so my thoughts on the crawford march are pretty mixed. overall it was a very positive event, but a few things that transpired gave me pause. for instance, when i overheard that nader was going to be there, i was honestly at a loss. like many people, i have real mixed feelings wrt nader. on one hand, i give him a lot of credit for his work as a consumer advocate. on the other hand, i wish he would find a better way to act as a peoples' advocate in these times.
anyway, wilfred asked me for stories so here goes.
i've never been to crawford before. i try to avoid the waco area like the plague and i really don't want to get hassled by secret service, so i avoid the ranch. but this time i knew i had to be in crawford - the pResident's adopted hometown. after all, it's only about an hour and a half drive; there was no excuse for me not to be there. the
monkey and i headed out at about 10:30am and got to waco by noon. we printed out shitty internet directions and thought we were lost for a while, but eventually we found our way towards highway 6, which is west of waco and leads to crawford. the drive is pretty serene. it's basically a drive through cattle ranches and family farms. the land is not as flat as i expected, and you feel pretty isolated after you get outside of waco.
the weather was gorgeous - a bit humid but not too hot. as we pulled up into tonkawa park we were suprised to see hundreds of cars in the parking lot. on our way in we hooked up with a fellow dean person (dot, owner of the deanie cooper), had a nice reunion, then went into the park.
i was expecting a bunch of hippies, but i was pleasantly suprised to see a ton of veterans and their families (wearing "military families for peace" shirts). there were also lots of people in kucinich and dean shirts milling around, and just about everyone else was wearing the event-sponsored "bring 'em home" shirts. people seemed friendly. we walked around videotaping and talking to people for a while and sat through a bunch of speakers and folksingers. as an aside, i must say that snarky folksingers rock (especially when they sing songs called "i'm so terrified (fear fear fear)" and "who would jesus bomb?"). the speakers were pretty good, but the one who effected me most was a young female west point graduate who's husband is shipping off to iraq next month. she spoke eloquently about the cost to reservist's families, and the lack of equipment (body armor, etc), and the poor "chickenhawk" policies that were sending her husband overseas. she brought the crowd to their feet and a tear to many eyes.
the next speaker took the stage and we wandered around some more. i went and took some pictures of this very poignant display:
memorial for dead coalition soldiers
it was a virtual wall that listed all of the names of the soldiers killed in iraq. i watched as people stopped by and lingered in front of it. some had tears in their eyes, and others put on a brave face. a veteran knelt down and laid a rose at the base of the display, then walked away wiping his eyes. at that moment i knew that the main reason every one of us was there was concern for the safety of our troops and the health of their families. thing is, that's always been the reason i've protested. i don't want to waste one life for a lie. that is unacceptable to me. and now that we've broke it and bought it, my utmost concern is still for the health and safety of our troops. they are the ones i've been marching for this whole time. based on what i saw saturday, i think many people agree with that.
an iraqi also spoke and told us about living through the first gulf war. he called that war justified, but he also talked about how disappointed the iraqis were after bush1 didn't "finish the job". he talked about how iraq had been a downtrodden, beaten country after 1993. he also spoke of saddam's offenses and how many in his family had disappeared. he stated clearly that the iraqis welcomed the fall of saddam, but didn't want an american occupation. he also accused bush of wanting iraq's oil and said that had bush come into iraq under the banner of liberation, then the US would indeed have been welcomed instead of reviled.
before the march, one of our killer Ds, lon burnam (who also heads up the dallas peace center), spoke to the crowd. he was wearing a "viva espana!" shirt and he got us all fired up for the march.
lon burnam addresses the crowd
the organisers had the veterans for peace group lead the march, which was absolutely appropriate. the vets assembled behind their banner, and a group of them also carried two mock coffins - one draped with an american flag and one draped with an iraqi flag.
veterans honor the fallen
the crawford PD escorted the marchers onto the street leading into town.
