down because it is defacing my city", He snapped.

I have to say that when I heard these words blantantly uttered with his assurance to take them down by the time he comes back, I felt insulted, disgusted and damn angry that this was a right wing political slap that needed a swift left wing response.

It was a insult to Camp Casey Detroit and its tribute to Cindy Sheehan (a mother grieved by her son's death) and our soldiers who have given their lives for this City and this Country. How dare this right wing (black police officer, Yes there are black ones too)dishonor our men and women by referring to the crosses as a defacment to his city. What about my City!

I did not take the crosses down until the officer came back with backup to force us to take the crosses down and the drape between the trees. He was ready to take down Camp Casey Detroit based upon his right wing principles and his dishonor to our troops proved his position on the war. His anger showed his ignorance of the moral issue surrounding sending our children to die in a war that benefits the ruling class fortune 500. He proved to me that certain police officers support brutality and will use the law to their political advantage when they feel that things are moving to the left and gaining momentum in an alarming speed.

As I said, the crosses have been there for 1 1/2 weeks now, but the Labor Day Parade seemed to spark a right wing response that in my opinion defaces the honor we owe our troops and their families who do not agree with the premise of this war.

We had to choose between taking the crosses down or getting arrested and losing Camp Casey Detroit. So, we took them down because of the City Ordinance, but not because we were defacing the Police Officer's City.

In Solidarity,

Andrea H.

DaVindi Designs comes through!

2005-09-07T13:51:00.000-04:00

I would just like to thank Mindi Chamberlain of DaVindi Designs in Dearborn for fixing our website template. Thanks Mindi!!!

Growing

2005-09-07T01:38:00.000-04:00

I saw a heartwarming site an hour or so ago over at CampCasey. I live 2.5 blocks away, and though I couldn't stay the night, dropped by in my neighbor's vehicle to see if anyone there needed anything. Instead of the usual 1-3 people staying overnight, there were 8 people, and I think all (excepting maybe one) would stay over.
The camp is growing, but hopefully will soon no longer be needed. I close my eyes and see in my mind's eye a world where even the most stonehearted politico cries from the misery on the Gulf Coast, and realizes our resources are being ill-spent. Immediately there is a gradual turning over of power in Iraq to the Iraqi people (where only they get the profits from the oil under THEIR sand), and we rebuild the US so no state, county or city looks like a third world country! But then I open my eyes and see part of Bushman's response to the recent devestation in the South is his sending of 7,000 more troops ... to Iraq!

***
Just a thought. UNESCO has built a proposal that it has put forth to every member nation of the UN. It would take 15 years to execute, but would provide for potable drinking water for every person on the planet, and be the single largest public works project ever. The cost? 10 billion dollars. What does it take, 15 or so days for our gov to blow that in Iraq?
If we really wanted to be the strongest nation of Planet Earth, we would build this project!!!!!! Here we could help every single citizen held to the thin, onion-skin-fragile surface of our globe, and not only would we then have more respect and cooperation, we would set a precedent continued by all other nations. But then again, I open my eyes....

***
Hey Hey, Ho Ho! Resident Bush has got to go!

--Posted by Paul R Pearson

Important Message from David Sole

2005-09-07T00:06:00.000-04:00

Bus From Crawford, Texas Coming To Detroit!

Friends-
#1- pot luck dinner at Camp Casey-Detroit Friday, 6PM until bus from Crawford arrives.
#2- rally with Crawford military families, Saturday, Sept 10 at 3 PM- Woodward & Adams.
#3- rally for Justice for victims of Katrina and Bush - Monday, Sept 12, 4:30 PM at the McNamara Federal Building (Michigan Ave. at Cass Ave.).

1. One of the buses with military families who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq and who were with Cindy Sheehan in Crawford throughout August will arrive in Detroit Friday night, Sept. 9. They are part of a tour by 3 buses to different cities speaking out against the war.

The bus is scheduled to come to Camp Casey-Detroit somewhere after 9 PM. Camp Casey-Detroit will be holding a pot-luck dinner starting at 6 PM. Everyone is welcome. Bring a dish, your appetite along with a lawn chair while we dine and await the arrival of our guests. Camp Casey-Detroit (today was Day 16) is on the southwest corner of Woodward and Adams Street in downtown Detroit (diagonally across from Central United Methodist Church).

If you wish to stay overnight at Camp Casey-Detroit, bring a sleeping bag, blanket, etc. and maybe a folding chaise lounge. NO TENTS ALLOWED BY POLICE ORDER.

2. An Ad Hoc Coalition for the Cindy Sheehan Tour (Cindy won't be here in Detroit, though) which includes all major Detroit area anti-war groups is holding a mass rally at 3 PM on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Grand Circus Park (west side of Woodward at Adams St) if the weather is good. Otherwise we will be inside the Central United Methodist Church across the street.

Bring your family, neighbors and friends. Let's give a great welcome to these heroic families, who despite their loss, are speaking loudly against the criminal war in Iraq.

3. Demonstrate as part of a national day of outrage. Solidarity with the victims of Katrina. Protest Bush's policies that further victimizes based on race and class. McNamara Federal Building at 4:30. Called by the Million Worker March and other groups. -- David Sole (313-680-5508)

Labor Day at Camp Casey Detroit--Day 15

2005-09-06T22:21:00.000-04:00

Get down, Get up!
Get out of Iraq!

Not the war machine!
Remember New Orleans!

If we ever thought we were in the minority in voicing our call to "Bring the troops home NOW!", yesterday's massive (47,000 people) Labor Day Parade here in Detroit showed us otherwise. We, my friends, are now in the majority!

The response we 100 peace activists received from those 47,000 union members, their families, City Council candidates and high school marching bands made it crystal clear that the people say NO to this war on Iraq, they want their sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers home NOW, and are appalled that our nation was so ill-equiped in the face of Katrina's devastation in New Orleans and the Gulf States.

Whenever a delegation of marchers would first see our signs and banners, hear our chants and receive our flyers, they would raise their fists in agreement, wave their arms, give us the thumbs up, nod their heads, shout "YES!", flash us the peace sign, join their voices to ours in the chants, and invariably take the "No War" sign we offered and carry it proudly for the rest of the parade. The response was 100% against the war!

And these were the workers, folks who make up what is called Middle America.

Yes, there has been a major shift in public opinion and we here in Detroit saw it yesterday. So, watch out Washington! We have had enough of your aggression, arrogance, greed and lack of care or concern about us, the people. These people, the ones you choose to dismiss as unimportant, are coming together in ways you cannot imagine, and we are gaining momentum and confidence day by day. There is NO stopping us now!

September 24th in Washington, DC, you will see evidence of this grassroots resistance to your policies and wars. We will take over your city and there will be NO ignoring us then! Just wait and see...

So yesterday, Labor Day in Detroit, marked a new moment in the building of a People's Movement, and we at Camp Casey Detroit helped ignite the flames by our 15 days of 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week commitment to saying NO TO WAR with our time, energy, minds, hearts and bodies.

And after holding our signs and banners for the hour and a half it took for the Labor Day Parade to pass our block there in Grand Circus Park, about 30 of us carried our message down to Hart Plaza where the Detroit Jazz Festival was starting for the day. The police wouldn't let us onto the Plaza, so we marched in a circle on the Jefferson Avenue sidewalk with our signs and banners. What I will remember about that vigil were the two young boys who joined us and started the chant, "Money for Schools, Not for War!"

Yes, we Americans are finally catching on!

--posted by Patricia

Sunday September 4th-Camp Casey Flooded by Angel-Headed Hipsters

2005-09-06T18:47:00.000-04:00

Camp Casey is different because it is a place where folks of all stripes converge to voice their anger, rage, fear, disgust and hope. So many new faces, so much good energy, even Detroit's Fire Chief stopped by for a friendly, supportive chat. We have good times, us campers, getting to know one another, getting to know why we're here, and listening, without judgment, because we are so grateful to be in a place where others share our sentiments. By virtue of sports logic, the jury is in and George, Teflon II, Bush had struck out on at least three accounts in this year alone. For the worldly, Iraq is a catastrophe (strike one). By the administration's own admission, the New Orleans rescue was a shocking display of Federal ineptitude (strike two), and even for the most selfish, myopic xenophobes who couldn't give a flying banana about the world outside of the confines of their SUV saturated gated communities, gas prices alone should indict g.w. and posse as war criminals par excellence. What other recourse have we but to take to the streets, I ask you?

Lately, I have been having fun putting the "camp" in Camp Casey. My green bandana alerts others to my clear intent for a serious late summer camping adventure. Take this Sunday evening, at 5:00. I rolled up on my Green Schwinn complete with a backpack the size of an apache helicopter, ready for a night in Detroit's urban prairie. Armed with paint, T-shirts and my trusty Hoehner harmonica, fellow campers and I made "Camp Casey" camp counselor T-Shirts, cranked out a ballad about our bravery, made signs and chewed the fat until the wee hours of the morning. At the evenings zenith around midnight we were 25 strong. The 7 or so remaining brave souls awoke to Anne taunting my roommate over her preference for mustard sandwiches in the morning. It was a glorious night, the weather was fine and we were all looking forward to the Labor Day march at 10PM.

