August 25, 2005
Crawford Adventure--part II
Cindy Sheehan returned to Camp Casey after Ted and Jere got back home, but these pictures from the Iconoclast seem appropriate to illustrate this report:
http://198.65.14.85/News/2005/31-40/34news13.htm
I am glad that you appreciate the basket with roach droppings. That basket has been beckoning to me for a long time. It now has such a nice new home.
I was so tired from the sun. it is a four hour drive but so beautiful.
Wonderful little towns that are becoming antique malls but also retain
their flavor as they are working towns for the ranchers and the retirees
who run B&Bs. We stopped in one town and found a really wonderful
Mexican Restaurant. We had the Beef Enchilada lunch special for $2.99.
They sell beer for 99 cents but I passed as I had to drive.
~~~~~
OK, Warren, the owner of the Lodge house that we stayed in was very
talkative, and a wonderful story teller. He and his wife, Linda, are in
their fifties. They are regular people who have lived in the Crawford
area for 20+ years. They have a son who is in high school. Warren is the
administrator of the community college for that area. By the by this is
ranching country but Waco, which is a sizable city, is very close.
Warren built the house we are staying in. He had a stroke a year ago,
but is recovering quite well. For many years he built two houses a year.
But has had to discontinue that since his stroke, so the Lodge is very
good for him. He obviously enjoys it. Has state of the art sound
system, games for children, as well as a sleeping loft, walk ways down
to the gulley or gorge. He builds stone embankments and god knows what.
Reminds me of my brother. Perpetual motion machine. No that is not it,
he creates beauty and order. Not quite as environmental as my brother,
but not too bad. His customers are city Texans and they like the
comforts of home.
"You have to understand about Crawford. They didn't invite the
President to live in their town. Some people support him and some don't.
But they try to get a long with their neighbors. But Bush being
president has brought in some excitement to the town. And people like
their privacy. Around here, 'what's mine is mine. I'll share it, but
don't intrude.'"
I have to mention. Crawford is a whistle stop town. It is really small.
"The sheriff when we moved here was kind of a Barney Fife character. He
didn't carry a gun much and when he did he carried the bullet in his
pocket. Things really haven't changed. We don't have a lot of crime out
here. The secret service must love to kick back out at the Ranch. It
really is good land. Bush has some of the most beautiful cliffs in the
county. Little further down the road is the crown of the hill country."
The following is my perusing. (I kind of thought about the story of
Jesus in the desert with the devil tempting him with all the power in
the world. Some Christians might think that George sold his soul to the
devil. Jungians might see that story as a metaphor for the inflated
ego. Either take is pretty valid I think. Standing on cliffs in the
crown of the hill country is going to make a man feel pretty small or
pretty big. I think in this case, this small man felt huge in this
setting. And all of his advisors must have caught the complex. Because
there is powerful lying and lack of judgment coming out of the Bush
Ranch.)
"Now Cindy and her gang are really trying to be good neighbors. And she
has something to say. And she got rid of the radicals. Just told them
they weren't helping things. The worst time was when the Falun Gong
(www.mchagerty.com/ffa.html) came to town. There must have been 6,000 of
them. Maybe 8,000. They were not good neighbors. Did you ever see that
movie about the ants that ate through all the crops and floated across
the canals the farmers in Africa dug to stop them. It was like that.
These people walked across people's yards. They went to the bathroom on
front lawns. They broke down bushes and they even broke, destroyed all
of Mr. Fitzgerald's roses. Flowers, bushes the whole rose garden. You
know when folks destroy Mr. Fitzgerald's rose garden then you know
they're not friendly."
Warren's young son, all six feet of him is standing next to his father.
I can tell he has heard this story many times. He has that gazed
expression that spouses of joke tellers develop. Warren began to extol
the schools of Crawford. They have a 100% rate of kids who graduate
from high school they have a 65 percent rate of kids graduation from
University and that will go up when Mary Smith finishes her medical
school studies. It is actually better than that, but you have to go
with the statistics with the kids still in college. I asked how many
returned to Crawford to work.
"There are no jobs here for the children when they finish. They all go
to other places." The son is making a face as in, who would come back
to Crawford. There is nothing to do here. Of course I knew that.
Friends who were raised on ranches in West Texas have fond memories, but
never return, and when their parents die, they hold on for a few years
and then sell the land or they leave it to their children to do what
they could not.
So that is it for now. The people who are there are there to support
one another and take a stand even if they are ridiculed. In years to
come folks in Crawford will tell tales about the Sheehan and the other
mothers and the veterans and all the old and the young folks who came to
stay awhile and share a tent and drink bottles of water during the dog
days of summer, 2005. And the folks will remember the lack of
hospitality on the part of a foster son of Texas, who never learned his
manners. He could have just shook a few hands and kissed a few cheeks of
grieving mothers.
I think this president will be remembered as a waster. He has wasted so
many opportunities and (as our driver reminded on that the trip out from
Peace House) lives. People will come to recognize that and remember.
History really does judge a man by what he fails to do more than what he
accomplishes. I think I am not going to worry about George so much any
more. He is a weak man and he will know that till his dying day. May
he eat the dust of the soldiers he so misguidedly led to war and the
dust of the innocent lives that he and his spokesmen call collateral
damage.
Note, a correction to the first part. The name of the restaurant is the
Coffee Station.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To the Editor (of the New York Times)
In response to Cindy Sheehan's letter of August 25, 2005 and her comment about the volunteer army. On a recent trip to Crawford, Tuesday morning, August 23, I spoke at some length to a woman named Mona who wore a picture of her son Jeremy on her shirt.
Jeremy, 28, is deploying to Iraq in September. He did volunteer and serve his hitch. He was finishing up his reserve commitment when his unit was called up for special training and deployment to Iraq. In his original hitch he was trained as a satellite and communications technician. But the only job they had for him if he deployed with his reserve unit was as a truck driver. He "chose" to reenlist because if he did so he would have a job that he trained for, and better benefits for his family.
I think this is an example of blackmail not an argument for the willing volunteerism of the troops. It is a moral argument for the resumption of the draft. How long can we use the word Volunteer to justify our killing of innocents in Iraq, both our own and those of Iraq.
Posted by Hannah at August 25, 2005 07:40 PM