Fw: Talking to cops in Crawford, Taxes

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From: "Tom Cahill" <tcahill@mcn.org>
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Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 8:37 PM
Subject: More from Crawford, Taxes

>
> >
> >A Day in the Bar Ditch of Democracy USA
> > By Greg Moses
> > Peacefile
> > "I'm back here where I met you, in the tent!" says 53-year-old
> > Vietnam Veteran Michael Young, speaking by cell phone Saturday evening,
> > with lots of commotion in the background to back him up. Yes, he went to
> > Crawford like he said, and here's what he reports:
> >
> > "Well, I got up around 7:30. Was already running a little late,
> > because I didn't get home until midnight. I put on a pot of coffee and
> > then got in such a hurry that I forgot it. Didn't take any of it with
me.
> > And I got here (at the tent) just as people were organizing to go to
Crawford."
> >
> > There was a little preliminary controversy before the caravan left,
> > says Young, as Veterans for Peace negotiated some turf issues with Cindy
> > Sheehan, the mother of Iraq war casualty Casey Sheehan and moral leader
> > of the trip to confront the President. In the end, it was decided that
> > the Crawford trip would be a mutual action, since VFP had already
planned
> > a trip to the Western White House as part of its annual convention being
> > held under and near the big tent.
> >
> > With preliminary issues settled, 70 people hit the southbound
highway
> > out of Dallas, some riding in the Veterans for Peace Impeachment Bus,
the
> > rest in about 15 cars following behind. Young caught a ride in a Prius
> > driven by Vietnam Veteran Ken Ashe of North Carolina.
> >
> > "No, we hadn't met before the trip, this was the first time, but
> > we're brothers now," Young assures me. Ashe made two tours to the
Vietnam
> > war as a medic. "He's got my information, I've got his information, and
> > we plan on meeting up again."
> >
> > When they finally pulled off the highway into Crawford, the caravan
> > stopped at the Crawford Peace House to freshen up with water and
> > watermelon. They did a little protesting near the street there.
> >
> > "One old hillbilly with two goats in the back of his truck told us
to
> > go home," says Young with a chuckle, "but that was the only negative
> > thing." So the posse remounted and took off on the five-to-six-mile
> > journey to Crawford Ranch, where the President of the USA - in an eerie
> > replay of 2001 - is on extended summer vacation.
> >
> > "The cops made us stop the vehicles about a half mile or quarter
mile
> > from the gate. It was about 100 degrees out there. But they made us walk
> > the rest of the way. And they wouldn't let us walk on the road."
> >
> > "You have to see that road," says Young. "There is no traffic on
that
> > road at all, yet they made us walk in the bar ditch beside the road,
> > which was full of weeds. Real hard ground." After a while the cops
> > stopped them. "They were looking for an excuse to stop us," says Young.
> > "They said we were walking in the road against orders."
> >
> > "We protested loud and proud," recalls Young. "And we meant
> > everything we said. That went on for about 30-45 minutes. We even told
> > the police to get out their history books and read about Hitler so they
> > could understand their role in history, standing here protecting a war
> > criminal. We were being brutally honest from our point of view. And
there
> > was lots of press there at the time."
> >
> > "Cindy got right in their face, too," says Young. "She said look,
> > this is a public roadway. How can you prevent me from walking on a
public
> > roadway?"
> >
> > "At that point I got right behind her," says Young. "If she was
going
> > to jail, I was going to jail. If they wanted confrontation, I was going
> > to back her up. I had made my mind up about that." But there was no
> > confrontation, no arrest.
> >
> > "Far as you could see there were armed Secret Service, armed
> > Sheriff's deputies, armed cops up and down the road eyeing us," says
> > Young. "We didn't carry any backpacks or anything so they could see we
> > were unarmed. They made us stand there, off the pavement in that heat.
> > All the time we were there, I think I saw one car pass." Then the press
> > left the scene.
> >
> > "Once the press left, there was not much point standing there," says
> > Young, so the protesters peeled away. I tell Young about internet
> > information that Sheehan plans to return until she sees the President,
> > and caravans are reported to be coming from San Diego and Louisiana. "A
> > lot of people just showed up out of nowhere," says Young. "I yelled 'til
> > I was hoarse."
> >
> > "I gave Cindy a big hug and told her I loved her. Even if Cindy had
> > found the President, she wouldn't have found what she wants," says
Young.
> > "Cindy wants her son back. That's just the plain truth. I feel for her.
> > And I was there to back her up."
> >
> > "Here we were on this little road that nobody was using but we
> > couldn't walk on it," says Young. It's like you can hear him shaking his
> > head. Send a man off to war to defend his country's freedoms, and 35
> > years later this is what he sees.
> >
> > "But I'll tell you we did ourselves proud out there. We didn't take
> > no guff and we talked to the cops. They said they were just acting
> > professionally, just doing their job. And we told them that's what
> > Hitler's people said."
> >
> > "Once you've been to war and you're a vet," says Young, "and if
> > you're sworn to uphold the Constitution and protect it from enemies BOTH
> > foreign and domestic - that never leaves. I fought in an illegal war.
> > These young guys in Iraq are fighting in an illegal war. If I can save
> > one life I'll do whatever it takes." In the bar ditch outside the
> > President's Crawford Ranch, Young is fighting a better war than he
fought
> > in Vietnam.
> >
> > "This is a war for our country," says Young. "They are taking our
> > country away from us and turning it into a fascist state. What has Bush
> > done for the people? Everything he's done has been for the
corporations."
> > He talks about news reports of record earnings at Halliburton and jobs
> > going overseas.
> >
> > "Here's what they need," says Young. "They need a state of constant
> > war. They need an ignorant population to fight it. They need people to
> > provide the services and materials for war. And they need an ignorant
> > population to do that work. But it will definitely be a country of rich
> > and poor if this is not stopped."
> >
> > "I don't know if I can stop it," says Young. "But I'll be doing it
> > until the day I die. And the Vietnam vets? I'll tell you for sure, we're
> > not going to back down. They can't do any more to us."
> >
> > ---------
> >
> > Greg Moses is editor of PeaceFile and author of Revolution of
> > Conscience: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence. He
> > can be reached at gmosesx@prodigy.net.
>
>