crawford's finest earning their paychecks
i stood and videotaped the marchers as they flowed onto the street. there were some great signs and banners (as posted in my earlier diary), a few drum corps (kudos to spoonfed tribe for providing the great candences!), and several advocacy groups. the code pink girls were there, a group of dean people marched together, the damned socialists and anarchists (who got all the media coverage even though there was only about 20 of them total), texans for nader, military families for peace, texas muslims for peace, quakers, and kucinich backers. the crowd was made of mostly baby boomers, mostly white (although there were sizable latino and muslim contengents), and many gen-xers. there were quite a few people who looked like they wre of retirement age, and there was a small group of college-aged people running around as well. all in all this was a very mainstream crowd.
veterans and their families lead the march (this pic shows about 1/3 of the parade; the rest of the folks were downhill from where i took this shot)
naturally there were some theatrics going on. a group of people had a snake with gwb's head on it, there were a few giant gwb puppets (one with devil horns), a small float from pants on fire, a peace train driven by an 80 year old retiree, and a few people in gwb masks (including one guy with a shirt that read "curious george w" who was wearing a monkey mask).
after the parade passed me by, i ran to catch up to the front. naturally, this was the only uphill part of the march. i caught up to them just as we were entering downtown crawford. downtown crawford only consists of about three blocks of stores, a few gas stations, and one traffic light. as we came up the street, our police escort stopped. organisers ran through the marchers and told us that there were counter-protesters there, and please do not confront them directly. well that's like baiting me and i did have my video camera...
the first bush backers that we encountered were an old vet and a young man in a marine's uniform. they were holding a few signs (most notably one that said "shame on you!") and i went over to the young man in uniform. he saluted my camera. i asked him how old he was ("16 ma'am."), why he wore the uniform ("because i'm proud of it."), whether he was in ROTC ("JROTC, ma'am."), and whether he was going to join up when he graduated ("Yes, I am going to join the Marines."). i spoke with him for a moment and told him that even though we are here today for different reasons, the utmost concern is for young men like him who serve their country. i told him that we wanted the military to come home safely and be treated with respect and dignity. i watched his face as i was saying these things, and it seemed to soften, if only slightly. maybe he was under the impression that we weren't supporting our troops. who knows? but in the end he thanked me for my support and i wished him a nice day.
pro-bush protesters get all the good tv coverage
as i walked away from him, i saw one elderly woman on the side of the road by herself. she was standing and applauding the marchers and shouting "thank you!" as the veterans passed.
moving along with the march, i made myself very obvious with my video camera. there have been stories about how anti-war protesters have been taped and stuff, so i thought i'd turn the tables a bit. as we turned the corner into downtown i crossed the street to talk to two ladies holding pro-bush signs at a gas station. as i walked up i turned the camera and taped all the pro-bush bikers, then i turned it towards the women and asked "why are you here today, ladies?" they raised their signs in front of their faces and one of them said, "we're not talking." i told them i was making the tape for my personal use and asked if they had anything to say about the protesters. they ignored me and kept trying to hide behind their signs, so i walked around them until i got a nice close up shot of their faces. while i was standing there another lady walked up saying something to them about "i got people over in EYE-Rak blah blah blah". i left because i needed to catch up with the march.
there weren't really that many counter protesters there. my best guess would be a total of 25 or 30. there was the small group of bikers (5-6), the 3 gas station ladies, a group of people on the corner (3 ladies and maybe 5 men) with "flat bush family" (think flat howard) cutouts, a few sitting in chairs along the sidewalk (5-6), a few men sitting on the curb, and one really angry woman standing by herself... wait, i guess that was it. there were probably 10 people standing around in support of the march.
