Stories By My Friends
A visit to the Crawford Peace House by Jackie Gaston
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
There is a small glass heart on my desk as I am writing this. It came from a basket full of them on a card table in front of the Peace House in Crawford, TX. Someone donated them so that everyone could take heart and be thinking of Cindy Sheehan and what she is doing. Stephen and I arrived at Peace House around 1:00pm today Tuesday, August 16th). We were there all of 3 minutes before Barbara turned to us and said, "Can you help out?" For the next 3 hours, I manned the welcome table and Stephen helped with computer problems and whatever else he was asked to do. We mostly listened to every story we could. Everybody who arrived had one.
Barbara is from San Deigo and is the official parking goddess. She told me that she is agnostic and does not believe in miracles. The proceeded to tell me of three miracles that had happened in the past day and a half: shuttles were needed and people with vans showed up; they were out of ice and a stranger showed up with a truck load of it; someone ran over 500 of the 800 crosses with a pipe pulled behind a truck and took out most of the flowers that had been sent as well. After hearing about it, someone in Florida sent 35 dozen roses to replace them. I said, " You have to believe in miracles. They are happening all around you." She said, "I know, I know, I know."
Mary came from New Jersey to bring a cloth wall bearing the names of all the us military personnel who have died in Iraq so far.
Roger came from Minnesota to join the campers at Camp Casey.
A large percentage of the folks we met have family members serving in the military, some in Iraq and some other locations. There are veterans of several wars there. There are veterans of the 60's peace movement and
youngsters who don't remember those times.
We finally got out to Camp Casey where more than 100 people are camped in a 10 to 12 foot space between a single lane road and a fence. On the other side of the road was one lone counter protester. He was carrying a cross of his own and yelling until he lost his voice. Then he would wait a while and yell some more.
We did not get to meet Cindy. She had been in court this morning. ( You can read about it on www.crawfordpeachouse.org or www.meetwithcindy.org ). We felt that there were enough people wanting her attention already.
Go to Crawford if you can. Find out what is really going on. The media has reported that only a hundred or so people have been there and had been over 4000 sign in by the time we got there. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and help. Take ice, flashlights, food for the staff and campers or make donations of money to keep the electricity on and the telephones working at Peace House. Go to Peace House and take a shuttle to the camp. If you can't get there but want to send something, make sure that you put the whole 9 digit zip code on it. The postmaster in Crawford has been ordered not to deliver anything to Peace House or to Cindy without it. (If you are mailing something to anywhere else in Crawford, this is not an issue. Go figure...)
Here is the address:
Crawford Peace House
9142 East 5th St
Crawford, TX 76638-3037
or for monetary donations:
Crawford Peace House
9142 East 5th St
Crawford, TX 76638-3037
a second email - she continues... I just thought of a few more things I thought you might like to know.
When the 35 dozen roses arrived, someone in the media was overheard saying that no one would really send them and sent someone to try to find out where they came from. He apparently thought that Peace House has the resources to buy them and make it look like they were sent form somewhere else.
While we were at the camp, Fox news set up and filmed a sound bite on land that everyone had been told to say off of and the deputy had to ask them to leave. As he paroachedomne of them was saying "that was good". He said, with a big smile, "That was really good and ya'll know your aren't supposed to be here." They asked him for a few more seconds and proceeded to retape the spot before they would leave. He just had to stand there and smile for about a minute before they packed up their stuff and left.
Then there was the post office stuff that I put in the original letter. Lots going on.
Barbara is from San Deigo and is the official parking goddess. She told me that she is agnostic and does not believe in miracles. The proceeded to tell me of three miracles that had happened in the past day and a half: shuttles were needed and people with vans showed up; they were out of ice and a stranger showed up with a truck load of it; someone ran over 500 of the 800 crosses with a pipe pulled behind a truck and took out most of the flowers that had been sent as well. After hearing about it, someone in Florida sent 35 dozen roses to replace them. I said, " You have to believe in miracles. They are happening all around you." She said, "I know, I know, I know."
Mary came from New Jersey to bring a cloth wall bearing the names of all the us military personnel who have died in Iraq so far.
Roger came from Minnesota to join the campers at Camp Casey.
A large percentage of the folks we met have family members serving in the military, some in Iraq and some other locations. There are veterans of several wars there. There are veterans of the 60's peace movement and
youngsters who don't remember those times.
We finally got out to Camp Casey where more than 100 people are camped in a 10 to 12 foot space between a single lane road and a fence. On the other side of the road was one lone counter protester. He was carrying a cross of his own and yelling until he lost his voice. Then he would wait a while and yell some more.
We did not get to meet Cindy. She had been in court this morning. ( You can read about it on www.crawfordpeachouse.org or www.meetwithcindy.org ). We felt that there were enough people wanting her attention already.
Go to Crawford if you can. Find out what is really going on. The media has reported that only a hundred or so people have been there and had been over 4000 sign in by the time we got there. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and help. Take ice, flashlights, food for the staff and campers or make donations of money to keep the electricity on and the telephones working at Peace House. Go to Peace House and take a shuttle to the camp. If you can't get there but want to send something, make sure that you put the whole 9 digit zip code on it. The postmaster in Crawford has been ordered not to deliver anything to Peace House or to Cindy without it. (If you are mailing something to anywhere else in Crawford, this is not an issue. Go figure...)
Here is the address:
Crawford Peace House
9142 East 5th St
Crawford, TX 76638-3037
or for monetary donations:
Crawford Peace House
9142 East 5th St
Crawford, TX 76638-3037
a second email - she continues... I just thought of a few more things I thought you might like to know.
When the 35 dozen roses arrived, someone in the media was overheard saying that no one would really send them and sent someone to try to find out where they came from. He apparently thought that Peace House has the resources to buy them and make it look like they were sent form somewhere else.
While we were at the camp, Fox news set up and filmed a sound bite on land that everyone had been told to say off of and the deputy had to ask them to leave. As he paroachedomne of them was saying "that was good". He said, with a big smile, "That was really good and ya'll know your aren't supposed to be here." They asked him for a few more seconds and proceeded to retape the spot before they would leave. He just had to stand there and smile for about a minute before they packed up their stuff and left.
Then there was the post office stuff that I put in the original letter. Lots going on.