Live from Camp Casey. Day 9. Crickets, media and respecting the locals.

brainshrub

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Fri Aug-26-05 06:15 PM
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Live from Camp Casey. Day 9. Crickets, media and respecting the locals.

Edited on Fri Aug-26-05 07:03 PM by brainshrub

The days are ruled by flies, but once the sun goes down the crickets take over. I've never seen more crickets in one place my whole life. When you walk across the Camp Casey II tent at night, they scurry away through the straw-covered floor like black self-propelled marbles.

I like crickets. They are cuter than flies and they don't live in poop. As an added bonus, many cultures believe that crickets bring good luck. Many new arrivals mistake the crickets for roaches, and they yelp in surprise when they see them in such abundance.

The crickets aren't asking for any recognition, but I'm going to credit them for at least some of the good luck we've had on this trip. For example, three days ago someone spilled water all over Rebecca's computer. It was completely ruined.

Fortunately, we met a computer consultant named Karl earlier this week. When he found out about our plight, he FedEx-ed us a free replacement Mac. I'm writing this this post from the computer he donated.

God bless Karl and the cricket who sent him to us.

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I think the corporate press has finally realized that they actually need to spend some time in the camp if they want a story. Up until now, the Washington Press pool haven't left their base-of-operations at the middle school up the road. But now I can see photographers wandering around trying to get something other than the standard "Cindy walking to a press conference" pictures.

There is a rumor floating around that Randi Rhoads will be here unofficially this weekend. I love Randi, she is my radio goddess. She and Amy Goodman are the only two "celebrities" that I want an autograph from.

I tried to get Amy Goodman's autograph last week when DemocracyNow was here, but when we made eye-contact I got gushy and couldn't speak. It was like I was Wayne Campbell or Garth Algar and it was all I could do to stop myself from crying out: "We are not worthy!"

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Ann Wright, the camp coordinator, has alerted us that they are estimating 1500-2000 new pro-peace Americans will be joining us this weekend. Currently there are about 500 people here.

The organizers have been working over-time to cooperate with law enforcement. Last night a friend and I were about to drive to a neighboring town for a beer, when one of the Camp Casey security volunteers found out what we were up to. She flagged us to the side of the road and gave us a long lecture about not returning intoxicated.

While the warning was un-necessary, (We had no intention of getting drunk, let alone returning to the camp under the influence.) it was obvious by the tone of her voice that the event leaders were on hyper-alert of anything that might cause problems.

As far as I know, the only overtly stupid thing anyone from our side has done is vandalize a huge RW poster on the side of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" souvenir shop in Crawford.

While I think this is funny as hell, it was stupid, stupid, stupid. Anything we do to irk the radical pro-war element is going to cause problems later down the road. The focus should be on Cindy's demand to have the president explain himself, not a sophomoric act of vandalism that breaks the trust that so many have worked hard to build.

I have heard that the locals complain of hippies knocking on local homes asking to use the shower, or Peace House campers picking on pets, or the shuttles running people off the road. I don't understand where these rumors are coming from! The line for the shower is never that long, Liberals are famous for loving animals, and, speaking as a shuttle-driver myself, we are constantly drilled with this rule: Above all else, respect the local traffic.

It doesn't matter if the rumors are false, the locals are desperate to paint us as rude so that they can justify their own belief system. The way to get through to these people is by being kind and stick to our values.

So help me God, if I hear of anyone on my side even kidding about agitating the locals I'll turn them in myself.

By the way, the trip I took to the neighboring town with my friend was in a bio-diesel powered vehicle. :D

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A new moon-bat rolled into town this morning. He's trying to convince people that the government is assassinating people by manipulating the traffic lights so that activists get into fatal collisions.

He has a pile of printouts that he's showing people as "evidence." I met him at about 8:30am. He was so straight-faced about the governments nefarious plan it was difficult to not laugh in his face.

Moon-bats don't last long out here. They tend to hang around the Peace House a few days before being politely asked to go home.

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