From Gloucester Daily Times Online - Plus Edition (August 24, 2005)

From Cape Ann to Crawford, Texas: Peace vigil gets nation's attention
By Paul Saint-Amand (8/20/05)
When the two Secret Service boys hopped out of their air-conditioned Suburban, no doubt Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan felt a sudden chill pierce the 100-plus degree heat in Crawford, Texas.
The unrelenting sun washed over the roadway and spilled into the ditch where Cindy and an estimated 125 veterans and activists, myself included, waited for President Bush to acknowledge this anguished mother's right to ask why her son, Casey, was killed for a lie.
I stood behind Cindy with my cell phone on speaker mode so that my wife in Massachusetts could hear her conversation with the agents. After a brief warning about Cindy's intent to camp overnight on this lonely stretch of country road, the young agent hedged his concern for her safety with a final comment. "Well, ma'am, you have my condolences on the loss of your son."
Cindy, near heatstroke, looked into his deadpan face and said quietly, "I didn't lose my son. He was killed in Iraq. If I had lost him, I would go to Iraq and find him. He's dead. Do you understand what that means? Do you understand?"
We live in a time when our language betrays us. And that's certainly true for Cindy and the other Gold Star mothers who know the anguish of burying a military son or daughter without having those deaths justified by facts. For Cindy, the deception never warranted sending her son to kill and be killed.
But on this weekend afternoon in Texas, even the blazing sun and veiled threats by officials didn't stop Cindy and others from publicly seeking an audience with President Bush.
Members of Veterans For Peace, Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Code Pink, Crawford Peace House and other Texas peace groups led chants: "No Justice, No Peace," "Had Enough," and "No More War."
Sheriff's deputies had stopped us four or so miles short of the Bush ranch, herding the group along an overgrown ditch a half-mile long.
The deputies told us that we would could continue the march only if we kept off the tarmac. Evidently, traffic safety on the largely deserted road overshadowed the concern for potential snakebites or the disruption of fire ant nests that dotted the ditch.
Angered that the authorities would not let us continue beyond the second roadblock, we mustered in front of sheriff's deputies and Secret Service men. Sensing the need for calm, fellow Veterans For Peace member Tony Flaherty, a retired Navy officer, led us in a recitation of the Lord's Prayer.
Some two hours later, on the verge of dehydration because deputies would not allow us to bring fresh water forward once we returned to the first roadblock, most of the group had gone back to Crawford. Cindy and her remaining few supporters returned to the first roadblock to set up camp.
In her address the night before to the Veterans For Peace National Convention in Dallas, Cindy was determined to put herself on the line.
" I have the whole month of August off, just like him (Bush). ... So, I have a lot of free time on my hands, and I'm gonna stay until he comes out and talks to me. And if he quits his vacation and goes to D.C., I'll pull my tent up, follow him to D.C., and put it on the White House lawn, and I'll be waiting for you guys when you get there on Sept. 24." On that date, activists are calling for an anti-war rally on the Washington Mall.
She continued her address, directing her comments to President Bush: "You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that. You don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy."
Cindy had come to Crawford in the red-white-and-blue Veterans For Peace "Impeachment Tour" bus. I rode in a private car with two whistle-blowers — for whom telling the truth is a sacred oath.
Ann Wright is a retired U.S. Army colonel, former diplomat, and peace activist who resigned her State Department position to protest the Iraq War. Jesslyn Radack is the Justice Department ethics lawyer who revealed that the FBI deliberately violated Taliban prisoner John Walker Lindh's civil rights during his interrogation. Jesslyn lost her job because she honored truth over lies.
Both these women are intelligent, articulate and steadfast in their belief in honor and duty. They exemplify the oath taken by veterans and elected officials who have pledged "to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic." Both know first-hand that moral courage has a price.
The opposite of good is not evil; it's apathy," Cindy cautioned us that evening. "And we have to get this country off their butts, and we have to get the choir singing. We need to say, 'Bring our troops home now.' We can't depend on the people in charge to bring our troops home. Because you don't plan on bringing the troops home when you drop so much of the reconstruction money into building permanent bases.
" I was hoping to come to the VFP banquet tomorrow night, but unless George comes out and talks to me, I'll be camping at Crawford."
Sharon, a single mom, and I put up Cindy's tent while we had our photographs surreptitiously taken by the Secret Service. Sheriff's deputies had us move the tent twice away from the large, flat, open piece of ground between the intersection of the two country roads where camping made sense. A weed-infested ditch was deemed to be a "safer" area to house the mother of a fallen soldier.
" But look out fer rattlers," a friendly sheriff's deputy called out to us as he pointed to the ditch.
We left Cindy and several others at "Camp Casey" on that darkening roadside in Crawford. She seemed vulnerable and, yet, fully committed to being heard. The Secret Service SUVs zoomed back and forth all afternoon.
Now they are telling Cindy that if she continues her peaceful vigil, she could be considered a security risk and may be arrested. Like many others who have stepped up to be counted, the fact that this Gold Star mother could find herself vulnerable against an administration and a president more interested in dogma than people, leaves me sad and, frankly, terrified.
On the drive down, the first road sign we came upon read "nine miles to Crawford." For Cindy Sheehan, it might as well be a million miles away from a real conversation with the president.
God bless you, Cindy.

Paul Saint-Amand, a Rockport resident, teaches at the State University of New York, Potsdam. He is a member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 45, of Ipswich, and president of North Country Veterans For Peace, Chapter 121, in Potsdam.