Camp Casey brings caravan to Minnesota

By Burt Berlowe
 
Midway through Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey’s speech, the rain began to fall—gently at first, then with harder drops that dampened the steps of the Capitol. Yet the protesters stood firm—their messages held in their hands—“What Noble Cause?” “Impeach Bush” and “Bring the Troops Home Now.”

The noontime rally on Aug. 27 drew several hundred supporters. The sporadic drizzle moistened the tops of umbrellas, the faces of peace signs and the rows of empty boots climbing the concrete stairs. The boots represented those who have lost their lives serving in Iraq.

Lourey, a Minnesota state senator and mother of a serviceman killed in Iraq, felt the drops on her face and ad libbed into the microphone: “This rain is tears,” she said. The rain came and went and no one left. Camp Casey, the movement started in Crawford, Texas, by Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan, had come to the Twin Cities.

Camp Casey is on a nationwide bus tour that will culminate at the front door of the White House during a massive anti-war rally Sept. 24. Officially known as the “Bring Them Home Now” tour, the traveling camp consists of several groups visiting different areas of the country and is sponsored by Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out and Veterans for Peace. One of those delegations on the northern tour made a recent stop in the Twin Cities. They also visited St. Joan of Arc Church in South Minneapolis for an evening reception and speeches.

Other speakers, arriving in the “Bring the Troops Home Now” caravan, included Karen Meredith of Mountain View, Calif., and Al Zappala of Philadelphia, both parents of military recruits slain in Iraq; Stacy Bannerman of Kent, Wash., Sheri Glover of Houston, Texas, and Tamara Rosenleaf of Belton, Texas, all who have family members currently serving in Iraq; and returning Iraq veteran Cody Camacho. Sheehan was not present because she was touring a different section of the country.

Speakers addressed the scattered crowd, stretching from the doorway of the Capitol to the lawn across the street, and were introduced by Barry Reisch, a member of Minnesota Vets for Peace who recently visited Camp Casey. The speeches ranged from painful personal stories to anti-war diatribes and fervent calls for action.

Zapala, father of Sherwood Baker, the first Pennsylvania national guardsman killed in Iraq, stepped to the mike carrying a bouquet of flowers in his hand. “Sherwood had only been in Iraq for three months,” he said. “He was fooled like the rest of us. He was lied to like the rest of us.” Zapala noted that $1.4 trillion had been spent thus far on the Iraq War—“that’s trillion,” he emphasized, adding that the Camp Casey participants are “not being paid by anyone to do this. We are funded by people like you.”

Rosenleaf, mother of a serviceman currently in Iraq, talked about her experience at Camp Crawford. “We started the camp with just one or two tents, a little food and water. A hundred of us lived in a ditch. Now we have at least 75 tents and have been visited by some 10,000 people,” Rosenleaf said.

Glover, who has had two children serving in Iraq, also spoke of “living in a ditch” at Camp Casey. “Now,” she added to applause, “this government is ditching our soldiers again. I’m sick of the lies. I want the truth.”

Bannerman, whose husband is in his second year in Iraq, told the crowd that “We are doing this so that there won’t be any more Camp Caseys.”

Local speaker Colleen Rowley, who earned a Time Magazine Person of the Year spread for criticizing U.S. intelligence agency responses to 9-11, said, “I’m often called a whistle-blower. I prefer to be called a ‘truth teller.’”

State Representative Keith Ellison gave a fiery speech in which he linked the lack of federal response to Hurricane Katrina to the war in Iraq, a theme picked up by several other speakers. Retired Lutheran Pastor Lowell Erdahl spoke more softly, but with equal passion. Saying that we should all be judged “by the way we live the road we travel,” he bashed the Bush administration for “being on the wrong road,” adding that “this war is immoral, illegal and irrational. We are not on the way to peace.” WAMM co-founder and long-time peace activist Polly Mann referred to Camp Casey: “We [the anti-war movement] have been looking for a symbol and we have found it.”

Several speakers responded to charges that anti-war activists do not support the troops by criticizing the Bush administration’s treatment of the soldiers, including lack of training, equipment and medical care, and noted the large number of vets returning with ongoing physical and mental problems. Bannerman said her husband came home without an obvious injury “but is not the man I married.” She noted the skyrocketing rates of post traumatic stress syndrome and divorce rates among returning recruits.

One of the most emotional moments in the hour-long rally came at the end of a highly charged talk by Vietnam veteran John Verone, president of the local Vets for Peace chapter, who called for Bush’s impeachment “for taking this country into an illegal and immoral war.” As Verone concluded, Tamara Redleaf presented him with the boots of a fallen Texas corporal. Verone broke into tears as he held up the gift. “These are my brothers and sisters,” he said. “Get them home now.”

A short time later, the rain that had been holding back in the cluster of gray clouds overhead let loose, causing a premature end to the rally. Afterward, Lourey talked about her visit to Camp Casey. “It was really supportive and comforting,” she said. She vowed to continue to do whatever she can to “get us out of this war that has taken such a terrible toll.”

By that time, the Camp Casey visitors were preparing to board the bus for their next stop in Madison, Wis.