Live from Crawford, Texas Live from Crawford, Texas (August 26, 2005)

Mountain View mom joins vigil outside President's ranch

By Jon Wiener

What would you do if your son was killed fighting a war that you opposed? If you were Karen Meredith, you'd go join your friend in trying to ruin the President's vacation at his Texas ranch.

Shortly after her son Ken Ballard -- a 1995 graduate of Mountain View High School -- died in Iraq in May 2004, a victim of small-arms fire, Meredith received a condolence card in the mail from Cindy Sheehan. The two had never met, but they began speaking regularly after that. Meredith soon joined Gold Star Families for Peace, a group co-founded by Sheehan, and began speaking out at vigils and peace rallies in Mountain View and beyond.

Then a couple of weeks ago, she picked up the paper and saw that her friend had camped out near the President's Texas ranch, hoping to meet with him to ask him what "noble cause" her son had died for.

Meredith wasn't far behind. Sunday, she flew to Texas to join the vigil. After all, she said, she has been wondering the same thing, and unlike Sheehan, Meredith's never spoken with the President.

Speaking with the Voice by phone on Monday, Meredith said she was on her way to speak to a group at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Her voice was breaking, as it often does when she talks about her son.

"It's been pretty amazing," she said of the outpouring of support for Sheehan and other Gold Star Families for Peace. "People just kind of need to come here."

The night before, she had watched a concert by Woodside resident Joan Baez. Meredith held hands with Gold Star families from around the country, shedding tears during a rendition of "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" Afterwards, as the sun was setting, a former Marine played "Taps" on his bugle. The group finished by singing "America the Beautiful."

Monday, after Sheehan had gone back to California to be with her ailing mother, Meredith met with several well-wishers and told her own story to the press. An Episcopalian priest from Southern California presented 500 signatures from his parishioners supporting the vigil.

But not everybody who was headed to Crawford this week was going there in support of peace.

As conservative commentators were trying to discredit Sheehan over past comments she made about Israeli politics, a right-wing group called Move America Forward was traveling to Crawford on its "You Don't Speak For Me, Cindy!" tour.

The group, led by a conservative Bay Area talk radio host, was trumpeting the views of Deborah Johns, a pro-war activist whose son is serving in Iraq with the Marines.

Meredith said she wasn't concerned about any potential conflict, and that the Gold Star Families for Peace had decided not to engage in any kind of debate.

"These women have lost their children, too. We share their grief, but we disagree with them." Besides, she added, "there's nowhere for them to park."
Support from the home front

Wendy Fleet, an old friend of Meredith's who had been carrying her "Teach Peace" sign for 1,049 consecutive days as of Tuesday, is publishing letters from Crawford on her Web site at http://pogblog.myblogsite.com. In the first one, Meredith spoke of looking at the full moon over Texas and imagining that her son was looking at it as well, a thought she said used to comfort her when he was in Iraq.

"I just became very quiet and still as I read it," said Fleet of the letter. "It's just such real stuff."

Before leaving, Meredith spoke to more than 150 people at a satellite vigil at the Mountain View Civic Center on Wednesday night. It was at a similar vigil last December that Meredith became a leading figure in the peace movement.

Before going on her latest journey, Meredith sent an e-mail to supporters in which she explained her motives. She wrote, "I do not want one more mother to go through this hellish journey as I am."

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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