Keep on Detroit. Creative organizing is the only thing that will keep our movement alive!! Organize without borders! More camping projects to be announced. Dilute Dilute ok!! J.-Faithfully yours,

Rosie, (arts and crafts instructor), Camp Casey Detroit.

labor day rally

2005-09-06T12:59:00.000-04:00

September 5, 2005
I had a great time with the wonderful people of Camp Casey Detroit. Excited to see the numbers of unionists supporting our cause against the war the idea that money is better spent on the city of New Orleans and all the people who have lost so much.

I especially enjoyed leading some of the chants and helping Virginia keep the chants going.

Marty

New Orleanian addresses Camp Casey Detroit

2005-09-06T12:44:00.000-04:00

September 5, 2005,
Social change activist Marty Rowland of New Orleans left New Orleans about 16 hours ahead of Katrina and came to Detroit to be with familiy. He remains in contact with other activists doing work with Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, but now based out of Bato Rouge and soon Covington, Louisiana. Speaking as a member of C3-concern, community, compassion, the New Orleans-based social change group, Marty situated the struggle against the US wars of aggression with the challenge to restore social order then rebuild New Orleans. The political dust has yet to settle, but it is abundantly clear that Bush, like Kanye West says, doesn't care about black people. Whatever shortcomings are found about State and local leaders, there cannot be any excuse for the incompetent FEMA director Brown.

The anti-war movement must link the war and Katrina for a winning strategy.

In fact, New Orleans and Detroit should be now be linked as sister cities so as to provide labor for the retooling of Detroit away from autos toward national infrastructure projects.

From Bob of Veterans For Peace

2005-09-06T11:19:00.000-04:00

Right after Camp Casey - Detroit was set up, I received a call from fellow Veterans For Peace (VFP) member Jim Grimm asking me if some of our VFP Chapter's Arlington Midwest display (one cross, Star of David, or other appropriate symbol for every soldier killed in Iraq) could be taken to downtown Detroit. Feeling this was very important to do, I grabbed 56 of the crosses (one for every Michigan soldier killed in Iraq) and headed for Grand Circus Park.

Arriving at Camp Casey, it was so nice to be together with dedicated people that were working for change. At this same time, other things were on my mind.

For one, I was really, really wishing that I had no crosses to bring over. I was wishing that these 56 people from Michigan were all home, with their families and friends enjoying a summer day.

Another thing that bothered me was looking up around Grand Circus Park and seeing the decaying state of many of the buildings. Detroit is still a shell of what it used to be, but instead of money being spent to revitalize urban areas (though mass transit systems, redevelopment aide, human services, etc.), funds were being spent on this awful, unneeded war in Iraq.

My big hope, however, is that people will really start to see that what the reality of war is, that it is the names and faces behind those 56 crosses and when the sabre-rattling starts on some new conflict in the coming years, people will say "no more."

Bob Krzewinski
Veterans For Peace - Chapter 93
Ypsilanti, MI
wolverbob@cs.com

More on Day 13 at Camp Casey Detroit

2005-09-04T01:33:00.000-04:00

More on Day 13 at Camp Casey Detroit

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Below is the text of the press release sent out yesterday by Camp Casey Detroit on the current situation in New Orleans and the Gulf region. There was a great rally last night at the Camp's new location. We were asked to move by the Assistant Chief of Police on Friday morning because there was a tailgate party for the HBCU game today at Ford Field.

Members of the Camp like the new location better. There is more visibility and a larger space to operate from. People on the street in downtown Detroit were fighting mad about the humanitarian disaster in New Orleans and the Gulf states. This action on Friday provided an outlet for people to express their outrage at the failure of the federal government to act effectively in resolving this crisis.

Local officials in New Orleans are saying that 10,000 are feared dead. On Saturday's "Fighting For Justice" program on AM 1200 our guest, who was in New Orleans providing a first hand account of the ongoing crisis, briefed us on the current situation. Apparently relief work is operating at a snail's pace. According to our guest Malik, "you can drive by and see the water stacked up at the fire station but it is not being passed out to the people."

There is a dusk to dawn curfew in the city and the authorities are enforcing a shoot-to-kill order from Governor Kathleen Blanco.

For Immediate Release

Friday, September 2, 2005
Press Statement

Event: Camp Casey Detroit Condemns Lack of Relief in the Gulf
Gather Friday at 5:00 p.m., Woodward at Adams
Contact: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
http://www.mecawi.org
http://www.campcaseydetroit.blogspot.com
Tel. (313) 680-5508

Lack of Planning and Massive War Spending Creates
Humanitarian Disaster in New Orleans, Gulf States

There is an enormous humanitarian disaster in the city of New
Orleans where thousands of refugees are suffering immensely
from the almost total absence of relief from the federal
government. While people die from the lack of health care,
water, food and the spread of infectious diseases, the Bush
administration has demonstrated its total inability to
respond to a crisis.

In fact for several years scientists have warned that there
was a pressing need for investment in New Orleans and in the
Gulf region to prevent such a disaster when a hurricane would
strike. Yet the Bush administration, with Congressional
approval, made massive cuts to such projects last year in
order to take billions of taxpayer dollars to finance the
occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Other enormous tax cuts
were given to the rich over the last four years while urban
areas in the United States have become virtually uninhabitable.

The response to this crisis in New Orleans has been
draconian. Governor Kathleen Blanco has ordered police to
halt disaster relief and to patrol the streets with "shoot-to-
kill-orders" directed at poor and destitute people who are
seeking water, food, clothing and assistance for the sick and
dying. Local authorities in New Orleans are predicting
thousands of deaths as a result of the neglect from the
Federal Emergency Manangement Agency (FEMA). Bush in
response to offers of international assistance stated
Thursday on ABC News that America was capable of handling the
crisis. However, the people in the streets of New Orleans,
who are largely African-American, are calling for immediate
help.

This crisis illustrates the dramatic decline of American
infrastructure and organizaitonal capacity. The myth of the
United States as a technologically advanced nation capable of
solving societal problems is evaporating. This is why Camp
Casey Detroit has raised the slogan: "Money for Our Cities,
Not for War."

We are calling on people in the Detroit area to join us
tonight after 5:00 p.m. at Camp Casey Detroit, located at
Woodward and Adams downtown, for a gathering to reaffirm
our commitment to end the war in Iraq and to bring the troops
home now. Please come out and bring food, water and other
forms of support to the people who have sustained the Camp
for 12 days.

In addition, we are still mobilizing people for the historic
September 24 demonstration in Washington, D.C. For more
information contact MECAWI which has buses going to the march
outside the White House.

Saturday night at Camp Casey Detroit--Day 13

2005-09-04T00:07:00.000-04:00

I'd been to the Detroit International Jazz Festival all day but wanted (needed?) to stop by to see my camp buddies before going home. Andrea Hackett and her daughter Syria were there with Abayomi, David Sole, Charles Brown, Derek, Willie and a guitar player named Chuck. David said, "You know, you're attached by a rubber band to this place--you can't get too far away without bouncing back." He is SO right. Once Camp Casey Detroit gets under your skin, you're hooked. I've only stayed away one full day since I first started coming to the camp on Day 3. What can I say? These people are family now...

--posted by Patricia

Camp Casey Detroit in the news

2005-09-03T10:43:00.000-04:00

1. Photographer/reporter Kathleen Gallagher of the Detroit Free Press visited Camp Casey Detroit for over an hour on Wednesday, and in Thursday's paper, there were two photos of our camp with informative captions published in the Local section. Unfortunately the photos weren't in the Free Press online edition, so there's no link.

2. Thanks to David Sole, Worker's World published Patricia's August 24th Camp Casey Detroit blog entry that they titled "It's the women who will stop this war!". You can read it online at http://www.workers.org/2005/us/camp-casey-detroit-0908/

3. Today Patricia submitted a posting to the Local Interest newswire on Michigan Indy Media titled, "Camp Casey Detroit--Day 12." You can read it by clicking on http://michiganimc.org/newswire/display/11630/index.php

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 12

2005-09-03T08:26:00.000-04:00

I know I said I wasn't going to post here this weekend because of the Jazz Fest, but that was before I'd heard about the Rally/Speak Out in solidarity with the suffering poor in New Orleans that our sisters and brothers in the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization were planning to hold at Camp Casey Detroit yesterday (Friday) afternoon. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Photo #2 says it all. When you're already marginalized by your government, you connect the dots quicker than those for whom the system works.

Photo #3 (by Jim West) shows how the poor in Detroit understand all too well why there are still folks in New Orleans who haven't been rescued, and why they're being ordered to shoot "looters" who are simply trying to get food and water for their families.

