March to Crawford on Aug. 6, 2005

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I was there today, roasting my brains out with Ms. Sheehan and company. We were told that we could walk to a designated point, but we had to walk in the ditch because otherwise we would be on private property and would be arrested. Hmmm it was a county road, that's private? So we were walking in a ditch with tall weeds, steep sides, fire ants and possibly snakes. The chant? Bush makes Veterans walk in the ditch. Many folks had fire ant bites, including myself so we did walk on the very, very edge of the road due to these problems. In addition, we were told before hand that we could not go any farther than the bend in the road where we were stopped. Unlike the newsyahoo.com report, which stated that we were stopped because we refused to obey the police officers, where we stopped had nothing to do with us not "obeying" the police officers, it was a pre-determined stopping point set by the police before we even started walking. The average age of the march particpants was 40-50, how unruly do you think we would be? How did the police handle this? Simply, they were stationed at the bend in the road where we could go no further and behind us where we were allowed to park the bus and our cars. If anyone walked back to their cars to get water (it must have been at least 100 degrees)or to bring some back to others, they were allowed to walk to their vehicles and then told they could not come back. I guess the plan was to cause attrition by heat stroke. I do hope Cindy Sheehan can manage to stay until Bush or a representative speaks with her, but it doesn't look promising. I have a feeling they won't allow food, water or potty breaks to her. Ratio of police offices to protesters: 15 officers for 100 to 150 protesters, plus the obvious secret service guys trying to blend in. All in all, I am glad I went, but the lack of coverage by the media and the sham stories they have made up, really upsets me.
This is about our young people dying for Bush and Co.'s lies, and wanting the world to hear the stories and LISTEN. Will it ever happen? I don't know.