Update on Camp Casey-Detroit

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Upcoming-8/26

Friends- #1- Fund raiser/support rally for striking Northwest Airlines
mechanics.
              #2- Update on Camp Casey-Detroit.
1. Saturday, August 27, 6:30 PM.  Attend an "Ox Roast Dinner" to support the
striking airplane mechanics.  IBEW Local 58 Hall, 1358 Abbott (at Trumbull),
Corktown in Detroit. $10 donation requested.  Keep Detroit a union town.
2. If you haven't stopped by Camp Casey Detroit (in solidarity with Cindy
Sheehan in Crawford, Texas) come on down anytime- day or night.
Sunday at noon we will have a "pot-luck picnic" so bring a dish.  In case of
rain we will be on the 4th floor of Central United Methodist Church across
the street from Camp Casey-Detroit (Grand Circus Park, Woodward at Adams).
Below is a news release from the Pan African News Wire as well as a memoir
by a Camp Casey-Detroit participant.

News Release: Join Camp Casey Detroit: Bring The Troops Home Now!

Friday, August 26, 2005

Contact: Michigan Emergency Committee Against War &
          Injuistice (MECAWI)
          http://www.mecawi.org <http://www.mecawi.org/>
          (313) 680-5508


Anti-War Encampment Continues at Grand Circus Park, Woodward Avenue at
Adams, Downtown

Since Monday, August 22 at 1:00 p.m., Camp Casey Detroit has been in
existence as a powerful symbol of the growing opposition to the occupation
of Iraq, Afghanistan and the overall militarism of the Bush administration.
We were inspired by the Detroit delegation's visit to Crawford, Texas during
the weekend of August 19-22 which expressed solidarity with Cindy Sheehan
and Camp Casey I & II located outside the ranch of President George W. Bush.

This effort has gone beyond the concept of a protest or demonstration in
order to illustrate the need for creating a community committed to peace and
social justice.  The Camp Casey Detroit project has reached thousands of
people who have driven by, walked past and joined this historic effort.

Camp Casey Detroit provides an excellent example of collective decision
making and creative dissent. We have developed work shifts, divisions of
labor and a support base that has sustained us over the last week. We intend
to continue this effort at least until September 23 when we will take buses
to Washington, D.C. for the national demonstration against the war in Iraq,
demanding that the troops be brought home now.

We are requesting the support of all peace and justice loving people
throughout the region.  In order for the Camp to continue we need the
support of everyone. If you support this alternative peace and justice
project please come out and join those who are working around the clock to
heighten the resistance. You can sign up to spend time staffing the Camp.
If you can stay for one or two hours, bring food and water, donate supplies
and other services that would advance our cause and the desire of most
people in the United States and the world to end the permanent war policies
of the Bush administration. We also need monetary donations to purchase
food, water, paper, batteries and other supplies to maintain and strengthen
the Camp and the anti-war movement as a whole.

Many people have come by to express their support. Others have agreed to
join the Camp and help with the various tasks of maintaining a community of
resistance.  People from the surrounding community have signed our petitions
and contact lists. Bus drivers have taken petitions for their riders to
sign. Central United Methodist Church has expressed its support and
solidarity with our efforts. Many people have reproduced our e-mails and
leaflets for broader distribution.
Others have called and spoken in favor of the effort and offered various
forms of assistance.

In addition seats are still available for the September 24 trip to
Washington, D.C. for the national demonstration. If you cannot travel to the
nation's capital, donations can be made to support those who are going and
to provide scholarships for people who do not have the $75 needed to
purchase a ticket.

Please support Camp Casey Detroit

Memoir by Patricia:  11 PM

"It's the women and only the women who will stop this war!", said William
Smith as we sat together in the bright sun at Camp Casey Detroit this
afternoon. After meeting Andrea Hackett a few hours later, the mother of a
soldier who returned in January after a year in Iraq and who is likely to be
deployed there again since she has four more years to serve in the National
Guard, I see what he is talking about.
Cindy Sheehan isn't the only military Mom whom Mr. Bush had better watch out
for: Andrea Hackett is definitely someone to be reckoned with.

It was Andrea's expressed desire to go down to Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas
that set in motion a l-o-n-g van trip--22+ hours each way--by eight
Detroiters last weekend.

