I'm having a very good time.
Yesterday we drove to Crawford. We spent about 20 minutes at the Peace House and then headed for Camp Casey. It's pretty much the way you see it on the blogs. A lot of tents along the side of the road, signs and those crosses. The Repubs are camped out across the street. Nobody was doing any yelling and the peaceniks and the hawks all parked alongside each other.
We got to Casey 2 at around 1:30. They had just finished lunch. They called for volunteers to go work in the kitchen so we went over there. The big tent was mostly empty, maybe 40 people there. We jumped in and got to work cleaning steam trays and utensils and putting food away. The woman who was handling the kitchen had to leave and she put Dean in charge. We started making stuff for dinner. We made 2 HUGE salads and some bean dip/burrito filling, which turned out pretty fabulous considering our primitive conditions. Actually, conditions were not that primitive. They had 2 big commercial stoves and 2 warming ovens, a big ice truck and a refrigerator trailer. All that, along with the HUGE tent and all the tables and chairs were rented using the money that was donated to the Peace House.
We were told that pizzas were going to be ordered for dinner to have with the salads and burritos, but they FORGOT to order them. People started coming in from Casey 1 and there were no pizzas. We put out the bean dip and chips and tortillas to get them started. Someone ordered the pizzas. Everybody was pretty hungry so they were very glad to have the beans.
After a little while Cindy appeared. She kind of breezed by our table but didn't stop to talk. She's a busy woman. We hung out for a while longer and then turned the kitchen duties over to someone else and left. We didn't wait for the pizza or the awesome looking, huge chocolate cake that was being saved for dessert. It was 7:30 and we had a long drive home.
Today they're packing up. All the non-perishable leftover food is being sent to New Orleans. This evening Cindy is coming to Austin for a big rally. Dean and I are going to the movies and then the rally. We even painted signs this morning! Dean has a peace symbol and mine says NOT ONE MORE on one side and BRING THEM HOME on the other. Look for us on the news.
No, you won't see us on the news unless it floods here and we have to be picked off a rooftop. That's our other major activity; watching the news. I feel like a big wimp being nervous about flying close to a hurricane. We barely felt a bump.
More to come...
4 comments:
It sounds like a very fun adventure! I hope you got pictures of the camp, you and Dean hanging out.
I'm happy to hear someone (someones) donated stuff to the camp and they extra is going to New Orleans.
Keep on having fun!
It's really cool that you contributed in service.
I went out to lunch with Stan today, ended up at Marie Callenders, had a nice reminiscing conversation. Then we went to City Hall where I filed a claim concerning the electrical relay incident and our washing machine for $165, and asked about his property's rezoning. The rezoning has occurred, the clerk said. Also, we asked about the weird anonymous survey markers showing up on the far lot, and they said it wasn't them, no chance. If the person who put them there didn't ask, it's trespassing. Odd.
We also sent Lindsay's computer off for repair.
All's fine here, anyway. I hope the rally's great!
I filled up the camera with Camp Casey stuff. I need to get another camera. It's too bad I didn't have one today. The Cindy rally was inspiring. It started with a march that started at the Capitol Building and ended at the new City Hall. Dean and I didn't do the march. We went to City Hall and checked out the cool art they have displayed in the halls. We watched them set up for the rally. People started trickling in. Across the street, the counterprotesters started to assemble.
The march got to City Hall and the crowd went wild. The Impeachment Bus rolled up, followed by, I dunno, the Motor Home Of Peace (?) Then the speakers and singers got going. There was a kick-ass slam poet who really got people going. She and her husband actually got married at Camp Casey. Most of the songs were very good, one was way too long. Like one of those guys at open mike that writes songs with 17 verses and just bores the crap out of everybody. But some of the songs were spine-tingling and bone-chilling.
An Iraq war vet spoke. Man, the only people worth listening to are the ones who know what they're talking about. He's like Paul Hackett.
Cindy was wonderful. She's gotten so good at this. She's not whiny, not maudlin, and not shrill. She's actually pretty funny. She's clarified and distilled her message. I can see why the right hates her. She must scare the shit out of them.
I went inside to get some water. Dean said that while I was gone a winger drove by honking and waving a Support The President sign and didn't notice that the light had turned red. This moron almost plowed into a cyclist and then zoomed through the intersection. This happened before the rally started. If it had happened later the police would have seen it. They showed up with the march.
There were about 30 counterprotesters across the street. The buses and the shade canopy mostly blocked our view of them. Then once they figured it out (geniuses!) some of them came across the street. I think that only served to make their group look smaller and ours to look bigger. Some lively debates started up, each person holding their own sign. The police stood closely by. Everybody kept their cool.
I think we had about 1000 people. It's hard for me to tell. It looked like this crowd would fill up Ramona's auditorium and I think it has 900 seats. Some of the signs were fun. One said Bush Deserves A Fair Trial. Someone had an inflatable Bush doll with a long nose.
The people looked like plain, normal Americans, ALL ages. These protesters weren't radicals by any stretch of the imagination. What you see in the media is bullshit.
Across the street were a bunch of bubbas from central casting.
An EMT guy was handing out ice water. I thanked him for being there and he seemed to really appreciate it. The cops behaved appropriately. I thanked them for their help and they sneered out a begrudging "You're welcome". I guess the cops in Austin didn't get Bush's budget cuts.
There's more but this is getting long. The rally was a pretty cool experience. I'm glad I came to Texas.
I'd like to hear more Iraq vets speak. I know they're out there, I used to read some of their blogs.
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