Article About New Paltz Green Elected's Journey to Crawford

Rebecca Rotzler, Steering Committee member of the Green Party of the United States just got back from Crawford. Greens are continuing to show up to support Cindy and help her be heard.

Thanks for carrying that torch Rebecca.

See the article about her journey below


http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/08/17/supporte.htm
August 17, 2005

Mid-Hudson takes stand against war

By Jeremiah Horrigan
Times Herald-Record
jhorrigan@th-record.com

New Paltz – The war protest sparked by Cindy Sheehan outside President Bush's ranch has begun to spread like a prairie fire to the mid-Hudson region.

A New Paltz woman has just returned from Crawford, Texas, and a Kerhonkson woman is scheduled to go there this morning. Later today, anti-war groups are scheduled to offer public vigils and discussion groups about the war.

New Paltz Village Trustee Rebecca Rotzler, a national Green Party official, spent the weekend making her way to Sheehan's "Camp Casey" a few miles from President George W. Bush's Texas retreat.

Sheehan's son, Casey, was killed while serving with the Marines in Iraq last year. Sheehan has gained national attention by camping near the president's ranch to protest the war, insisting she wants Bush to tell her why the war in Iraq was started and why it continues. Since she began her protest, hundreds of supporters have joined her.

Rotzler returned Monday; across the Shawangunk Ridge in Kerhonkson, Judith Karpova plans to make the same journey early this morning. Karpova was a voluntary "human shield" in Iraq; these were anti-war people who placed themselves around key infrastructure points in Baghdad, until nine days before the U.S. invasion.

"Cindy Sheehan is holding this government accountable for what's happening in Iraq – and what's happening isn't us as a nation. It's the government who's lied to us about this war," Karpova said.

Rotzler, who was accompanied by her 16-year-old son, Lorin, finally made it to sun-baked Camp Casey on Sunday. There, she met Sheehan and delivered a message of support from the national Greens.

"She's touched by all the people who have shown up, how far they've traveled. She still seems surprised by it all," Rotzler said yesterday.

Rotzler rejected criticism of the Camp Casey effort as being little more than a summertime media circus.

"She's not doing it just for the attention, but to give people like herself a chance to stand against the war – people who support the people who are over there but not the war itself," Rotzler said.

"She proves that people can oppose the war and not feel ashamed, as if they were undercutting the troops."

A vigil outside Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. today. In Kerhonkson, a pot-luck dinner and discussion group are scheduled at the Berme Road home of anti-war activist Sarah Underhill at 6:30 p.m.