Photo #4 (by Jim West) shows that even the children get it. Of course, it's THEIR planet that's being trashed. But, according to the President, global warming is still an unproven theory, and protecting wetlands and repairing levees is less important than paying back your political donors and proving yourself to your Daddy by re-waging the war you think he didn't finish.

Photo #4 shows just one more reason why Detroit is a place where lies don't fool anyone. It's community leaders like Maureen Taylor who sees it like it is, says it like she sees it, and acts on her convictions. NOBODY fools this woman!

But it's TOGETHER that we'll make the changes we know need to be made. That's why we're encouraging folks to come down to Camp Casey Detroit any time day or night and let's sit down and strategize. Also join Marion, Maureen and the others at an action planning meeting on Labor Day Monday at 5:30 PM at Hannan House, 4750 Woodward Avenue, near Wayne State University. And don't forget to come down to Camp Casey Detroit at 10 AM sharp on Monday to hold signs and banners as the Labor Day parade marches past. Let our voices be HEARD!

--Patricia

Administrative Note

2005-09-03T01:21:00.000-04:00

I have removed several comments that were unrelated to our blog and to all appearances were automated advertising, the cat furniture one being a prime example.

To prevent this in the future I have also turned on the post verification system that requires the extra step of typing in a graphically presented word. If this proves to be a problem, please let me know.

Kelly Logan
kellylogan4peace * yahoo DOT com

confessions of a jazz freak

2005-09-02T12:36:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to let my sisters and brothers know that I'll be an infrequent visitor at Camp Casey Detroit this weekend, and will probably not be posting any photos or entries on this blog until after Monday. I'm sure the jazz-lovers understand!

As a jazz freak for 49 of my 63 years on this planet, I try not to miss a minute of Detroit's free International Jazz Festival every Labor Day weekend. So I'll see you for a couple of hours at the camp this afternoon (Friday), but to see me after that just walk down Woodward to Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza, and I'll be there!

Hope you'll keep posting photos and journal entries in my absence so I can keep up with your good work. See you Tuesday afternoon...

--Patricia

Katrina/Summer Street Fest

2005-09-02T10:44:00.000-04:00

Hey you guys!! Sorry, I havent been down there in a while. Ive been busy and tired from trying to get situated with school and the second job that I just got. I just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be down there pretty soon and I'm going to be bringing food and stuff to the camp. Is it anything that anyone wants in particular? Also, I'm trying to get involved with the hurricane relief, too. I missed the meeting on Wednesday. Did we have a plan for contributing to that? What's crazy though is that I went down to Red Cross to help volunteer b/c I'm on their e-mail list through WSU Red Cross Organization and they requested WSU volunteers. I went there and they turned me away! I was trying to volunteer on the phone lines, but they said since I've never volunteered there before I had to go through some training sessions, but I really think they could have simply gone over really quickly what to do on the multi-line telephones (which I have used before) for about 5 or ten minutes and have that'd be it. But I'm just going to try to get into the training sessions b/c I know they'll need volunteers for quite a while.

Also, this Sunday from 3pm-7pm is the Summer Street Fest around Comerica Park, Ford Field and just all over the area (i believe), so I just wanted to let you guys know that maybe a big crowd will probably be around all day Sunday. K, gotta get ready for work. Talk to you guys later!!

Violeta

PS: Is it just me or does it seem like we could have had more military help down south with the hurricane if all of our troops weren't in Iraq. This is what I was talking about, we went over there to try to "help" these people as Bush claims, and now he can't even help his own. This is definitely one of the reasons why they need to bring our troops home. Our government is trying to "rebuild Iraqi cities", and now look what's happened. We have to worry about rebuilding ours. This government is ridiculous.

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 11

2005-09-02T00:58:00.000-04:00

Some people are questioning why we would continue to hold vigil against the war in Iraq at Camp Casey Detroit while there is such an immediate disaster to respond to in our own country. We've even been instructed to get ourselves down to New Orleans if we want to do something worthwhile.

First of all, I can't see how our presence in a city that has been ordered to be evacuated would be of help to anyone. And secondly, I believe that the presidential decision to wage a war based on lies, to divert 204 billion dollars so far (not counting an additional 45 billion dollars which is currently pending before Congress) from use at home to destroy a country that was of no threat to us, to send some 7,000 soldiers from the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard (40% of Mississippi's and 35% of Louisiana's regular Guard strength) to fight that war thousands of miles from their home states where they are now sorely needed, makes stopping the war against Iraq and bringing those troops home now more crucial than ever.

And so we here at Camp Casey Detroit continue to vigil, to be a public witness to the futility and true costs of war, to dialogue with those who see things differently, to stay on our little corner of the planet 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Today was Day 11.

Every day we welcome new faces to our camp. Today it was Ron and Sigrid Dale, long-time peace and anti-nuclear activists here in the Detroit area, Becky, a military spouse who often stands vigil at 9 Mile and Woodward on Monday afternoons with a group of dedicated peace activists, Marc Anthony who lives in the neighborhood and agrees totally with our call to bring the troops home now, and Kevin, a union organizer who is hard at work with the NWA mechanics in their strike against Northwest Airlines.

And these were just the new faces I saw during my three short hours at the camp this afternoon.

But Camp Casey Detroit is thriving after 11 days because of stalwarts like Derek, who has spent more nights at Camp Casey Detroit than just about anyone except perhaps Willie (with Jessica right up there too), and Abayomi, who has done the day shift from 9:30-4:30 PM every day since we opened on August 22, usually returning around 8 PM for a few more hours, and Pat Lent who takes a bus from her home close to 12 Mile Road down to Grand Circus Park just about every day so she can spend at least 4-6 hours helping us out.

There are many more individuals without whom Camp Casey Detroit would not exist, but these were the ones I saw today.

So I invite those individuals who see our peace encampment as irrelevant during these times of national crisis to please look at the larger picture and ask yourself, "Would New Orleans be in the terrible state it's in today if our national priority had not been the war against Iraq?" As a help in analyzing this question, I offer a few links to articles/columns I've found to be helpful:

"Iraq Mess Adds To the Problem" by Juan Gonzales
"Iraq War Costs Now Exceed Vietnam's" by Jim Lobe
"Why New Orleans is in Deep Water" by Molly Ivins
"Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?" by Will Bunch

--Patricia

The Community Outpost

2005-09-01T16:22:00.000-04:00

Camp Casey Detroit is a beacon of light on the corner of Woodward and Grand Circus Park that lights the way for those who have a need to connect with peace, democracy and justice. Since 911, the direction of this nation led immediately towards war and aggression. Two political views emerged since that time and the country has been split between pro war and no war ever since.

At Camp Casey Detroit, there have been many very interesting political conversations that seem to be the dialogue that has been eliminated from the mainstream media purposely, no doubt. This dialogue is no doubt important to the community who constantly come to talk with us about the state of affairs within the country and abroad.

On one hand, the majority of people who stop by to sign petitions and pick up literature, have been very supportive, bringing food and water when needed. Camp Casey has never run out of food and water because this portion of community friends sustain the needs of those who keep the vigil at the camp 24 hours a day. They have given their time and many donations even when they could not stop to chat. Bus drivers, taxis, cars and trucks have honked in solidarity and police officers have respected the right to peacefully assemble. There has been an outpouring of love and respect felt from the community since the camp was established. Having been part of the vigil at Camp Casey, I can tell you that it does not matter concerning one's status or class. All take the opportunity to demonstrate what they think America should represent when they lend support in solidarity.

On the other hand, we have experienced some anger and hostility by those of the community who see us as quoted by the president as "making this country weak". No doubt, his comments have increased hostilities towards our cause. They seem to feel that we are not entitled to dissent on issues surrounding the war in Iraq which is, in fact, our inalienable right under the U.S. Constitution.

Many have walked up to the table in a courteous manner only to engage us in a hot debate to which they walk off with anger and dissent shaking their heads. One man walked by and said," You should be ashamed of yourselves." but, he did not stick around to explain himself as most of them either walk by with negative comments or drive by in enough time to shout their dissent while driving on.

There was one man who came up to the table after the ball game in which we clearly recognized his intoxication after the team lost. He asked one of the vigil members why we refuse to serve our country. I can tell you that many of the vigil members are political scholars if not well informed and educated activists on world affairs. When they answered him he did not hear nor was he listening. When he was asked why, if he supports the war in Iraq, was he was not in Iraq instead of the ball game, he was given to profanity and carted off by his friends to which the members understood that this is the voice of the community uncensored.

Camp Casey Detroit continues to hold the outpost vigil that enlightens the community on political events and is creating the long lost dialogue of the community, good, bad and indifferent. If you listen carefully, you can hear the winds of change.

In solidarity,

Andrea Hackett

Jessie's night at Camp casey Detroit

2005-09-01T15:31:00.000-04:00

Erika and I were on our way to Canada for the weekend, but first we wanted to check out Detroit. I immediatley parked the jeep at the first parking lot that we saw, because I was so sick of driving. Plus we both knew that the best way to explore a city is to walk. So we made our way down the street and one of the first things we saw was a group of people standing around a statue. We walked up to the table and a guy said "Hi, Im Anti-war" and we both said "So are we". Dave told us that they were going to be there all day and all night to protest the war. Everyone was so nice and they made us feel at home right away, so we stayed with them all night. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. We met so many different people but we all shared one thing in common, we all feel that this war needs to end. No more kids should die in Iraq, no more Iraqis should die, the troops should come home now.

