[Peace-discuss] Article re tonight's vigils

[Lisa Chason]

A REMINDER ABOUT THE VIGIL THIS EVENING. YOU CAN GET MORE DETAILS AND
SIGN UP AT

http://www.moveonpac.org/event/cindyvigils/4071

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARS IN TODAY'S SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE AND
MENTIONS THE MANY VIGILS EXPECTED TO BE HELD ACROSS THE COUNTRY TONIGHT.
THE NEWS-GAZETTE HAS SAID THEY WILL SEND A PHOTOGRAPHER. THE VIGIL IS
ONLY SCHEDULED TO LAST HALF AN HOUR, FROM 7:30 TO 8 PM. PLEASE SPREAD
THE WORD SO WE CAN HAVE MANY FOLKS PARTICIPATING IN THIS LOCAL/NATIONAL
EVENT AND HAVE THE MESSAGE COMING FROM CRAWFORD RESONATE WIDELY

 
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This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The
original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/0
8/17/MNGDPE91CT1.DTL
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Wednesday, August 17, 2005 (SF Chronicle)
Mother's vigil moving to bigger spot/Ranch neighbor offers land after
car runs over anti-war memorial Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times


   Crawford, Texas -- Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville mother of a soldier
killed in Iraq who has set up a vigil near President Bush's ranch, said
Tuesday that she was "very disturbed" that a driver had mowed down
hundreds of small crosses bearing the names of other dead American
soldiers. But that has not discouraged her from carrying on with her
high-profile protest.
   Instead, she said her 10-day-old protest was only the beginning of
what she called a growing national movement to bring all American men
and women home from the war.
   For starters, Camp Casey, Sheehan's increasingly crowded roadside
encampment named after her son, will move soon to a large property even
closer to the president's ranch, she said.
   "A kind gentleman from down the road offered us the use of his
property," Sheehan told reporters Tuesday night. She identified the man
as Fred Mattlage, whom she described as a distant cousin of Larry
Mattlage, a local resident who fired a shotgun across the road from the
encampment on Sunday afternoon.
   Sheehan said the property, near a Secret Service checkpoint close to
Bush's ranch, would have plenty of space for the parked cars that have
jammed the roadside, irritating local residents.
   Fred Mattlage, an Army veteran, said that he sympathizes with the
demonstrators and that the group will be safer on his corner 1-acre lot.
   "I just think people should have a right to protest without being
harassed," Mattlage said. "And I'm against the war. I don't think it's a
war we need to be in."
   Demonstrators said they would start moving their tents, anti-war
banners and portable toilets to the new site today and hope to have the
new camp set up in time for a dusk candlelight vigil.
   The vigil will be one of about 1,000 held tonight across the country,
an effort organized by liberal advocacy groups MoveOn.org Political
Action, TrueMajority and Democracy for America.
   The move followed complaints by about 60 of Bush's neighbors, who
petitioned the county to expand a no-parking zone around the camp in an
effort to avert the traffic tie-ups that have become commonplace as the
protest has grown. Some neighbors also have said they were worried about
the safety of their children, who started school on Tuesday.
   On Monday night, a man from nearby Waco drove to the protest camp in
his pickup truck and deliberately ran over about half of the 500 small
crosses planted along the road to honor the Iraq war dead. Larry
Northern, 46, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief.
   "What happened last night is very disturbing to all of us, and it
should be really disturbing to America," Sheehan said in a news
conference at Camp Casey on Tuesday morning. "Because no matter what you
think about the war, we should all honor the sacrifice of the ones who
have fallen. And to me, it's so ironic that I'm accused of dishonoring
my son's memory by doing what I'm doing, by the other side, and then
somebody comes and does this."
   Sheehan, who has pledged not to leave until Bush comes off his ranch
and speaks to her, said that if local residents want her to leave, "they
should talk to their neighbor, George Bush, and tell him to talk to us."
   Bush did meet with Sheehan in June 2004, but she has said that the
president was disrespectful to her by referring to her as "Mom"
throughout the meeting.
   Bush has since said he is sympathetic to the 48-year-old mother whose
son, an Army specialist, was killed at age 24 in Baghdad on April 4,
2004.
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Copyright 2005 SF Chronicle