Glass Hearts

The following is an essay that I wrote last year (Aug.2005) the night we got home from spending the afternoon at Crawford. People continue to ask me about it so I decided to publish it here.

I was struck by how different the situation was from the way if was being portrayed in the press. The day we were there, there was one lone "counter protester'. We were told that there had never been more than a dozen or so. We had been led to believe that there many, many more. I have participated in several peace marches. I am not protesting a war. I am standing up for peace. Here is the essay. I call it Glass Hearts. I am publishing it in its original form.

There is a small glass heart on my desk as I am writing this. It came from a basket full of them on a card table in front of the Peace House in Crawford, TX. Someone donated them so that everyone could take heart and be thinking of Cindy Sheehan and what she is doing.

Stephen and I arrived at Peace House around 1:00pm today (Tuesday, August 16th). We were there all of 3 minutes before Barbara turned to us and said, "Can you help out?" For the next 3 hours, I manned the welcome table and Stephen helped with computer problems and whatever else he was asked to do. We mostly listened to every story we could. Everybody who arrived had one.

Barbara is from San Diego and is the official parking goddess. She told me that she is agnostic and does not believe in miracles. The proceeded to tell me of three miracles that had happened in the past day and a half: shuttles were needed and people with vans showed up; they were out of ice and a stranger showed up with a truck load of it; someone ran over 500 of the 800 crosses with a pipe pulled behind a truck and took out most of the flowers that had been sent as well. After hearing about it, someone in Florida sent 35 dozen roses to replace them. I said, " You have to believe in miracles. They are happening all around you." She said, "I know, I know, I know."

Mary came from New Jersey to bring a cloth wall bearing the names of all the US military personnel who have died in Iraq so far.

Roger came from Minnesota to join the campers at Camp Casey.

A large percentage of the folks we met have family members serving in the military, some in Iraq and some other locations. There are veterans of several wars there. There are veterans of the 60's peace movement and youngsters who don't remember those times.

We finally got out to Camp Casey where more than 100 people are camped in a 10 to 12 foot space between a single lane road and a fence. On the other side of the road was one lone counter protester. He was carrying a cross of his own and yelling until he lost his voice. Then he would wait a while and yell some more.

We did not get to meet Cindy. She had been in court this morning. ( You can read about it on http://www.crawfordpeacehouse.org/ or http://www.meetwithcindy.org/ ). We felt that there were enough people wanting her attention already.

Go to Crawford if you can. Find out what is really going on. The media has reported that only a hundred or so people have been there and had been over 4000 sign in by the time we got there. Be prepared to roll up your sleeves and help. Take ice, flashlights, food for the staff and campers or make donations of money to keep the electricity on and the telephones working at Peace House.

Go to Peace House and take a shuttle to the camp. If you can't get there but want to send something, make sure that you put the whole 9 digit zip code on it. The postmaster in Crawford has been ordered not to deliver anything to Peace House or to Cindy without it. (If you are mailing something to anywhere else in Crawford, this is not an issue. Go figure...)Here is the address:
Crawford Peace House9142 East 5th St.Crawford, TX 76638-3037 or for monetary donations:Crawford Peace House9142 East 5th St.Crawford, TX 76638-3037

You can also make donations via the website(s).

Go to Crawford. Pick up a glass heart. Take your video camera. Listen to all the stories you can. Find out what is happening for yourself.