Anti-Sheehan group comes to San Diego

By Alex RothUNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 25, 2005

An anti-Cindy Sheehan caravan motored into San Diego yesterday on its way to Crawford, Texas, stopping long enough for supporters of the war in Iraq to rally at a local radio station and square off in a shout-fest with war protesters.

The car caravan, sponsored by a pro-Iraq war group called Move America Forward and headed by a woman whose son is a Marine, began its road trip in Northern California earlier this week and has stops planned in several cities before arriving in Crawford on Saturday.

The trip was organized in response to the vigil by Sheehan, a Northern California woman whose son was killed in Iraq and who, as an act of protest, began camping out in front of President Bush's Crawford vacation ranch earlier this month.

Yesterday's rally was held at the Serra Mesa headquarters of Newsradio KOGO, where conservative radio talk-show host Roger Hedgecock was broadcasting live from an outdoor booth.

The anti-Sheehan protesters waved American flags and sang patriotic songs. Some spoke on the air with Hedgecock, accusing Sheehan of endangering U.S. troops by giving moral support to the enemy.

At times, Hedgecock and his guests had to raise their voices to be heard above the pro-Sheehan protesters, who gathered at the opposite end of a small plot of grass where Hedgecock's booth was set up.

The affair grew heated at times, with both sides chanting and counter-chanting as Hedgecock conducted interviews.

The anti-Sheehan group, which numbered about 45, shouted, "Cindy Sheehan supports Michael Moore!" and "Remember 9/11!"

"There is a similarity between the war in Iraq and Vietnam, and it's in the way that protesters want America to lose!" Howard Kaloogian, chairman of the Bay Area-based Move America Forward, yelled to the crowd. Kaloogian, a former state assemblyman from Carlsbad, has indicated that he plans to seek the 50th District seat now held by Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

On the other side of the lawn, about 30 war protesters shouted, "Tell the truth!" and "Bush lies!" They held signs that read, "America Stands With Cindy," "Bush Betrayed Us" and "Regime Change Starts at Home," among other things.

Hedgecock didn't invite any of Sheehan's supporters to appear on his show.

The caravan – dubbed the "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy!" tour – was organized by Deborah Johns, who lives outside Sacramento and whose son has served two tours in Iraq. The group of 30 or so people – Johns said the size varies from city to city – began the road trip Monday in San Francisco and has stopped in Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Johns told Hedgecock that she has received countless calls from parents whose children are in Iraq and who are outraged by Sheehan's protest. She said many families of fallen troops object to crosses being erected at Sheehan's Crawford encampment in memory of their sons and daughters.

Those families "don't want their sons and daughters associated with this," Johns said.

As she spoke, some Sheehan supporters heckled her, shouting, "Cindy speaks for me!"

"Free speech is a one-way street with them," Johns said later.

Hedgecock, Johns, Kaloogian and several other anti-Sheehan protesters accused the media of emphasizing negative news about the war and ignoring positive developments.

Some of Sheehan's supporters, including Martha Sullivan, who came to yesterday's event from Poway, thinks Sheehan is speaking for a majority of Americans at this point.

"She's asking questions that many other Americans are asking as well," said Sullivan, 47, who wore a T-shirt advertising a Web site called ImpeachBush.org. "What noble cause are thousands of Americans dying for, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis?"

Sheehan left Texas last week to tend to her mother, who was hospitalized in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke, but is scheduled to return to Crawford this week to resume her vigil.

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