Protestors Unveil Monument Honoring Sheehan

Hell Yes, Way to go Guys, Cindy Rocks.

Edited on Fri Nov-25-05 08:46 PM by cal04

Anti-war demonstrators, back in Crawford to protest during President Bush's holiday vacation, unveiled a stone monument Friday with the words "Sheehan's Stand" in honor of the woman who inspired their efforts. Cindy Sheehan, who staged a 26-day protest outside Bush's ranch in August, cried when she saw the 2-foot-high sandstone marker.

On the other side of the rectangular slab is the word "Why!" and names of more than two dozen soldiers whose families were part of the vigil. The name of Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, is among them. "Nobody knew what was going to happen, and we made up Camp Casey as we went along, and it grew and grew and grew," said Sheehan, of Berkeley, Calif. "We're here to say that the killing has to stop, that we're not going to justify any more killing on our losses."

The artist who carved the 1,200-pound monument, Ron Teska of Wind Ridge, Pa., drove to Crawford the last week of the protest with the stone slab in the back of his pickup. He spent about 45 hours carving it. The marker was placed at the Crawford Peace House, which opened downtown a month after the war began in March 2003. An anti-war rally was planned for Saturday and an interfaith service Sunday.

Several Bush supporters also gathered in Crawford on Friday with a sign reading: "The price of freedom is not free." Hundreds were expected to attend a pro-Bush rally Saturday. "I disagree with her claims that the president is a murderer and a liar," said James Vergauwen of Windthorst. "When you're at war, you need to be at war as a whole country and not as a divided country