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A Year After
March Against Iraq War, Another Try
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Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse-Getty Images
Cindy
Sheehan, second from right, a war protester whose son died in Iraq,
marched with supporters Sunday near the Bush ranch in Crawford,
Tex., a year after she demanded, unsuccessfully, to meet the
president. |
By SHERYL GAY
STOLBERG, NYTimes on the Web, August 7, 2006
CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 6 — It is
another scorching summer in Texas, and there are no movie theaters in Crawford.
But Cindy Sheehan, the sequel, was playing outdoors Sunday afternoon, on the
fortified outskirts of President Bush’s ranch.
Ms. Sheehan, 49, a war protester from California whose son Casey died in Iraq,
arrived Sunday morning, fresh from a trip to Amman, Jordan. It was the
first anniversary of her much-publicized march down a winding country road to
the Bush ranch where she demanded, unsuccessfully, to meet the president.
Last year, the White House sent two senior officials to greet the grieving
mother — a tactical mistake, according to Republican strategists. So it
was no surprise that the reprise, with scenes of rainbow-colored flags and
ukulele-strumming marchers singing “This Land is Your Land,” had a different
ending.
“My name is Cindy, and Bush killed my child,” Ms. Sheehan announced to
stone-faced Secret Service agents standing behind massive orange barricades.
She held up an identification card. “It doesn’t have my new address,” she
said, “but I do live here now.”
Indeed, she does. Ms. Sheehan, working through a surrogate, bought a
five-acre plot on a barren stretch of road here. A mock cemetery with
white crosses and an American flag is set up there on the dusty soil, amid tents
posted by peace advocates from around the country.
Last year, Ms. Sheehan threw the White House off guard and captivated the news
media, becoming the face of opposition to the Iraq war just as public unease was
beginning to mount. This year, it was Mr. Bush who threw Ms. Sheehan off
guard, by truncating his customary one-month vacation here. That forced
her to move up her arrival and to throw together the march on short notice.
Ms. Sheehan paid $52,000 for her Crawford property, and on Sunday before the
march, she and members of the Crawford Peace House — a nonprofit group dedicated
to offering “a culturally diverse environment for spiritual growth” — held a
ceremony to bless the land. But the ceremony was interrupted, briefly, by
a tourist from Arkansas, who shouted, “This is an anti-American service!”
The sentiment was just as harsh down the road at the local service station,
where several military veterans held a counterprotest. “She’s got a right
to say what she thinks,” said one, a Crawford real estate agent named Darrell
DeHart, “no matter how stupid she is.”
Ms. Sheehan showed no sign of retreat. She said she would register to vote
here and would get a Texas driver’s license.
“I’m a Texan, too,” she said.
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