Ms. Sheehan has such guts, class and courage.

Sheehan brings Bush protest to North Dallas

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 9, 2009

By SCOTT FARWELL and MATTHEW WALLER / The Dallas Morning News

Former President George W. Bush's new neighbors said anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and about 50 protesters had the constitutional guarantee of free speech on their side Monday.

[Click image for a larger version] G.J. McCARTHY/DMN
G.J. McCARTHY/DMN
Activist Cindy Sheehan (left) had a pointed discussion with a 14-year-old who identified himself only as Jacob at a peace march in Preston Hollow on Monday.

What the protesters didn't use during a demonstration near the Bushes' home in Preston Hollow, they said, was common sense and courtesy.

"America is for both intelligent people and screwballs," said Dr. Fred Minton, who lives near the Bushes.

"We all know there are people who just make fools out of themselves, and she's one of them."

Not everyone greeted the California activist with contempt.

Cyrus Hassankola, arms crossed, nodded in approval as the anti-Bush demonstrators gathered at a boarded-up gas station at the corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane, about a half-mile from the former president's home.

"If we call someone a dictator and pull him down from power and hang him for killing 100,000 people, what shall we do with a man in our neighborhood that has killed almost a million?" he asked.

"I know some people won't like to hear that."

Sheehan gained national attention in 2005 after a prolonged war protest outside Bush's ranch in Crawford. Her son was killed in Iraq in April 2004.

On Monday, the protesters – hoisting signs that read "Mr. Bush, Turn Yourself In" and "War Is Not the Answer" – were met by cool stares, car horns and Bush supporters carrying their own signs.

The event, organized by the Dallas Peace Center, focused on opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the government's use of torture to interrogate suspected terrorists.

"We're not at the White House because it takes a ton of money to get there, and there's a depression caused by the guy who lives down that street," said Sheehan, whose group arrived at the mouth of the street leading to the Bushes' home about 6 p.m.

"We can't move forward until those criminals are in prison," she said in a brief speech to the protesters in front of John J. Pershing Elementary School.

"There are still two wars raging. I'll never be able to get over the death of my son."

Reporters and television camera crews surrounded Sheehan, who stood in a gray T-shirt, blue slacks and white open-toed sandals. Her right ankle was tattooed with the Chinese symbol for heaven, and the peace sign was inked on the inside of her left wrist.

"I don't expect George Bush to come out of his house and turn himself in," Sheehan said before the half-mile march. "But I think it's important to call attention to what we believe are high crimes and misdemeanors against humanity."

Sheehan said she was in Dallas promoting her new book, Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution.

Debbie Valentine, a Bush neighbor, said that as a mother, she sympathizes with Sheehan's pain.

"War is never a good thing, but I think good things can come out of war," she said. "We're all against terrorism, and I'm against it when it comes down the street in front of my house."

The former first family were aware of the protest, but it was not clear whether they were home.

In an interview with WFAA-TV (Channel 8), Laura Bush said the demonstration goes with the territory.

"This is part of what happens to the American president – there are protests in many cases," she said.

"Nearly every president has been protested and it's too bad, but it's just part of life, and George and I are used to it."

sfarwell@dallasnews.com; mwaller@dallasnews.com