San Diego to Crawford

Dear Scarlet,
Today I spent the day with my 4 year old grandson, Scotty. We played Monopoly. We played KidPix on the computer. We swam and I got him to give up his floaties and try to swim without them. He did. The width of our pool, back and forth, he swam with grammie there to give a push or an encouraging word. It was the most time we had spent together in months. Months, and he lives a scant 5 miles from me.

The reason that Scotty and grammie don't play together anymore is because of Impeachment. More precisely, the lack of it.

I gave one of the first downingstreet parties in San Diego after listening to David Swanson explain the finer points of these documents. Some of the people who came to that first party had never been politically active. Knowing them as well as I do now, I would say they are activists, rather than politically active.

My retirement was less than a year old then. My plan was to read, travel and attend the infrequent antiwar rally. I demonstrated BEFORE the war. The apathy and complacency of many of my friends and neighbors caused tension and estrangement. Within my own family, there was tension and estrangement as MOM went over the top with "this Bush stuff" all the time. Politics as usual they all said.

In AUG 05, while gardening, I heard Cindy Sheehan on the radio talking about heading to confront Bush. Without the slightest hesitation, I knew I had to go there for a few days to support her. I left 5 weeks later after the last of the supplies left over from CAMP CASEY were on the way to Katrina victims with the VFP members heading to the disaster zone.

That month changed my life in profound ways. There was the joy and relief meeting 13,000 fellow Americans who knew the danger posed by Bush and were ready to do something about it. Yes, 13,000 people from all over the world trekked to Crawford, signed in and put a pin in the large map hanging on the wall. There was the opportunity to say "sorry to the world" for what our country has done in our names. I put aside all those plans and became a full time activist. Arrests, no big deal any more. I have been arrested with some of the finest human beings on the face of this earth. This family of choice has returned to Crawford several times since that Aug.

Cindy Sheehan, my friend and mentor is taking a well earned break. She brought us together and when it was time to go we had the strength to take it to the streets no matter where we lived. Camp Casey is not a place, it is a state of mind.

We are heading back one last time to our Camp Casey. We are coming from every corner of the country again. We are flying in from foreign lands. We will close this chapter and help the new owner, Bree Walker, begin another one. I doubt even Bree knows what form her 5 acres out in central Texas will look like a year from now.

Even though the democrats who were elected defend the CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA have preemtively discarded IMPEACHMENT, the idea refuses to die. It is alive and well across the heartland. The iconic IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY shirts are selling as fast as ever. Each time I think I may phase them out and go straight to ARREST BUSH, some guy from El Salvador orders 80 for his coffee house, or a rich senior citizen from Tennessee orders some for her bridge club.

That is why I am heading out early Tuesday morning to Crawford, Texas, with a van full of freeway blogging signs, hammer tackers, tape, coat hangers and bungees. I will blog the whole 1500 miles. There will be new summer colors of Impeach shirts, stampers, bumper stickers and more. The IMPEACH store will be fully stocked.

One day Scotty will know and understand why his grammie couldn't swim with him or go to the train museum in Balboa Park or any of the other things we used to do. Maybe his generation will be spared the horror that is war. Maybe I will have had some very small part in making peace in our time.

Join us in Crawford Texas on the 6,7,8 th and let Cindy know how much she means to this country. By the way, it's her 50th birthday, too!
http://beachblogger.net/barbara/