Landowner Sheehan resumes war protest
CRAWFORD, Texas – A year after her first war protest in President Bush’s adopted hometown attracted thousands and reinvigorated the nation’s peace movement, Cindy Sheehan resumed her vigil Sunday.
Under the blazing Texas sun, Sheehan and more than 50 demonstrators again marched a mile and a half toward Bush’s ranch, stopping at a roadblock. As Secret Service agents stood silently, Sheehan held up her California driver’s license and said she wanted to meet with the president.
“It doesn’t say my new address, but I do live here now,” said Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., and recently bought land in Crawford for war protests. “My name is Cindy and Bush killed my son.”
The group then chanted, “This is what democracy looks like! This is what democracy sounds like!” and a few people sang “This Land Is Your Land” while standing near the roadblock before returning to the protest site.
White House spokesman Tony Snow has said that neither Bush nor his staff plans to meet with Sheehan.
“I would advise her to bring water, Gatorade or both,” Snow said when asked about Sheehan during a press briefing Friday. “Honestly, when you’re talking about the kind of issues that we’re talking about, Cindy Sheehan hasn’t risen to the level of staff meetings at this point.”
Earlier Sunday, about 50 protesters attended an interfaith service Sunday on the five acres that Gold Star Families for Peace recently bought with insurance money Sheehan received after her oldest son, Casey, died in Iraq in 2004.
The vacant land, with a field and tree groves, is near downtown, about seven miles from the ranch. Sheehan, who plans to donate the land for a park after the war is over, said she plans to register to vote and get a driver’s license in Texas.
As Sheehan spoke, saying “our hearts are connected,” regardless of people’s races, countries or religions, a man disrupted the service with loud questions and shouts of, “This is unpatriotic!” before the protesters asked him to leave.
Several Bush supporters also set up a tent Sunday in downtown Crawford, which they have done every time Sheehan has returned.