i briefly spoke with the three 40-something ladies standing with the flat bush family (featuring bush 1 & 2 and barb) cutout (which i didn't get a pic of, but i do have it on video). as i walked by and turned my camera on them they gave me thunbs down and started booing. they were shouting something that i didn't quite understand, so i asked why they were there. one of them said, "i bet you didn't have anyone die on 9-11!" seeing as i was in a "fuck with them" mood, i lied. i said, "yes i did", and she stood there with her fat mouth agape. i don't feel very proud for telling that lie, and in fact i'm quite ashamed of it. i just honestly wasn't prepared to get into that conversation and i just wanted to shut her up. plus she seemed angry enough to punch me, and i didn't feel like breaking my father in law's camera. anyway, i shouldn't have lied and i admit that was wrong. i won't make that mistake again, and next time i'll be better prepared.
we turned through the intersection and back toward the park. this is where i spotted angry lady. i call her that because she was standing on the sidewalk literally making cat-claw motions at us and hissing. she had a sourpuss look on her face, and she was probably in her fifties. i approached her with my camera. i engaged her and she said she didn't want to be on camera, so i turned it away from her slightly but left it on (my videotape got most of her face as she spoke) in order to capture the audio. i asked what she was saying, and she told me "they're john kerry's hired mob!" she started going on off john kerry, then she said something about thinking he was rude and how she did not like politicians who curse. i cut in, "well, what about when george bush got caught on tape calling a reporter a major league asshole during the 2000 campaign?" she stopped, put her hands on her hips, and spat, "that's different!" "i don't understand. how is one curseword not as bad as another?" i asked. "it's different! he's a christian!" she persisted, "read your bible!" she then started hissing at me and making the little cat claw motions. at that point i told her to have a nice day and walked away laughing. so, i guess it's okay to curse as long as you subscribe to christianity. lord, please save me from your followers.
at that point the march turned back towards tonkawa park. i ran up to the front again, then sat down on the road and filmed the marchers as they streamed past me. after it was over we gathered in the park again and waited for nader to speak. he was running extremely late, and finally i got bored and walked over to speak with the texas for nader folks. i whipped out the camera and spoke with man in his fifties. after i got his name i asked him, "what do you think nader brings to the table?" a puzzled look clouded his face as he thought about it for a moment. about thirty seconds passed and then he finally said something about "structural change." whatever, dude.
about thirty minutes later ralph finally arrived nearly three hours late. he literally got out of his car, walked up onstage without acknowledging anyone, then spoke for about fourty minutes. while nader does speak the truth about many things, his speech bored me to tears. he is very monotone. at one point someone from the back of the crowd shouted, "don't run, ralph!" while i agreed with the sentiment, i thought it was pretty rude. besides, who am i to deny someone's right to run? i cannot, but i don't have to like it or support it. at one point ralph thanked dennis kucinich for his strong war opposition, but he completely snubbed dean during the speech. whatever. after he was finally finished, he exited the stage, got in his car, and left. not one autograph, not one handshake, not one moment of thanks to those in attendance who were potential nader voters. the way i see it, he flew in to grandstand then left. fuck him. and i'm a person who could potentially vote third party this year (troll disclaimer: i live in texas and we're solidly red, so i'm not going to cost kerry the election). i felt completely snubbed by ralph the candidate.
nader addresses the crowd
after he was done, we piled back in the car and headed home sunburnt and exhausted but certainly filled with optimism after such an interesting day. afterwards i scanned the news and was pleased to see that my local daily correctly estimated the number of marcheres, but i fired off a nasty letter to them anyway because of the way they characterised the marchers. they painted the broad "aging hippie" brush, and for that they can kiss my arse, as usual.
i also shot about 4 hours of video. does anyone out there have the capability to convert 8mm or vhs to mpeg and/or avi format? i would really like to post some video footage of the march, along with some of the interviews i did (crazy lady and clueless nader supporter MUST end up online!). if you can help, please shoot me some email. i can't pay you but you can have a copy of the video.
*i've compressed and uploaded some of my crawford pictures. you can find them here.
x-posted to annatopia. these pictures may be used, but please remember to credit and link to annatopia.
P.S. my server should have more than enough bandwidth to load these images even with people surfing the gallery. if they start to slow down, will you please let me know by leaving a comment? thanks!