9/08/05: Media Missed Area Camp Casey Event - Marty Preston

Media Missed Area Camp Casey Event

Thursday, September 8, 2005
Marty Preston Wisconsin Dells

Dear Editor: I was honored to host the northern tour of the Camp Casey Caravan from Crawford, Texas, to Washington on Sunday at our Arlington Midwest Iraq Memorial in Lake Delton. The tour members had a packed rally in Madison at the Barrymore Theatre that night, and then they went on their way to Milwaukee and Chicago.

After an initial prayer, the members, representing Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and Iraq Veterans Against the War, all shared their stories with us. Then they read the names of the fallen soldiers from Wisconsin (44) and Illinois (76) whose crosses are set up at our memorial.

At the end two of the Gold Star Families put the names of their sons on our crosses and gave us a pair of Army boots worn by a soldier in Iraq. We played "Echo Taps" and lowered the flag to half-staff. There were not too many dry eyes among the attendees.

These folks have dedicated this part of their lives to stand up and represent their families and those of us who fervently believe there is no further point in our young people dying in Iraq and who wish to end the war now. These men and women and their families have been affected enormously by this war, certainly much more than most of us. They deserve to be heard and seen.

I was sad and frustrated that not one media member showed up at this event. I thought that Wisconsin Dells, Portage, Baraboo, Reedsburg, etc., would be very interested that the Camp Casey Tour was stopping in the Dells area. As noted above, most of their stops are in the big cities with huge crowds. And here we had them all to ourselves for an hour.

The local media missed a significant news event, and we missed our newspapers recording such an honor for our rural area.

What a shame.