Pendragon_6
08-20-2005, 08:27 AM
Fri, Aug. 19, 2005
MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas - Things used to be pretty quiet around here - downright uneventful - until the new folks moved in about five years ago on a ranch just northwest of town off Prairie Chapel Road.
Then came the dozens of protesters who started camping out near President Bush's ranch this month, led by a California mother who lost her son in the war and insists on speaking to the president. Their reception has been anything but warm.
"I'm a Democrat and proud of it," Keith Lynch, 67, said while taking a break from trimming the brush around the flag pole in front of his 600-acre ranch near the Bush spread. "But you've got to respect your country, you've got to respect your flag, and you've got to respect your president."
Lynch and others around the town of 745 people believe that respect hasn't been given amid the protests in Crawford, about 95 miles south of Dallas.
"Like the circus, it needs to pack up and go," said Kim Williams, a 41-year-old mother of two.
Cindy Sheehan did leave Thursday, but for reasons unrelated to the protest. She returned to California to be with her mother, who suffered a stroke, but dozens of her supporters stayed behind in their tent city while Bush continued a monthlong vacation at home.
"They have every right to speak their mind and say their piece, but they've just kind of taken over," Williams said. "I just wish they'd go home. It gets old."
Old was what Crawford looked like when Bush, while still Texas governor in 1999, bought his 1,600-acre ranch from the Engelbrecht family, whose ancestors were pioneers here in the mid-1800s.
"All these buildings were boarded up," said Larry Nelson, 59, who helps run a shop called Crawford Country Style. "Main Street was a ghost town. It's been exciting to see business come back."
As for the war, he backs Bush.
In Full
Macon.com (http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/12426922.htm)
MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press
CRAWFORD, Texas - Things used to be pretty quiet around here - downright uneventful - until the new folks moved in about five years ago on a ranch just northwest of town off Prairie Chapel Road.
Then came the dozens of protesters who started camping out near President Bush's ranch this month, led by a California mother who lost her son in the war and insists on speaking to the president. Their reception has been anything but warm.
"I'm a Democrat and proud of it," Keith Lynch, 67, said while taking a break from trimming the brush around the flag pole in front of his 600-acre ranch near the Bush spread. "But you've got to respect your country, you've got to respect your flag, and you've got to respect your president."
Lynch and others around the town of 745 people believe that respect hasn't been given amid the protests in Crawford, about 95 miles south of Dallas.
"Like the circus, it needs to pack up and go," said Kim Williams, a 41-year-old mother of two.
Cindy Sheehan did leave Thursday, but for reasons unrelated to the protest. She returned to California to be with her mother, who suffered a stroke, but dozens of her supporters stayed behind in their tent city while Bush continued a monthlong vacation at home.
"They have every right to speak their mind and say their piece, but they've just kind of taken over," Williams said. "I just wish they'd go home. It gets old."
Old was what Crawford looked like when Bush, while still Texas governor in 1999, bought his 1,600-acre ranch from the Engelbrecht family, whose ancestors were pioneers here in the mid-1800s.
"All these buildings were boarded up," said Larry Nelson, 59, who helps run a shop called Crawford Country Style. "Main Street was a ghost town. It's been exciting to see business come back."
As for the war, he backs Bush.
In Full
Macon.com (http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/12426922.htm)