The sides.

Maybe we can't assess a situation simply by sussing out the players—the opponents and proponents, the major actors and those who comment on the action. But in Crawford, Texas, history will look at the two assembled sides, not the silent purple of the rest of America that—for now—is keeping its mouth shut. Which are you on?

The side of Larry Northern, arrested for destroying war memorials at Cindy Sheehan's protest camp with his pickup truck, or sheep farmer Larry Mattlage, who fired his shotgun into the air in anger over the continued presence of peace activists? The side of Rush Limbaugh, who, seeming to ignore the reality of Casey Sheehan's death in Iraq last April, claims that Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real"? The side of the many who berate Sheehan, including one person who, as Sheehan says, has been spreading the lie I had said that Casey died for Israel"? The side of David Horowitz, who calls Sheehan "hateful" and says that she "exploits the death of her own son and doesn't respect her own son's life" and "portrays him as an idiot"? The side of Bush, who can't take five minutes out of his biking-and-brushclearing vacation to wander to the end of the driveway and see what the fuss is about? Who can't suck it up, take a well-deserved, 5-minute beating from a bereaved war mom, and do his job as an able commander-in-chief?

Or the side made up of those who've lost sons and daughters in Iraq—including MN State Sen. Becky Lourey, Bill Mitchell, and Celeste Zappala—and the side of the soldiers at nearby Fort Hood who are donating supplies to Camp Casey? The side of people across the country who are holding vigils for the Crawford peace activists tonight (constantly updated Flickr photostream here)? The side of the people on this video, who—thanks to the power of citizen media and the internet—we can see for ourselves, without having to trust the filters of media, are thoughtful and credible, not "hateful" or manipulative?