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 10

2005-09-01T02:38:00.000-04:00

I never knew being a peacemaker could be so much fun! Not only are we standing witness to the need to Bring Our Troops Home Now, but each day is filled with moments of unexpected wonder and delight. Today especially.

In the early afternoon, Kathleen Gallagher, a well-respected journalist at the Detroit Free Press, came down to Camp Casey Detroit and spent over an hour interviewing Abayomi, Pat Lent and Kelly Logan of our camp (Photos #1 & #2). She also photographed and interviewed some visitors to our camp, one of them a mother of two sons fighting in Iraq who stooped to examine the crosses that commemorate the loss of American life that this war is bringing to families like hers. She also photographed and interviewed two Arab-American famililies with young children who stopped to sign our petition to end the war now. She said her article would be published in Thursday's Free Press.

And then today was our long-awaited "Rolling Stones at Camp Casey Detroit Day." In anticipation of the Rolling Stones concert tonight at Comerica Park, we played Stones' CDs on a battery-operated boom box most of the afternoon and evening. Of course, I couldn't stay seated for that and was often up on my feet shaking my bootie, as they say. That was when I wasn't over in front of the ballpark (a short block away) listening to sound checks and dancing there.

By 6:30 PM, an hour before the concert was scheduled to begin, I was in front of Comerica park--standing next to two Raging Grannies, as it turned out--with the same sign I'd taken over to Ford Field for Monday Night Football two days ago. Where the football crowd had had about 8-10 outspoken pro-war folks who'd let me know exactly how they felt, the Rolling Stones crowd was almost 100% against the war...and vocal about it, too. I'd guess I saw or heard 150-200 positive responses to my signs to "Bring the Troops Home Now!" and use "Money For Our Cities Not for War," while only two said something mildly pro-war.

The response I will never forget came when I approached a group of maybe six young men and women in their 20s. When they saw my "Bring the Troops Home Now!" sign, one of the fellows broke into a huge grin, raised both arms high in the air and yelled, "Yes!" The young woman beside him shouted over to me, "He just got home from Iraq!"

If I didn't know before why I do this, I sure do now.

But vigiling for peace wasn't all I planned on doing over by that ballpark tonight; I intended to stand outside and dance just as soon as the Rolling Stones took the stage. By 9:45 PM, they did. WOW! For an original Rolling Stones fan like me, who had never before seen or heard them in person, this was quite a thrill. And it was fun to share it with some of my Camp Casey Detroit sisters and brothers. Norm, Andrea, Abayomi, Ann and I really got down! We found a spot out by Central Field that was open enough so we could hear wonderfully well, and could even see peeks of Mick Jagger's rhinestone belt and tight black t-shirt in the huge video screen across the field. There were lots of people beside us enjoying the concert without having paid a penny--or $63 to $163, which is what the tickets cost--and I personally think we were having more fun than the folks inside the ballpark.

After I'd heard the Stones play "Can't Get No Satisfaction," I was ready to go back to Camp Casey Detroit.

And the camp was hopping too! There must have been a dozen folks there when I returned about 11 PM. By then I was starved, so I went over to the Brown Bean Cafe and ordered a Greek salad-to-go. It was such a beautiful night that many of us stayed around talking until 12:30 AM. (Photos #1, #2, #3 & #4)

As I drove home I kept thinking that for many of us, these Camp Casey Detroit days will be remembered as among the happiest days of our lives. We're family now.

--Patricia

Avalon buns on a gray morning

2005-08-31T12:17:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers: I stopped @ the encampment this morning with a bag full of buns from the Avalon Bakery. Those who stay the night or open this witness in the morning deserve breakfast and I pray that donors will always make sure that appropriate food is available every morning. I speak about buns and a favorite bakery because for me a potent example of life in a city @ peace is a neighborhood bakery where everyone congregates and greets the morning before going on to work and school. Neighborhood small businesses are the engine of any revival that is likely to take hold in this striken, disinvested city. I am astounded by the continuing appeal of the idea that one large project will somehow save us. I've been here 23 years and I have yet to see the promised salvation. It is the little enterprises that give me hope. A city @ peace is full of people finding ways of making a living in small places where people's needs are recognized, satisfied, and love as well as commerce passes between them! salaam/shalom/amahoro Daniel Duane Spyker

Military Families In Favor of Imperial War?

2005-08-31T10:53:00.000-04:00

Just recently the President made the comment that he did not agree with a mother (who lost her son in the Iraq war) and her views. He then pointed towards the fact that other military families don't mind sacrificing their sons and daughters to a war for profit under the disguise of democracy. It leaves one to wonder if these families support imperialism or are they politically naive to the fact that the war policy is premised upon extracting, owning and profiting on the spoils of the war. Which are they? Naive or Neo-cons?

So be it, if these families don't mind that their sons and daughters are being murdered and sacrificed to the War God of Imperialism, while the ruling class powers behind these wars sit in their ivory towers, eating popcorn and watching the blood spill as long as its not their blood or their children.

These counter-protest groups against Cindy Sheehan were organized by the Bush right wing neo fascist communities who call themselves (The Move America Forward Movement) and the (You Don't Speak for Me Cindy Sheehan Camp).

But people who actually use their mind to promote sound reasoning and judgment would have to ask the question, What do they mean by "move America forward?" What are they trying to move America forward to achieve when using this catch phrase? Are they moving America forward to another terrorist attack? Are they moving America forward to fascism? Is America actually moving forward because of the war? Or is it moving progressively backwards into times of aggression, repression, subjugation, fascism and militarism, that was experienced in Germany? Are they moving forward in the hatred and genocide of the people in the Middle East? So, what do they mean, when they say that they are "The Move America Forward Movement" in a caravan to counter attack a woman who has both a right to dissent and a valid question to be answered by the President.

No doubt, the president found himself in a "catch 22" by Cindy Sheehan's convictions, so he quickly consulted with Carl Rove (his brain) to find out how he could counter this very powerful question posed to him by a legitimate source. And so, without empathy and compassion he searched out either blinded or Neocon military families to build an opposition and attack against a grieving mother who has a right to be angry about this illegal, immoral, war that is using children from all races and mostly deprived backgrounds to die the most horrible deaths unnecessarily.

The president is not interested in democracy for the people in Iraq, because democracy means {a form of government that vests its power in the people) like Venezuela or Cuba. This is not the case in Iraq and this is not the case in America. Power is being vesting in the ruling class not the workers and not the average citizens.

The war policy interest is monetary not geared toward social justice or democracy. Therefore, the Iraqi oil market is the key reason why the president is staying and protesting grieving mothers.
And the rise in oil prices are directly connected to our success or failure in Iraq.

Therefore, Camp Casey Detroit is a symbol of freedom and justice for Cindy Sheehan and democracy for the community. The president's answer to Cindy Sheehan is the usual counter maneuver and character attack notorious of the Bush administration when they find themselves in a "Catch 22".

Andrea Hackett

The Problem With This War

2005-08-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

The problem with this war is that there is no accountability for the war crimes being perpetrated upon the people in Iraq.

During the days of the civil rights struggle, the black panther party, and other revolutionary parties, they were labeled and attacked in the same way, but they were fighting for their rights under the U.S. Constitution.

In Iraq people are fighting for their country to prevent it from becoming a nation under the control of the European and American rule of imperialism. Yet, they are killing Iraqis everyday and reporting that they are insurgents as if this validates these criminal acts.

Suppose, the Arab government decided that it should extract George Bush from the Whitehouse because he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and serious abuse of official power and abuse, which is an impeachable offense.

Suppose they were technologically more superior than we were and they invaded this country to formulate a new constitution and a new election for us? Do you think we would just sit back and relax, or would we fight to save our country from invasion?

Suppose they labeled our resistance as insurgency and began bombing anyone and anywhere they felt people were organizing to defend the country. What if 100,000 or more of our people were killed as they bombed (in a shock and awe) the white house, the pentagon, wall street, and George Bush's ranch to either kill or capture the President?

What if Iraqi troops were patrolling the streets everyday with weapons on their hips and armored weaponed vehicles, imposing curfews on everyone in the country while they search every house for suspected insurgents, rounding all the men up and throwing them in our prisons because they were suspected as being either terrorists or insurgents.

This administration has yet to define what an insurgent is and to impose a death sentence, a bombing attack or imprisonment on the civilian population is a crime against humanity, which invalidates the notion that we are in Iraq to establish peace or democracy.

This is why we have established Camp Casey Detroit in protest and in solidarity for peace, justice and democracy, not war, oppression and greed.

