Dori Ramsay, part-time resident of Terlingua Ranch and Big Bend National Park who is summering in Burlington, Wisconsin, sent this photo (above) of the “Viva Terlingua! Peace Bus” (driven by Jim Goodnow), flanked by war protesters in front of the Washington Monument. The following is excerpted from a letter Ramsay wrote to the editor of her local newspaper:

“I have just returned from the September 24 March on Washington to Bring the Troops in Iraq Back Home. I joined approximately 800-1,000 Wisconsin residents, most of whom took buses to Washington. It was the largest anti-war protest in the nation’s capital since the invasion of Iraq, and the first in a decade that federal officials allowed to go past the White House.

Many of us stayed to lobby our public officials on Monday. We slept at a local Catholic church on the basement chapel floor. Of the 37 people on our bus, 15 had never been active politically before. One woman was a teacher who was fired because she told her class that she honked for peace when she went by.

We met with Senator Feingold’s staff, Senator Kohl’s staff, and Congressman Ryan’s staff. We asked the staff members to convey our concerns to their Senators and Congressman and asked for specific support of legislation (some of which has already been introduced by Senator Feingold) to bring our troops home, and re-establish our position as a country that rebuilds, not occupies foreign countries. We asked them to support legislation that would say that we will not build permanent bases in Iraq, so that the Iraqi people could believe that we have no intention of staying in Iraq. We asked that the reconstruction money go to local Iraqi contractors and the work to Iraqis to help revitalize their devastated economy.

I’ve seen a lot of different numbers reported in the papers about how many people were at the march…. Aerial photographs…would help put a perspective on the numbers. On the march, there were people as far as I could see in every direction. When I joined the March, I stood still, 30 people across, for 15 minutes before we moved, and then it took 2 1⁄2 hours to walk 10 blocks because there were so many people... It was peaceful and filled with a cross section of America’s young, old, veterans, mothers, students, all sorts of people who don’t agree on a lot of other issues, but do agree that we need to get out of Iraq. There were at least 200-300,000 people with signs: Pagans for Peace, Breasts not bombs, Bush lies, People die. …

There is peace all around us; spread it.”