We don’t debate war. We don’t debate policy, ” said George Samek, 67, a retired police officer who lives in Shallotte. “We just support our troops.”
I am amazed all the time how peoples intelligence allow them to perceive things on such a different level. Some of these people, I don't think, could have a creative thought of their own. They have to be told how to be and how to act. When you can look at the puzzle and all its pieces you can see how screwed up our country has become. Some people (for the war) think its great what we are doing and don't want others (the peace people) to change anything...just go along, be told what to say and how to act. Anyone who doesn't say or act like them are hurting their cause and should just shut up or leave the country.
I love this country. The people, the land, the history. I do love my home. Because I love it so much I'm tired of seeing it get beat up on. Beaten down by a few people who for their hunger of greed and power over the world. People who only care about themselves - screw the rest of us. It's like the old "Dead Kennedy's" song. Kill - Kill - Kill. Kill the poor so the rich have more room to play.
Fighting for our rights. Our rights, our freedom given to us by people who founded this country. I get so tired of people telling me they fought for our freedom in Vietnam and now Iraq. My freedom was never in jeopardy when I was a child while Vietnam was going on and it sure as hell not in jeopardy of being taken by the Iraqi people. Cindy Sheehan, Carlos Arredondo and all the people who speak out against the injustices going on are the people fighting for our freedom. The past 30 years and more our military has not been fighting for our freedom. They have been used as tools for political gain of money and power. Our freedoms are taken away here at home by the power elite. So stop saying the military are fighting for our freedom because they are not.
Fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here is the most stupid talking point gobbled up by the other side of the divide. Oh please! We are killing ourselves with all our guns we are allowed to have in our homes. But I guess it matters if you get killed by an American or someone from another country. The ones from other places are the ones to be feared. Do you know how many people are killed by other people in this country? Everyday I watch the local news and hear of another murder. 9/11 brought King Bush much power of fear with the other side. What a good idea they had to have another pearl harbor. "Fight them over there so they won't get us here." as we kill ourselves and take away our own freedom at home.
Here is a couple more articles on the events of yesterday. The other side of the divide thought they would get at least 1000 people to show up. They got 150. It was said there was 300 people standing on the side of peace. And who defaced the American flag by putting it on their sign?
May PEACE be inside ALL of us,
Cindy
Cindy Sheehan may cancel appearance tomorrow
Peace activist Cindy Sheehan may cancel her appearance tomorrow at 3 p.m. at the Cathedral City Civic Center at 68-700 Avenida Lalo Guerrero.
Veterans for Peace President Tom Swann said this afternoon that Sheehan was scheduled to get on a plane this afternoon but had to cancel her flight due to an illness. Veterans for Peace is now waiting to hear from Sheehan to see if she will be able to get on a later flight.
"We have to see if she is feeling up to flying," said Swann.
Michelle Wilburn (left) and Megan Wilburn of Greensboro show their support for U.S. troops during a counterprotest opposite an anti-war rally that featured Cindy Sheehan in downtown Greensboro. (Journal photo by Bruce Chapman) Protesters stay peaceful during anti-war rallyWar at Home: Sheehan visit prompts protest from both sides of Iraq debateAbout 200 people waited behind a police barricade yesterday for Cindy Sheehan to arrive at the Phil McDonald Government Plaza in downtown Greensboro. When she arrived, their chants roared over the leading megaphone.
“Hey, Cindy, go home!” they shouted.
Less than 50 yards away, Sheehan headed to a demonstration in the government plaza against the war in Iraq. A tent with a red banner and black letters said, “Revolution Books.” Musicians sang peace songs, and signs called for the impeachment of President Bush.
Police said that about 500 people were in the plaza at peak time.
Sheehan became a household name in August 2005, when she camped outside Bush’s ranch in Texas and demanded to meet with him for an explanation on the Iraq war. Sheehan lost her son in Iraq the year before.
She has since become synonymous with anti-war activism, and the focus of those who believe that she is undermining the country during a time of war.
The anti-war group chanted “The people rise up, Bush step down!” and “Shame on you, shame on you!”
For about three hours, there were dueling protests under a southern sun.
One side’s megaphone tried to outdo the other side’s loudspeakers. Streets were cordoned off. Police officers had plastic handcuffs dangling from their hips.
Each group said it supports the troops.
The side that opposes the war said it wanted to show its support by calling for troops to be pulled out of Iraq.
The other side had a different idea of how to show support.
“We don’t debate war. We don’t debate policy, ” said George Samek, 67, a retired police officer who lives in Shallotte. “We just support our troops.”
William Long, a World War II veteran, said he believes that the protesters in the plaza don’t appreciate their country.
“My generation fought for their freedom, and I think they’re abusing it,” said Long, 82. “We’re either going to fight over there, or we’re going to fight them here.”
Sheehan’s speech, about three hours into the demonstration, was the high point - or low point, depending on which side of the police barricade you were standing on.
“Standby for sinful Sheehan,” Alan Mullis shouted over the megaphone, though his volley turned into a blur by the time it landed in a plaza full of cheers.
Supporters gave Sheehan a standing ovation when she took the microphone. She told the crowd that Bush is “the biggest terrorist in the world.”
“It’s people like us that are going to stop him,” she said, adding that people who support the Iraq war are supporting “a war against humanity.”
“These people across the street need to know that America is not the center of the universe,” she said.
Off stage, Sheehan also told reporters that the people behind the barricades have as much right to protest as she does, a sentiment echoed by Julia Malanowski, who was behind the barricades.