Andrea Hackett

Photos from Day 9

2005-08-30T21:05:00.000-04:00

Photo #1 shows Willie, Jessica, Louisa, Abayomi and Kevin sharing a late lunch.

Photo #2 was taken as the afternoon drizzle began. Nothing heavy, but enough that umbrellas were appreciated.

Photo #3 is of our ice cream angels, Stephanie and Joslyn, who brought us six cups of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Love to support peace activists like Ben!

Photo #4 shows Charles Brown, our resident "googler", reading aloud what he'd found online about the two mayors whose statues face one another across Woodward Avenue at Grand Circus Park. Although we're camped under John Maybury, it is clear that Hazen S. Pingree was much more our kind of fellow. Beside Charles is Pete, a Vietnam vet who will be joining us on the bus to the huge Sept. 24 anti-war rally in Washington, DC.

--posted by Patricia

Day Nine at Camp Casey Detroit

2005-08-30T19:40:00.000-04:00

Camp Casey Detroit Day Nine

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Last evening was Monday Night Football in Detroit and Camp Casey Detroit is located just one block from Ford Field. Tens of thousands of people flooded into the area for the game between the Lions and the Rams.

We had a captive audience and it was quite interesting to see what the response was from the professional football crowd. Many people were positive and supportive. Others gave the thumbs-up sign and even gave us a smile along with a donation to sustain the camp.

Patricia went over to the entrance of the stadium holding a two-sided sign saying "Money for our City, Not for War", and "Bring the Troops Home Now." She reported later that most responses were positive although some shouted
"Get a Job", etc.

Later an accoustic guitarist was brought down by a nice lady who introduced him as a professional musician named Chuck. He jammed for about two hours playing blues and rock tunes. He said that he had toured once with John Lee Hooker, who settled in Detroit in Black Bottom during World War II after coming up from the Delta Mississippi region.

Ron Scott of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality came by and discussed the new police re-organization plan which has been implemented by the city. He attended the press conference held by the Mayor earlier in the day.

On Tuesday we prepared for rain which was in the forcast. This is the third time that we have experienced showers. Saturday was the most challenging when it rained buckets around midday, however, after one hour the sun was coming back out and we continued the Camp activities in full force.

Charles Brown, an attorney and longtime activist, dropped again during his lunch hour and we soon began discussing some recent developments in southern African politics, including the current situations in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

I later mentioned that the US military had bombed a border area in Iraq with Syria and reported killing nearly 50 so-called
"terrorists". Everyone knew that it was more than likely innocent families that were massacred. These developments clearly illustrate the desperation of the Bush administration in response to their losses in occupied Iraq.

Earlier Fran, another attorney who worked with MECAWI in the early days and still supports our activities, dropped by with a delicious banana bread dish as well as hundreds of leaflets describing the Camp and promoting the September 24 anti-war march in Washington, D.C., which MECAWI will be attending along with over 100 people as a delegation from Detroit and Ann Arbor.

The rain started again around 3:45 p.m. We covered our tables with literature and put up our umbrellas. The collective spirit continues.

7:18 PM

US Military Escalates the War by Bombing Civilian Areas

2005-08-30T19:21:00.000-04:00

This is a clear illustration of the desperation of the Bush administration. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of people in the US and the world oppose the war and its escalation, the regime continues to engage in such atrocious hostilities. Such actions will only intensify the resentment of the Iraqi people and the international community against the American government. This is why the peace movement in the US is so vital to show the world that we do not support Bush and his genocidal policies in the Middle-East.

Abayomi Azikiwe
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Dozens killed' in US strikes on Iraq town

Tuesday 30 August 2005 11:22 AM GMT

Al-Qaim has been struck by US air strikes before

At least 47 people have been killed in two US-led air strikes
in the western Iraqi town of Al-Qaim near the Syrian border,
a Qaim hospital official says.

Muhammad al-Aani said 35 people died in one house and another
12 in a strike on a second house.

Earlier, the US military said it had killed an al-Qaida
fighter named Abu Islam and a number of other fighters in air
strikes on Karabila, close to Al-Qaim.

The US military gave no details of the total number of
casualties.

According to the US statement, four bombs were used to
destroy a house occupied by "terrorists" outside Husaybah.

Two more bombs destroyed a second house in Husaybah, occupied
by Abu Islam, the statement added.

"Islam and several other suspected terrorists were killed in
that attack," the statement said, adding that the strikes
began about 6.20am.

The statement said intelligence reports indicated several of
Islam's associates fled his house in Husaybah for the nearby
town of Karabilah.

"Around 8.30am, a strike was conducted on the house in
Karabilah using two precision-guided bombs," the statement
said.

"Several terrorists were killed in the strike but exact
numbers are not known."

Agencies
You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E68CF4D7-7922-4929-
BF9E-5D6D54E4A90F.htm

para los hablantes

2005-08-30T14:13:00.000-04:00

ayer, yo estaba hablando con abayomi y patricia de esta blog...y bromeé que debo escribir en español. estaba sorprendida cuando me dijeron que fue buena idea(la traduccion sigue)

para mi, la experiencia aquí ha sido increíble. acabo de regresar a detroit hace 4 meses. cuando llege, busqué communidad, a gente quien vive libertad, amor, y paz. y lo que he encontrado es mas que podria imaginar.

me importa este campo por tantas razones. tengo un amigo in irak. es buen chico. intelligente, agradable...y realmente, tuvo muchas opciones para mejorar su vida. pero las promesas del dinero para la universidad y una vida fuera de la pobreza de Detroit le sedujeron. al principio, le dijeron que el nunca viera Iraq. y despues, le dijeron que solamente por un tiempo corto.

ahora ha estado alla desde el ano pasado y no sabe cuando puede regresar.

pero hay otras razones que me afectan mas directamente.

en los EEUU, vivemos en una sociedad de miedo. y después de que los ataques del septiembre 11, el gobierno -- y cualquieras otras personas -- han manipulado esto a sus propios diseños.

por lo tanto, conentramos tan fijo en nuestro miedo que perdemos de vista nuestra libertad. es casi innecesario o indesable.

que mundo es? porque hay dicotomia entre la libertad y la seguridad? y quién ha erigido esta división? quién se beneficia de esta división? no es la gente de los EEUU.

Estamos perdiendo nuestros derechos civiles y humanos. Pronto, viveremos en un estado facist, si no tenemos cuidado. la unica manera en la que podemos mantener nuestros derechos es utilizarlos.

como me dijo jennifer "si no utilzas tus derechos, los vas a perder."

esta manifestación de nuestra disensión es importante. porque pronto no tendremos el derecho de discrepar público con el gobierno. ya el policía nos ha molestado por razones triviales. las encuestas demuestran que la mayoría de los ciudadanos de este país discrepa con esta guerra. si no hablamos, nuestra voz será silenciada.

ahorita, tengo que ir. i can do a full translation later.

but basically i said

being at camp casey has really furnished a sense of community that i found missing when i first moved back to detroit.

i also said...most americans disagree with this war...the only way that disagreement can become more than just our being disgruntled is to speak up. as jennifer said, the quickest and easiest way to lose our rights is not to use them. if we don't speak up, our voice will soon be silenced. because this focus on fear has left us losing sight of our freedom to the point where it almost becomes superfluous or even undesirable. and consequently, we've already lost some of our very basic freedoms.

also, i talked about how my friend who currently is in iraq never thought he would be there when he signed up for the army...but there he is.

ok peace & love,
isis

Erika's night at Camp Casey

2005-08-30T11:54:00.000-04:00

My best friend Jessie and I decided to take a trip this summer to Detroit and Windsor. We didn't know anything about Camp Casey Detroit, but looking back on it, it's almost as if we were meant to stay there. When we finally made it to Detroit all we wanted to do was get out of the car, walk around, and explore the city. We noticed Camp Casey and stopped. Immediately everyone was friendly and we were getting to know people. We were invited to come back later for pizza and to demonstrate with them.

A little later we walked around the city a bit more and decided we wanted to spend the night at the camp. We completely disagree with George Bush, his lies, and the war. How could we not be part of this demonstration?

The most surprising thing about our stay was how safe we felt and the trust everyone had with each other. Sleeping on the sidewalk wasn't as scary as we thought it would be. The trust everyone had was also amazing. Patricia gave us a ride back to our vehicle after knowing us less than an hour and Paul opened his home up to protestors for bathroom visits. People pulled together in such a way I don't know how to explain it.

I am very glad we found Camp Casey and I wish you all luck with continuing the camp until the 24th. Patricia said we would experience the real Detroit and I really think we did.

Erika

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 8

2005-08-29T23:58:00.000-04:00

It was a lovely sunny warm day down at Camp Casey Detroit. Paul Pearson took the opportunity to catch some rays, while Norm Clark covered himself in sunblock. The more time we spend together, the more we see our uniqueness. Each and every one of us wants to bring the troops home now, but beyond that we have our individual ways of looking at things. That makes our conversations--of which we have plenty--all the more interesting.

