I went to Crawford, Texas yesterday to add my voice to the protesters. It was exciting, enlightening, and all together satisfying. I met Cindy, sweated a lot, laughed, and wept.
More below the fold.
First off, here's a Flickr of the pics I took:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26164342@N00/?saved=1
The only one I want to specifically mention is this one:
http://photos25.flickr.com/37759596_f4891eb778.jpg?v=0
This is Bob, and Bob is my new hero. He is a 6'7" Marine, Iraq War II vet, and evangelical Christian. What you can't see in his left hand here is a silver trumpet. At sunset he and Cindy stood next to each other at sunset in the middle of the crosses while he played taps. Everyone was completely silent. It brought tears to my eyes, and many openly wept.
I spoke to Bob later. He is a vet of this war and told me that since his return he has been called by Christ to witness against the evils of war.
The other guy I talked to made a deeper impression on me than Bob, although he actually said much less. I forget his name but he was also a veteran of this war. He was dark haired, about 5' 10", probably 21 or 22 years old, and wearing an Army jacket, jeans, and sandals.
"What did you do over there?" I asked.
"Artillery." He's got a quiet voice. Not shy, or bashful, just.. quiet.
"Really. You know a friend of mine and I were having a discussion about how useful artillery is in modern warfare. You'd probably be a good guy to ask."
"Yeah, it's pretty much useless. All artillery is rockets these days, anyway."
"Yeah? You just point a laser?"
"Yeah." He's looking down the road, eyes partially closed in thought. "Then it blows up and takes out one square kilometer." He looks directly at me. "That's too much."