Friends:
Today (Monday, Aug. 29) is DAY 8 at Camp Casey-Detroit. We have kept it
occupied 24 hours a day (rain and shine) reaching thousands of people in the
area. Come anytime and help out. Sit for an hour or several hours. Stay
overnight (no tents allowed) in a sleeping bag on a lounge chair. Get out
of your homes; get out of your routine - now is the time to be seen and
heard! Help us strategize about building the anti-war movement into an
unstoppable force. Donations for our Detroit Camp Casey can be sent to
MECAWI, 5922 Second Ave., Detroit 48202.
Check out www.campcaseydetroit.blogspot.com.
The Detroit Free Press ran a decent article (see below). More people
come every day. Crawford, Texas military families will be in Detroit around
Sept. 10 (more when we have details).
Wed., Aug. 31 is "Rolling Stones at Camp Casey" day. The Stones will
play at Comerica Park (one block east of Camp Casey-Detroit) at 7:30 PM. We
will be playing Stones music all afternoon and evening.
Monday, Sept. 5 join us at Grand Circus Park (Woodward & Adams St.
in Detroit) at 10:00 AM - noon with your anti-war signs and banners.
Tens of thousands will march by in the Labor Day Parade.
Get your bus tickets for the March in Washington Sept 24 (buses from
Detroit & Ann Arbor). Tickets $75. Send check to MECAWI, 5922 Second Ave.,
Detroit 48202 or call 313-680-5508 for more information. - David Sole
A protest without hoopla: Detroit group supports Calif. mom
BY KIM NORTH SHINE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
August 29, 2005
Antiwar protesters have staked out a downtown Detroit street corner as an
outpost of Camp Casey, the Crawford, Texas, protest site that ballooned from
a grieving mother's demand for answers about her soldier son's death in Iraq
into a springboard for a growing antiwar movement.
For information about Camp Casey Detroit and the Sept. 24 Stop the War march
in Washington, D.C., check out http://www.mecawi.org and
http://troopsoutnow.org .
There is also a Web log tracking Camp Casey Detroit's
activities: http://www.campcaseydetroit.blogspot.com .
The Detroit version of Camp Casey on Woodward and Adams, is far more subdued
than Crawford and its media circus.
At Camp Casey Detroit, where 25-30 volunteers chatted in lawn chairs, sang
peace songs and held a picnic Sunday to celebrate seven days of
round-the-clock protest, there is only an occasional TV camera and no
feuding to speak of.
Still, the group hopes it can add a ripple to the war opposition spreading
across the country.
The protesters were inspired by a visit to Crawford a little more than a
week ago to witness what Cindy Sheehan, 48, started Aug. 6 when she began
protesting outside President George W. Bush's ranch.
The camps are named in honor of Sheehan's son Army Spec.
Casey Sheehan, 24. He died in an April 2004 attack in Sadr City.
Camps similar to Detroit's are operating in Florida and Oregon and vigils
are being held in dozens of cities, including several in Michigan, weekly.
"When we got back to Detroit from Crawford we said, 'We're not going home,'
We have to do something," said David Sole, a Detroiter who helps head up the
Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice.
The people supporting Sole and his cause include mothers of soldiers, a
brother of a dead soldier and students to retirees who hope to convince
people that money and lives are being wasted in Iraq.
Unlike Crawford, where there is often confrontation between opponents, the
Detroit camp is quietly spreading its motto:
Money For Cities, Not For War.
"If we stop the war for one day we could help solve the deficit in Detroit
... help people with medical needs and mental health issues," said Isis
Smith, a protester from Detroit and recent graduate of Barnard College.
Working in shifts, the volunteers have kept the street corner at Grand
Circus Park occupied 24 hours a day. They spend their nights in sleeping
bags and on folding lounge chairs.
Detroit Police ordered them to take down their tents because they had no
permits.
The centerpiece of the set-up is a statue of William Maybury, a former
Detroit mayor and congressman who has no relation to the group's antiwar
cause. In a semi-circle behind the statue are 50-60 knee-high white crosses
erected by veterans who oppose the war. Each represents the loss of a
Michigan military member in Iraq.
"It's going on too long," said Norman Christensen, whose 42- year-old
brother Thomas Christensen of Highland was killed by a bomb in Iraq while he
slept Christmas Day 2003.
Not everyone agrees with the protesters and a few passersby have said so,
but nearby businesses and residents have brought food, water and ice. A
church across the street provides bathrooms during the day and a nearby
apartment dweller offers his bathroom at night.
The protesters say they'll stay until Sept. 24, when a national antiwar
rally is scheduled in Washington, D.C.
"If my daughter had died when she was in Iraq, I would be doing exactly what
Cindy Sheehan is doing," said Andrea Hackett, a Detroit protester who
addressed crowds in Crawford. "This is the least we can do."
Contact KIM NORTH SHINE at 313-223-4557 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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