When I arrived about 2:30 PM, Abayomi Azikiwe, Pat Lent, Charles Brown, Norm Clark, Paul and Willie were there. While we sat and ate the sandwiches I'd brought, we shared stories of how and when we'd become politically aware and active.

For Abayomi, it started back when he was a child in Tennessee. His parents were active in the Civil Rights movement and frequently hosted meetings at their home. Abayomi said that students and activists from the north often stayed at their house. The family moved up to Detroit when Abayomi was ten, the year after Detroit's rebellion in 1967. He said his parents became active in the city's struggles right from the beginning. And although Abayomi's university degrees were in education and political science, soon after graduating he found himself working as a journalist and editor for a number of politically-aware organizations and newspapers. In the 1980s, he gravitated to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and made three trips there during the height of the oppression. He's been connected with Wayne State University for 17 years, teaches in the Urban Studies department there, and has published the Pan-African News Wire for many years, first in hard copy and lately, online. He has spent at least 8 hours a day at Camp Casey Detroit since it opened a week ago. He has also composed and sent out all our news releases.

So that gives you an idea of who sits at our tables in Grand Circus Park! And each person has a story to tell, with surprising twists that most of us have never heard before. How I value this time of being able to hang out together with no deadlines, no distractions, no agendas. After years of demonstrating, marching, organizing and meeting together, never before have we had the time to simply sit and shoot the breeze (photos #1, #2, #3, & #4). Such a gift.

Another gift was the fact that Monday Night Football was being televised from Detroit's Ford Field tonight. Not that I give a darn about football, but it meant that 50,000 fans would be coming down to our neighborhood, some of whom would be walking by Camp Casey Detroit on their way to the stadium. But I decided to take it a step further and scoot the three blocks over to Ford Field myself with a MECAWI sign that said, "Bring the Troops Home Now!" on one side, and "Money For Our Cities, Not War" on the other.

What an interesting experience! There were thousands of people milling around out front, drinking at the outdoor bar at the corner, and lots more waiting in long lines to get into the stadium. So I just scooted up and down the street beside the stadium over and over, holding my sign high in the air. The response was mixed, but I'd say it was at least 6-1 in favor of my signs and against the war. In addition to lots of thumbs up, peace signs, nods and "You're right on!" type of comments, I also heard at least three voices call out, "Get a job!", one say, "You should be ashamed of yourself. Why don't you go to Russia?," and another say, "Go to Texas!" My favorite was a disembodied voice saying, "Is she Cindy Sheehan?"

When I got back to Camp Casey Detroit, it was about 8:30 PM and getting dark. But there were still about ten people hanging around talking. It is definitely THE place to be in Detroit!

--Patricia Lay-Dorsey

a thought on defense

2005-08-29T20:46:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers: I have always been curious of the fact that our general culture seems to think that freedom can only be defended by armed violence. It seems to me that armed violence is the worst possible way of defending a free society. Daniel Duane Spyker

Retraction to Detroit Free Press Coverage

2005-08-29T17:07:00.000-04:00

It turns out that Ms. Shine did in fact ask about the statue, and based her statement on our reply that it wasn't relevant to our cause. Egg on my face, but egg I'll gladly accept for the new knowledge it spurred me to obtain on former Mayors Pingree and Maybury. I don't think it takes us too far off topic to note that it is possible to be a successful and popular mayor of Detroit if you have the kind of strength, vision and caring that Pingree had. He fought to defend the working man as we are doing today when we demand:
"Money for Detroit, Not for War!"
"Money for Jobs, Not for War!"
"Money for Education, Not for War!"

- Posted by Kelly Logan

Detroit Free Press Coverage

2005-08-29T10:51:00.000-04:00

A protest without hoopla: Detroit group supports Calif. mom
August 29, 2005
BY KIM NORTH SHINE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Antiwar protesters have staked out a downtown Detroit street corner as an outpost of Camp Casey, the Crawford, Texas, protest site that ballooned from a grieving mother's demand for answers about her soldier son's death in Iraq into a springboard for a growing antiwar movement....
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/camp29e_20050829.htm

------------------------------

A good article overall, I thought. There is the usual security blanket playing up of opposing viewpoints without giving any idea of scale or measure; I think it would have been more informative if she had noted how many passersby honked horns or stopped and signed our petition in solidarity, how many denounced, and how many were curious or undecided rather than the usual vague "not everyone agrees."

Her mention of the statue of William Maybury as the "centerpiece" and comment that he had no relation to our antiwar cause was also a bit odd. Did she ask anyone there about this, and why we were there in particular? Personally I think it is rather apropos to use a monument of a man, described even by the Detroit News as an religious elitist, as our stage, bench and bedframe. In fact, over one hundred years ago he called for tax cuts for the rich, a sentiment echoed by Engler in an address and held by those who took us to war. How wonderfully fitting that his expensive monument, built by his rich fellows should now hold the banners of those who would have opposed him then and oppose his contemporaries now, stating "Money for Detroit, Not for War!"

Mind you, I didn't know any of that when I was actually there the other day, so I have Ms. Shine's article and my conversation with Detroiter Mr. Cole to thank for prompting my
curiousity.

To return to the article, I think Ms. Shine presented the people there at the camp very well and in context. If you also found this article informative and helpful, please give her a call or send an email to let her know this and that you look forward to her or other follow-ups to this article in the near future. (Contact KIM NORTH SHINE at 313-223-4557 or kshine@freepress.com .)
Posted by Kelly Logan

Saturday Night at Camp Casey Detroit

2005-08-28T10:58:00.000-04:00

What a great night!

Even as another night descends our camp is still running with high spirits and firm resolve.

(Of course, it hardly even seems like night when Violeta's smile shines out as above. :^)

Detroit's Camp Casey

2005-08-28T02:26:00.000-04:00

It is a beautiful thing, to put aside all of the other concerns and worries in your life and dedicate a few hours to sending a little spiritual healing out into the world from Camp Casey - Detroit. Thousands and thousands of people pass by, some stunned by our presence, some feigning offense (no one can really get behind the twisted and corrupt policies coming down on us from Washington), many truly thankful to see their own revulsion to the war being acted upon by their brothers and sisters in the streets.

The names, I hope I never forget these people. Willie, who sets off from time to time to ride the buses passing out flyers or bring the message to others on the street. Patricia, who is constantly smiling and reminding us that we should be too. Abayomi, the patient giant whose voice and heart could explain any problem away. Rob, who drove down from Ypsi with armfulls of white crosses to remember the reason we are there, to stop the killing.

We are all constantly reminding each other that while we stand this vigil, the people of Iraq are suffering intensely under the illegitmate policies of the United States. And along with the people of Palestine, and of Haiti, and of Columbia, and of Venezuela, we all hope that they day will come soon when this great country finally stops disgracing itself before the world. I have never been so ashamed to be an American in my life; but at the camp I see what makes this country capable of great things - it is in the hearts and minds of my sisters and brothers on the street.

Peace Now. Support Cindy!

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 6

2005-08-27T23:58:00.000-04:00

Each day at Camp Casey Detroit is unique. Today--Day 6--was a day of gifts.

The gifts of food, like the yummy 24-piece vegetarian pizza donated by Ann Perrault of Avalon Bakery (Cass & Willis near Wayne State University), the pastries from Arlena of the Brown Bean Cafe, our neighbor on Adams in Grand Circus Park, and Granny Kathy's husband Barry's loaf of homemade sesame and whole grain wheat bread.

The gifts of enthusiastic volunteers like Peggy Bennett and Rosi Luganer from Ann Arbor, Bob Krzewinski from Ypsilanti who brought and planted 64 crosses (photos #1 & #2) made by the Veterans For Peace, Raging Grannies Kathy Russell and Charlotte Kish who led us in song, Bill Hazel and Charles Brown who were already there when I arrived about 3:30 PM and stayed until at least 7:30 PM when I left to scoot down to the India Festival at Hart Plaza, Charles Simmons and his teenaged nephew who took the picture of us singing, our neighbor Paul Pearson who has offered us the use of his bathroom every night, and our regulars, David Sole, Abayomi Azikiwe, Derek and his daughters Cydney and Kaylan, and Willie, our Camp Casey Detroit leafletter extraordinaire.

The gifts of interesting visitors like Terrance, a 22 year-old spiritual seeker and boxer, who said, "If one person can push you [beyond where you are now], that's good. But if you can push yourself more than that one person [did], that's even better." And John, Maria and their young daughter Tatiana, who just happened upon us but felt right at home since they're strongly anti-war and pro-peace. Jay Statzer who asked that we link our blog to www.cures-not-war.org. Our old CPR (Committee for the Political Resurrection of Detroit) friend Elena Herrada, her twin daughters Alejandra and Zoe, and a neighbor from Leverette Street in Corktown. They asked to be identified as the Leverette Collective. And in response to Willie having leafletted a wedding party outside Central United Methodist Church, a high school government teacher came over and engaged us in an interesting--if somewhat heated--dialogue about the efficacy of the war and occupation of Iraq.

