Rev. Danita Noland

Crosses at Camp Casey

Camp Casey War Veterans Demonstration

Cindy Sheehan with supporter

Called to Witness, Called to Serve

"I told her I had a son who turned fifteen this week, and that was one of the reasons I was there...I don't want to be that mother standing on the side of the road in three years if this war continues to drag on."

The Rev. Danita Noland felt called to Camp Casey, that spot on the side of the road near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas. She drove from her congregation (Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church ) and her home in The Woodlands, TX, to join Cindy Sheehan , the Gold Star mother whose eldest son, Casey, was killed in 2004 in the Iraq War. There, Noland met Sheehan and a growing mass of others, in witnessing against a war that is increasingly difficult for Americans to support.

Noland, a 2000 graduate of Starr King School for the Ministry who has been one of the organizers of the UU Trauma Response ministry, loaded her car with a sleeping bag, water, food and a few other items, and drove to the site of "Camp Casey" . Upon her arrival, she found Sheehan, a woman "who meets every person who comes to the camp...and is never too tired to talk with those who come." Noland said, "I introduced myself. I told her I had a son who turned fifteen this week, and that was one of the reasons I was there...I don't want to be that mother standing on the side of the road in three years if this war continues to drag on." Noland said Sheehan responded that "she didn't want any mother to have to lose a son in a war that was being fought for lies."

Noland was clearly moved by her meeting with Sheehan and said, "There are many of us who did what we could before the war to protest its start," and Sheehan, for her part, discussed how the government had made assertions that the war "was connected to 9/11 and weapons of mass destruction, [and] those things are not true. Nor is it a war of last resort, as the Downing Street Memo ,has also proven that assertion to be a lie. Cindy Sheehan wants to know what the noble cause is that caused her son's death," said Noland.

Noland said that during her time at Camp Casey, she "made the decision to sleep in my car since the camp is really a ditch by the side of the road. That let me get to know people who run this effort." While food is scarce and the heat intense, the number of people gathering at Camp Casey continues to grow. She said she "attended a huge rally in town on Saturday, and it was so moving to watch a solid line of cars moving in caravan out to the site of Camp Casey: there was this moment of looking up the hill, and we could see traffic lined up, bumper to bumper, coming to join us. The cars just kept coming for more than an hour."

This witness is not without risk. Noland reports, "We heard gun shots at night. There is some concern for Cindy Sheehan's safety and so she sometimes goes to the Crawford Peace House to stay." Noland notes that there have been different interfaith prayer services on the vigil site, with one scheduled for August 19 with an invitation extended to Pres. Bush to come and pray.

Noland says that the experience has been life-changing: "Every individual can make such a difference in the world. We are not alone, and if we live out our convictions, people will join us. It only took one mother to stand there and say, 'we want the truth and peace, and we will not leave until we get it,' to inspire hundreds, if not thousands by now, into action. We have given up our power in this country for too long [and] we are not powerless. We have to claim that power."

Noland's witness at Camp Casey will continue this weekend, as she plans to return to support Cindy Sheehan and those who have joined in demanding withdrawal from Iraq.

• Also Read: "Called to Witness, Called to Serve: Rev. Cynthia L. Kane"

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