The idea first came up at the weekly MECAWI (Michigan Committee Against War
& Injustice) meeting last Wednesday night. By Thursday afternoon, David
Sole, an indefatigable activist/organizer, had rented a van and called the
eight folks who had said they'd like to go if it could be arranged.
The van cost $600 and he figured gas would cost another $600.
David started calling around to activist friends on Thursday and by Friday
afternoon he'd collected the gas money. He figured, rightly as it's turning
out, that the van rental money would come in through donations after they'd
returned home.

So off they went--David and his wife Joyce, Andrea and her 16 year-old
daughter Syria (sister of Tatjuana, her daughter in the military), Syria's
boyfriend Tommy Carter, 2005 Barnard University graduate Isis Sushiela, and
two Wayne State University students, Violeta Donawa and Kyle McBee. The ones
who are now known as the Crawford Eight.

They drove through the night and arrived at Camp Casey--which now has three
camps and 1000 people tenting next to Bush's ranch in Crawford--on Saturday
afternoon. They attended a big rally there and David managed to get Andrea
on the list of speakers. Her address was carried on Amy Goodman's "Democracy
Now" and David said she spoke with power and heart.

Apparently many other miltary mothers and fathers came up to Andrea
afterwards and thanked her for saying what they wish they could have said.
On Sunday around noon the Crawford Eight got in their van and headed north
toward home.

But instead of going home when they hit the Detroit city limits at 1 PM on
Monday, these by-now-exhausted folks drove down to Grand Circus Park in the
middle of downtown and set up Camp Casey Detroit, with the intention of
keeping it going
24/7 until the huge anti-war mobilization on September 24 in Washington, DC.
I know that Isis, for one, didn't get home until 3 AM Tuesday morning. And
she was back a few hours later after having gotten a shower and a little
sleep. Other members of MECAWI, notably Jessica and Derrick--both of whom
have 9-5 jobs--joined the Crawford Eight down at Camp Casey Detroit on
Monday and have spent every night there since.
They're down there as I write this, sleeping in sleeping bags on lawn chairs
on a night where the temperature is supposed to drop to 50 degrees F. The
tents that were set up on Monday only lasted seven hours before the police
made them take them down.

So now Camp Casey Detroit is a couple of tables, some folding and lawn
chairs, two coolers with signs duct-taped to them and water bottles staying
chilled on ice when it doesn't melt (as it did in today's hot sun), assorted
bags full of snacks, and anti-war signs for rallies like we had tonight. The
church across the street, Central Methodist, has been Detroit's peace church
for decades, so their bathrooms are avalable for our use. And people have
been generous about bringing food for lunches and dinners.

A military Mom who had seen Camp Casey Detroit on Monday night's TV news,
brought down ice and water for the camp on Tuesday. And yesterday morning, a
man who has a restaurant up the street stopped by and asked how many people
are usually there. David said, around six. So at noon, this man returned
with lunch and drinks for six.

When I got to Camp Casey Detroit about 2 PM this afternoon, Abayomi Azikiwe,
a highly respected independent journalist and longtime activist, was there
with William Smith, William's daughter Isis, and Syria Hackett's boyfriend
Tommy.
By 3:30 PM, Pat Lent and Jim Grimes had joined us, and David Sole and Kevin
Carey showed up about 4 PM. Several men from the neighborhood, among them
Will and James, have been helping out too. While I was there, Will even gave
out fliers about Camp Casey Detroit to people on the buses that stopped near
us. And then we had probably 40-50 people show up at tonight's rally.

One of the cool things about Camp Casey Detroit is the opportunity it gives
folks to sit and talk with no sense of being rushed or having to run off
someplace else. It feels lke the olden days when people just sat around and
shared their stories. Now, that's what I call peace!

I heard many powerful things today while sitting around talking and at the
rally, but there is one statement that I will not forget. I was interviewing
Andrea Hackett, knowing I'd want to write this day up in my journal and
blog. As she was getting ready to leave, I said, "Andrea, there's one more
thing. As we know, George Bush has changed his reasons several times for why
we went to war against Iraq. His latest is to say that we must 'finish the
task' so our fallen soldiers will not have died in vain. How does that
strike you?"

With fire in her eyes, Andrea replied, "Because his war was premised on
lies, their lives have already been lost in vain.
That's why we're trying to bring them home, so no more will die in vain."

Yes, it is the women who will stop this war.