Our Camp stayed active throughout the day, and, after heavy morning showers (Willie was the only one among us who had been in the camp then), we had some afternoon sprinkles that tested our tarping abilities and umbrella expertise (photos #1, #2 & #3). And, as always, we had plenty of opportunities to sit and talk (photos #1 & #2). Charles Brown even called into a radio talk show on his cell phone, and we sat around and listened to him live on our camp transistor radio.

If it sounds like we're having fun, that's because we are! Working for peace, when you do it in community, is a wonderful adventure. How grateful I am to be part of it, and how warmly I encourage my peace-loving sisters and brothers in southeastern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario to come on down and join us.

Camp Casey Detroit in the news

2005-08-27T13:33:00.000-04:00

Recent articles/interviews that have appeared in newspapers, on radio and online include:

WDET 101.9 FM, Public Radio in Detroit aired an interview with Abayomi Azikiwe on Thursday, August 25. They also posted a brief article--"Camp Casey Set Up In Grand Circus Park For Cindy Sheehan"--with a photo on their web site.

The Metro Times, Detroit's alternative weekly paper, covered Camp Casey Detroit in their News Hits. "Pitch A Fit" ran on Wednesday, August 24.

Michigan Indy Media web site has an article and photos posted under the title, "Camp Casey Detroit Continues: Report & Photos From the Aug. 24 Rally at Grand Circus Park". More photos appear under the comments.

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 5

2005-08-26T23:57:00.000-04:00

When I finally made it down to Grand Circus Park, it was 4:30 PM and the Camp was being drenched in rain. I was grateful to see the tables and people covered with a tarp because I'd told them yesterday that I'd be bringing a tarp today. What a Janey-come-lately! But I'm sure we'll have more oportunities to use rain cover as the days and weeks progress.

I also had two pizzas in my car, and I think they were more welcome than the tarp. At least they seemed to disappear pretty fast. But more were on the way. Tonight was our first Camp Casey Detroit pizza party (photos #1 & #2) and it was a rousing success. By 8 PM, I'd guess there were 30-40 people eating, talking and having a great time. It was especially fun to see the children, the youngest of whom was Malcolm, followed by Derek's daughters, Cydney, 9, and Kaylan, 8. Kelly also brought his son Chris, who is almost 12. William Smith was kind enough to take a picture of me with Kaylan and Cydney.

During the party, I got two pictures (photos #1 & #2) I especially like of Camp Casey Detroit, one of them from the other side of Woodward Avenue. I also took a picture of two young women, Erika and Jess, who had driven up from their homes in Baltimore, Ohio (four and a half hours away), and had just happened upon us as they walked down Woodward Avenue after attending the East Indian Festival at Hart Plaza on the river. They felt so at home with us--"We come from a small town where everyone is Republican!"--that they're sleeping down at Camp Casey Detroit tonight with four of our regular volunteers. I wonder if they'll tell their parents about this adventure!

I've given lots of people--including Erika and Jess--instructions on how to post entries and photos on this blog. I sure hope they do so. This is meant to be a Camp Casey Detroit community forum not a one-or-two-person show. Come on folks, help me out!

--Patricia Lay-Dorsey

Join Camp Casey Detroit: Bring The Troops Home Now!

2005-08-26T12:29:00.000-04:00

News Release:

Friday, August 26, 2005

Contact: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War &
Injuistice (MECAWI)
http://www.mecawi.org
(313) 680-5508

Anti-War Encampment Continues at Grand Circus Park, Woodward Avenue at Adams, Downtown

Since Monday, August 22 at 1:00 p.m., Camp Casey Detroit has been in existence as a powerful symbol of the growing opposition to the occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan and the overall militarism of the Bush administration. We were inspired by the Detroit delegation's visit to Crawford, Texas during the weekend of August 19-22 which expressed solidarity with Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey I & II located outside the ranch of President George W. Bush.

This effort has gone beyond the concept of a protest or demonstration in order to illustrate the need for creating a community committed to peace and social justice. The Camp Casey Detroit project has reached thousands of people who have driven by, walked past and joined this historic effort.

Camp Casey Detroit provides an excellent example of collective decision making and creative dissent. We have developed work shifts, divisions of labor and a support base that has sustained us over the last week. We intend to continue this effort at least until September 23 when we will take buses to Washington, D.C. for the national demonstration against the war in Iraq, demanding that the troops be brought home now.

We are requesting the support of all peace and justice loving people throughout the region. In order for the Camp to continue we need the support of everyone. If you support this alternative peace and justice project please come out and join those who are working around the clock to heighten the resistance. You can sign up to spend time staffing the Camp. If you can stay for one or two hours, bring food and water, donate supplies and other services that would advance our cause and the desire of most people in the United States and the world to end the permanent war policies of the Bush administration. We also need monetary donations to purchase food, water, paper, batteries and other supplies to maintain and strengthen the Camp and the anti-war movement as a whole.

Many people have come by to express their support. Others have agreed to join the Camp and help with the various tasks of maintaining a community of resistance. People from the surrounding community have signed our petitions and contact lists. Bus drivers have taken petitions for their riders to sign. Central United Methodist Church has expressed its support and solidarity with our efforts. Many people have reproduced our e-mails and leaflets for broader distribution. Others have called and spoken in favor of the effort and offered various forms of assistance.

In addition seats are still available for the September 24 trip to Washington, D.C. for the national demonstration. If you cannot travel to the nation's capital, donations can be made to support those who are going and to provide scholarships for people who do not have the $75 needed to purchase a ticket.

Please support Camp Casey Detroit!

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 4

2005-08-25T23:57:00.000-04:00

So now our Camp Casy Detroit blog is up and running! I'm hoping lots of the folks who are spending time down there will post entries and photos. There's nothing like sharing our stories to promote community.

And community is what Camp Casey Detroit is all about down there in Grand Circus Park. We're doing so much more than simply protesting Bush's war against Iraq and calling for the troops to be brought home now; we're creating the world we've been dreaming of. And everyone is invited. The homeless and those who are fortunate enough to live in homes/apartments/flats. Young people on bikes and us oldsters who travel by car. We're city and suburban, descendants of slaves and descendants of slave-owners, college-educated and educated on the streets, employed/retired/underemployed/unemployed, men and women, temporarily able-bodied and differently-abled, hungry and well-fed. We share conversation, food, water and stories. As I see it, we are the world. And we're all working for peace.

Isn't this what we've dreamed of? Well, come down to Woodward Avenue and Adams Street in downtown Detroit and join us. We're there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And we're making a difference.

Just today, on Day 4 of Camp Casey Detroit's existence, we met Linda, a 51 year-old woman who's temporarily living in a rehab center while she works on her alcohol addiction. On her own initiative, Linda worked for three and a half hours collecting signatures on our petition to support Cindy Sheehan's efforts to bring the troops home now. She single-handedly managed to fill eight sheets with signatures, and she intends to return tomorrow to collect some more.

In the early afternoon, a woman bus driver pulled her bus up to the curb beside Camp Casey Detroit, opened the door and asked us for some anti-war petitions. When Jessica brought them onto the bus, an older woman in the back stood up and said, "I want to sign that right now!" The bus driver said she'd bring the petitions back to us on her run back downtown.

Two affluent-looking Detroit Tigers' fans, who had obviously just attended a Detroit Tigers' afternoon baseball game at Comerica Ballpark a block away, walked by and shoved bills into our donations pail.

And, yes, there was the unpleasant fellow who came up to our tables spoiling for a fight. "If it weren't for war, you'd still be a slave!," he said to Abayomi. But Linda helped us not get engaged with him, and instead, meet his negativity with silence. As she said, "Arguing with him wouldn't do no good. He just wanted a fight."

So Camp Casey Detroit now enters Day 5. Come on down!

--Patricia Lay-Dorsey

update & upcoming events at Camp Casey Detroit

2005-08-25T10:44:00.000-04:00

August 25, 2005: This is day 4 at Camp Casey-Detroit at Grand Circus Park (Woodward & Adams). Last night we had a great rally where speakers reported back from our trip to Crawford, Texas last weekend. Solidarity messages from several groups were also presented. Veterans for Peace joined the camp, along with Million Worker March, Solidarity, Workers World and others. Students from Eastern Michigan U came when they heard about it. People continue to bring food and water. As you might imagine absolutely no mainstream media covered us. But word is getting out and new volunteers are coming in to give some relief to others who have been there long hours, including overnight.

FRIDAY NIGHT WILL BE PIZZA NIGHT AT CAMP CASEY-DETROIT! Bring a pizza and some pop or juice and come on down from 5 to 8 PM.

SUNDAY AT NOON WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US FOR A POTLUCK PICNIC IN THE PARK (Grand Circus Park). If it rains, we'll hold our picnic on the 4th floor of Central United Methodist Church across the street from Camp Casey Detroit (east corner of Woodward at Adams St.)

