Arkansas Times: "A Pilgrimage To Crawford" ('I knew Bush was trouble...')

Hissyspit

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Aug-25-05 03:15 PM
Original message

Arkansas Times: "A Pilgrimage To Crawford" ('I knew Bush was trouble...')

Edited on Thu Aug-25-05 03:48 PM by Hissyspit

Guest editorial, apparently. I love the part about the old guy with the gimpy knee at the gas station: "good for you, I knew Bush was trouble before he was elected the first time," and also "good, we think we're at the 'Peace Motel.' We'll be safe here..." This is nice to see. Although, I don't live there, my family is originally from Arkansas back to the 1800s. My uncle taught Bill Clinton at Hot Springs High School and, although my uncle comes from a fairly rabidly right-wing family, he STILL likes Bill a lot.

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=ab27158e-9da8-406e-b09e-a6376218a91b

A pilgrimage to Crawford, Texas
Arkansans join the vigil with Cindy Sheehan.
Katherine West
Updated: 8/25/2005

Crawford calls to us. My friend Alison and I are compelled to go to Crawford and see Camp Casey for ourselves. We follow every little tidbit of information about what is going on down there in Texas. We have to go. Something important is happening. We decide it is up to us to represent the grandmothers of our country that were out there many years ago ending the Vietnam War for all of us. The war that the Peace Movement thought was the last war the United States would ever start.

Friday morning early on Aug. 20 we pack our things in the car and go. We are on a road trip and have all the luxuries. Satellite radio giving us Al Franken and Randy Rhoades interviewing Cindy Sheehan, air conditioning blasting arctic air and a cooler full of spring water and coffee drinks. As long as we can find a bathroom at appropriate intervals, we’re cruising!

Seven hours later we reach Waco. We check in at the Days Inn and get directions to Crawford, which is not on the map. The young woman at the desk is efficient with her map marking as she says, “A lot of you women have been down here staying with us.” She was smiling, so good we think, we’re at the Peace Motel; we’ll be safe here. (In case you’ve missed it, Crawford is where President George W. Bush is vacationing at his ranch. It’s also where Cindy Sheehan, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, has been demonstrating for peace and a meeting with the president.)

- snip -

So when we get lost, yet again, on Saturday, the old guy with the gimpy knee at the gas station where we stop to get directions doesn’t look scary to us any more. Here is an opportunity to spread peace, hope and justice. We tell him we are going to Crawford to be with that sweet woman who has lost her son. And by golly, the old man says, “Good for you. I knew Bush was trouble before he was elected the first time. Never voted for him; never will.” Later, we give the buttons from our chests to the clerk in the convenience store where we go to buy a Texas lottery ticket. We are on a peace roll and how good it is. We are thrilled; we are working to end this war one Texan at a time. Who knew Texas was such fertile ground?

MORE