Malanowski, 68, lives a few blocks away from the plaza. She doesn’t think of herself as an activist, but she supports having U.S. troops in Iraq.
“We’re not over there fighting for nothing,” she said. “I came to pray for peace. We need to reconcile these two sides.”
By Joe Killian and Sonja Elmquist
Staff Writers
"Traitor!" a man in a leather biker vest screamed into a megaphone Saturday afternoon on one side of Greene Street.
On the other side of the street, an anti-war demonstrator shouted back: "I have three Bronze Stars! How much combat have you seen?"
Two rows of crowd-control fence and three armed police officers kept the protesters apart at the anti-war rally featuring national activist Cindy Sheehan.
About 300 anti-war protesters filled Phill G. McDonald Plaza, and about half as many counterprotesters showed up to shout down the rally, organized by The World Can't Wait.
Passions on both sides ran high, but police and emergency workers controlled the crowds to prevent violence.
"When both parties stay on their sides and no one starts a confrontation, it's peaceful," said Captain G.A. Holder of the Greensboro Police Department. "That's what we're here for, to make sure everyone gets to say what they want to say peacefully."
No one was arrested at the rally, and there were no major incidents, said Capt. Robert Flynt, the commander of the Special Operations squad assigned to the event.
Police said they learned from similar events in other cities that a large, visible police presence would help keep problems to a minimum.
"Our planning for the event was a success largely due to the fact that we had open communication with both groups prior to the event," Flynt said. "Everybody came out understanding what we were going to expect."
The two groups of spectators were so far apart that counterprotesters said they could barely hear what was being said on the main stage.
"We would rather have been closer, but the cops did what they could to get us close and keep everyone safe," said Alan Mullis, 47, of Greensboro.
Mullis, who rides with the Patriot Guard, shouted into a megaphone at protesters as Sheehan arrived about 2 p.m. to cheers and taunts.
"Those people across the street need to know that America is not the center of the universe," Sheehan told the crowd. "The people of Iraq are our brothers and sisters. Every time one of them dies, we die."
Sheehan rose to international prominence after her son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq in 2004. She has since traveled the country to oppose the war, camping out in front of President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, in 2005.
"I love an America that does not invade a country for no reason, that does not torture our brothers and sisters, that isn't in the pocket of the war machine," Sheehan said. "That's not the America we live in under George W. Bush."
Opposing Sheehan's message were the veterans group Gathering of Eagles and some members of the patriotic motorcycle groups Rolling Thunder and the Patriot Guard.
"We didn't lose when I was in Vietnam. They didn't allow us to win," said James Sanders, 60, a disabled veteran from Greensboro. "Now people like Cindy Sheehan are trying to do the same thing to our troops in Iraq. I'm here to support those troops."
On his motorized scooter, Sanders had mounted a large sign with a photo of Casey Sheehan. On it was written: "Cindy — Your son would be ashamed of you."
But other veterans said they supported Sheehan and her message.
"I dropped many a bomb on Vietnam," said Cam McQuaid, 63, a retired Air Force pilot from Chapel Hill. "And I wake up crying about it now."
"I am truly here to support our troops by bringing them home now," said McQuaid, who also rides with Rolling Thunder.
Along with the speeches, an anti-war fair was held in the plaza Saturday, and groups such as the International Socialist Organization and Code Pink: Women for Peace had tables.
Drew McNaughton, a Green Party member from Greensboro, was one of several parade marshals tasked with keeping all the protesters civil.
Coaxing a fellow anti-war protester away from a screaming match between the two groups, McNaughton summed up the day's guiding ethic.
"We can't have a discussion by yelling at each other," he said.
Hundreds protest war in Iraq
By: Stephanie Stilwell
GREENSBORO, NC -- Hundreds of protestors from all over North Carolina took the streets in downtown Greensboro to voice their opposition to the war in Iraq. It started with a march and ended with a nationally known activist speaking to the crowd.
“My brother was a disabled American Vietnam vet and he died.. So it's kind of personal for me I don't want another family to go through what we did and watching him spend 30 years dying from the wounds that he emotionally received in Vietnam,” said protestor Renita Courts.
Organizers at the rally had a nationally known activist to help get their message across, Cindy Sheehan.
“You know it's illegal and immoral and our children are dying for no reason, the people of Iraq are being killed for no reason, their country is devastated and it's all based on lies. And to me we should have never been there, But now that we are there, we need to get our troops home as soon as possible,” said Sheehan.
Those against Sheehan’s calls for the end of the war say, “I don't believe in what she is trying to say, Killing is not nice but it's either over there or here” said Dan Wyatt, an anti-protestor. These counter protestors said they remember when radical protestors affected policy in the '60s. They said that's not something they want to see again. Larry Bailey was one of the many counter protestor holding signs while saying, “We are not here to support the commander-in-chief. We are here to let Cindy Sheehan and her supporters that we are watching them we are not going to give her a free pass like was given to the radicals in the '60s during the Vietnam War.” Saturday’s protest became a scene of shouts of those for the war and those against it.
“By starting this unjust war and taking the priority off of funding for health care and education and all the important things that need to happen over in this country by starting a war in another country, against another sovereign country and I feel that is treasonous,” said protestor Sunny Yarborough. Regardless of their view on the issue, both sides seemed to have the same goal in mind: To get Americans thinking and asking questions. The protests closed several roads in and around Government Plaza for several hours on Saturday
Posts