Your support is crucial to keeping up this anti-war encampment – part of a national movement started by Cindy Sheehan whose son, Casey, died in Iraq. We heard that Cindy is back in Crawford after being with her ill mother for a while.

If you have free time any time day or night, come by to say hello, drop off a donation or some food, stay for a few hours, etc. We could also use entertainment – so if you have a guitar and sing, let us know when you can come and perform.

You can call 313-680-5508 for more information.

--David Sole

Camp Casey Detroit--Day 3

2005-08-24T23:54:00.000-04:00

"It's the women and only the women who will stop this war!", said William Smith as we sat together in the bright sun at Camp Casey Detroit this afternoon (Wednesday). After meeting Andrea Hackett a few hours later, the mother of a soldier who returned in January after a year in Iraq and who is likely to be deployed there again since she has four more years to serve in the National Guard, I see what he is talking about. Cindy Sheehan isn't the only military Mom whom Mr. Bush had better watch out for: Andrea Hackett is definitely someone to be reckoned with.

It was Andrea's expressed desire to go down to Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas that set in motion a l-o-n-g van trip--24 hours each way--by eight Detroiters last weekend.

The idea first came up at the weekly MECAWI (Michigan Committee Against War & Injustice) meeting last Wednesday night. By Thursday afternoon, David Sole, an indefatigable activist/organizer, had rented a van and called the eight folks who had said they'd like to go if it could be arranged. The van cost $600 and he figured gas would cost another $600. David started calling around to activist friends on Thursday and by Friday he'd collected the gas money. He figured, rightly as it's turning out, that the van rental money would come in through donations after they'd returned home.

So off they went--David and his wife Joyce, Andrea and her 16 year-old daughter Syria (sister of Tatjuana, her daughter in the military), Syria's boyfriend Tommy Carter, 2005 Barnard University graduate Isis Sushiela, Violeta Donawa, a current student at Wayne State University, and a young Detroit worker, Kyle McBee. The ones who are now known as the Crawford Eight.

They drove through the night and arrived at Camp Casey--which now has three camps and over 1000 people tenting next to Bush's ranch in Crawford--on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM. They attended a big rally that night and David managed to get Andrea on the list of speakers. Her address was carried on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now" and David said she spoke with power and heart. Apparently many miltary mothers and fathers came up to Andrea afterwards and thanked her for saying what they wish they could have said. On Sunday afternoon the Crawford Eight got in their van and headed north toward home.

But instead of going to their homes when they hit the Detroit city limits at 1 PM on Monday, these by-now-exhausted folks drove down to Grand Circus Park in the middle of downtown and set up Camp Casey Detroit, with the intention of keeping it going 24/7 until the huge anti-war mobilization on September 24 in Washington, DC. I know that Isis, for one, didn't get home until 3 AM Tuesday morning. And she was back a few hours later after having gotten a shower and a little sleep. Other members of MECAWI, notably Jessica and Derek--both of whom have 9-5 jobs--joined the Crawford Eight down at Camp Casey Detroit on Monday and have spent every night there since. They're down there as I write this, sleeping in sleeping bags on lawn chairs. The tents that were set up on Monday only lasted seven hours before the police made them take them down.

So now Camp Casey Detroit is a couple of tables, some folding and lawn chairs, two coolers with signs duct-taped to them and water bottles staying chilled on ice when it doesn't melt (as it did in today's hot sun), assorted bags full of snacks, and anti-war signs for rallies like we had tonight. The church across the street, Central United Methodist, has been Detroit's peace church for decades, so, when the church is open, their bathrooms are avalable for our use. And people have been generous about bringing food for lunches and dinners.

A military Mom who had seen Camp Casey Detroit on Monday night's TV news, brought down ice and water for the camp on Tuesday. And yesterday morning, a man who has a restaurant up the street stopped by and asked how many people are usually there. David said, around six. So at noon, this man returned with lunch and drinks for six.

When I got to Camp Casey Detroit about 2 PM this afternoon, Abayomi Azikiwe, a highly respected independent journalist and longtime activist, was there with William Smith, William's daughter Isis, and Syria Hackett's boyfriend Tommy. By 3:30 PM, Pat Lent and Jim Grimm (Veterans For Peace) had joined us, and David Sole and Kevin Carey (Workers World) showed up about 4 PM. Several men from the neighborhood, among them Will and James, have been helping out too. While I was there, Will even gave out fliers about Camp Casey Detroit to people on the buses that stopped near us. And then we had probably 40-50 people show up at tonight's rally.

One of the cool things about Camp Casey Detroit is the opportunity it gives folks to sit and talk with no sense of being rushed or having to run off someplace else. It feels lke the olden days when people just sat around and shared their stories. Now, that's what I call peace!

I heard many powerful things today while sitting around talking and at the rally, but there is one statement that I will not forget. I was interviewing Andrea Hackett, knowing I'd want to write this day up in my journal and blog. As she was getting ready to leave, I said, "Andrea, there's one more thing. As we know, George Bush has changed his reasons several times for why we went to war against Iraq. His latest is to say that we must 'finish the task' so our fallen soldiers will not have died in vain. How does that strike you?"

With fire in her eyes, Andrea replied, "Because his war was premised on lies, their lives have already been lost in vain. That's why we're trying to bring them home, so no more will die in vain."

Yes, it is the women who will stop this war.

--Patricia Lay-Dorsey

RALLY WED. 7 PM, AUGUST 24 AT CAMP CASEY DETROIT! BE THERE!!!

2005-08-24T08:43:00.000-04:00

The Detroit delegation to Crawford, Texas returned (exhausted) Monday after camping out at Camp Casey along with hundreds of other military families and others opposed to the war. Andrea from Detroit spoke as the mother of a GI who had spent over a year in the Iraq war. This was broadcast over Democracy Now. It was so inspiring that we decided on the way back not to go home but to set up Camp Casey Detroit at Grand Circus Park (Woodward and Adams St). We drove directly from Crawford and put our tents out at Grand Circus Park at 1:30 PM Monday and have been camped out there since then 24/7. Police made us take down the tents but we have tables, lawn chairs, sleeping bags, food and water. Channel 2 gave us great coverage Monday night.

People have been coming by donating food. A mother of a soldier in Iraq brought water and ice. People are coming for an hour, a few hours or overnight. TO CONTINUE WE NEED MORE BODIES. Cindy Sheehan has started something that has touched the nation. The right wing has gone nuts denouncing her (and us) but the public is solidly opposed to the war (today's poll says 57%). This is one of those historic moments that we need to put every shoulder to the wheel and make a breakthrough. Come to Camp Casey Detroit.

We still need money to pay for the Crawford trip. Donations can be sent to MECAWI, 5922 Second Ave., Detroit 48202.

--David Sole

Camp Casey Detroit established today!

2005-08-22T13:46:00.000-04:00

From: voiceofmecawi@comcast.net
Date: August 22, 2005 1:46:47 PM GMT-04:00
Subject: Action Alert: "Camp Casey, Detroit" Established Today!

For Immediate Release

Media Advisory

Monday, August 22, 2005

Event: Detroit Delegation to Return Monday
Camp Casey Established in Detroit
Report Back at MECAWI Meeting Wednesday
Contact: Michigan Emergency Committee Against
War & Injustice (MECAWI)
5922 Second ave. at Antoinette
(313) 680-5508

Detroit's Camp Casey Delegation to Return Today

Describing the atmosphere at Camp Casey One & Two in Crawford, Texas, as "electric", the delegation from Detroit which traveled to the historic peace gathering outside the vacation ranch of President Bush, will return to the city today.

The delegation has declared the formation of "Camp Casey Detroit" to further the cause of the Gold Star Families for Peace and the anti-war movement as a whole to "Bring the Troops Home Now!". "Camp Casey, Detroit" will be set up at Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit on the corner of Woodward avenue and Adams today, Monday, after 1:00 p.m.

"We are calling upon military families, peace activists, youth, clergy, people of faith, labor, educators and all others who wish to see an end to the war policies of the Bush administration, to join us at 'Camp Casey Detroit'," the Detroit delegation said in a statement.

This ongoing project will continue at least until the massive anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C., which will be held on September 24. The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, MECAWI, is organizing buses to travel to the nation's capital for this important gathering to demand that the Iraq occupation be stopped immediately.

Also on Wednesday, August 24 at 7:00 p.m., the weekly meeting of MECAWI will feature a "report back" from the delegation that traveled to Camp Casey in Crawford. Members of the delegation met other anti-war activists from around the country. One delegation member, a military mother whose daughter served in Iraq for one year, addressed the mass rally at Camp Casey II near the Bush vacation ranch on Saturday evening.

The Detroit delegation were so inspired by the outpouring of anti-war sentiment at Camp Casey in Crawford, they have choosen to set up "Camp Casey Detroit". This is a nationwide movement with the establishment of other "Camp Casey" actions in San Francisco, California as well as a growing number of cities around the country.

Please come to Grand Circus Park to join in support of this historicmovement toward ending the debacle of the ill-fated war in Iraq,and help BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
More info: 313-680-5508