Colorado Springs – Anti-war activists established Camp Casey-Colorado Springs on Thursday and launched a counter military-recruitment effort at area high schools.
About 20 veterans and activists, some of whom had joined Cindy Sheehan at her protest this summer outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, set up a makeshift camp in a video-store parking lot near Colorado College on Thursday. Sheehan’s son, Army Spec. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Baghdad on April 4, 2004.
“Part of our journey of healing is letting other people know about the horror,” said Jim Beckenhaupt, who served in Vietnam in 1969.
The group plans to meet at 802 N. Nevada Ave. until Sept. 24, when a peace march begins in Washington, D.C. Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, and the Pikes Peak Peace and Justice Commission are participating in the demonstration.
Kelly Dougherty, an Iraq war vet and co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War, said holding a protest in Colorado Springs, where 42 percent of the economy is linked to Department of Defense dollars, “is definitely more of a challenge than doing it in, say, Boulder or a more liberal place. But at the same time, this is the place where the anti-war movement and, particularly, the anti-war veterans movement is most needed because this is a community that is being most effected by the war in Iraq.”
Group members talked to students outside Palmer High School on Thursday, advising them that they can “opt out” of an initiative that allows the Pentagon to collect personal information about them.
The No Child Left Behind Act allows the Pentagon to gather names, home addresses and telephone numbers of public school students for recruitment purposes.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
