Our weekend with Adam Kokesh part 1 - Democratic Underground

proud2BlibKansan

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Mon Jun-04-07 07:02 AM
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Our weekend with Adam Kokesh part 1

Adam Kokesh is an Iraq War veteran who has been ordered to appear in Kansas City for a hearing where it will be determined if he should lose his honorable discharge. Adam’s offense is wearing his uniform to an anti-war rally in March. Two other vets have also been warned not to wear their uniforms and they came to Kansas City with Adam, along with a busload of reporters, lawyers and supporters.

We found a campground for the group to stay and went out there ahead of the bus and set it up.

We put up several signs, welcoming Adam and the vets. And a few others.

As we were putting up tents, a car drove by slowly. There were 2 men in the car. They looked at all of our signs and then drove off. About 15 minutes later, the campground manager came by and said they had a complaint about one of our signs. The complainer had reported we had a cutout of bush with his genitals showing, and he was hanging on a noose. Then the manager walked over and looked at dubya hanging there and said well it didn’t really look like the president. And he could see he was wearing briefs.

“It’s the noose”, the manager said.

The he told us he was a navy vet and he thought what the marines were doing to Adam was horrible. And he wished us a pleasant evening and drove off.

So we took dubya down but left the noose up.

The manager’s wife came by and she said she had been a part of the protest movement back in the 60s and she really admired what we were doing. And she thanked us for taking down the president. (And she giggled.) Then she said for our safety she had called the park ranger and the county sheriff. And we should call 911 if we had any trouble.

The tents were all up by dark and most of the group left. Three of us and the dog stayed. We decided to go get some food for the bus riders to have when they arrived. So two of the group went into town for groceries. The dog and I stayed to watch the campground.

Pretty soon, the park ranger drove up. She introduced herself and walked around the campground and checked it out. Then she said she thought we should know that we had scared the campground manager and his wife. I asked why and she said well as she looked around she didn’t really see anything to be afraid of. Then she said “well you have signs but they are just . . . signs”.

Then she wished me good evening and left. Twice more before the guys got back from the store, the county sheriff drove by.

While the bus was making its way across the country, Good Morning America contacted Adam and the other vets and wanted them to appear this morning on the air. So they spent the night at a hotel and were interviewed at 6am this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPcIzH0kqrI

Then they came out to the campsite. Here is a picture of Adam being interviewed this morning by Geoff Millard of Truthout. They are sitting in front of the Troops Home Now bus. Adam said the neatest thing while I was taking pictures. He said that even if the ruling tomorrow is against him and he loses his honorable discharge, he will have won because he values his freedom of speech more than his honorable discharge.

More pictures later of our rally and the show of support for Adam at his hearing today.