War Continues to Fuel Local Peace Movement

Author: Kelsey Rinehart

As bombs fall on Baghdad and coalition forces attack in Iraq, Middlebury residents continue to voice their opposition to the war. The actuality of armed conflict in Iraq has awakened the anti-war sentiments of even more citizens, who join together on the Middlebury Town Green for Saturday peace vigils, which have been taking place weekly since Sept. 11.
Winslow Colwell, organizer of the vigils, said, "We carry on. Since the war started, we've just seen the numbers get larger. More and more people feel that they need to send a clear message: that they do not support the war. I think it's wonderful that people voice their convictions." Fellow peace vigil organizer and member of the Addison County Peace Coalition Netaka White of Salisbury agreed, noting, "Yes, the war is on, but that's no reason for the protest to let up. In fact, we feel that it's all the more reason to make it very clear that there is a significant part of the community that still stands against the war, the reasons for the war, the nature of the war, and a whole host of issues revolving around it."
Recent anti-war protests have been varied and frequent. On March 1, 400 gathered for "A Patriotic Response on Main St.," an event organized by White and fellow Vermonter Derrick Senior, founder of the national movement Patriots for Peace. A candlelight vigil on the night of March 20, when the war officially began, again united hundreds of Addison County residents, including Middlebury students, faculty and staff, in opposition to the war. White said that the goal of the protests was "to provide more opportunity for those people that want to bear witness to the atrocities, to give people opportunity to come out and stand in solidarity with all the victims. There are victims as in allied soldiers, people involved in the military, and of course, the Iraqi citizens, civilians."
One Middlebury resident has a unique connection to the war in Iraq. Rev. Paul Bortz is an ardent anti-war activist whose son enlisted in the Marine Corps and is now stationed in Kuwait. Bortz, who struggles between supporting his son and his desire for peaceful resolution, said, "The huge dilemma is that my son and other soldiers have been trained to kill."
For Bortz, the phrase "support our troops" has taken on an ironic meaning. "I don't like that term, 'support the troops,'" Bortz said, asserting that his son and other soldiers are there because President Bush and the U.S. leadership military sent them.
Echoing Bortz's sentiments, Colwell said, "We peacemakers are there because we support the troops as well." He also noted, "A lot of [the soldiers] are there without necessarily wanting to be there, because they didn't feel like they had other options." White expressed an equally strong opinion, saying, "I think a lot of people who support the administration are hiding behind this thing of 'supporting the troops,' but if you look at what the administration is really doing to support the troops, it's heinous. Our government doesn't support the troops. They recruit them, and they give them opportunities to go out and do their soldiering, but I feel terrible about the fact that they're out there fighting in a foreign country for reasons which were not even really told."
Within the troops, however, there may be differing opinion, such as that held by Vermonter Dan Beattie. After graduating from Williamstown High School, Beattie enlisted in the Navy. Now a damage controlman, he responds to emergencies below deck, such as fires or floods. "Luckily, everything has been slow," he said in a telephone interview with The Rutland Herald from the USS Constellation, which is stationed in the Persian Gulf. Beattie did not hesitate to voice his opinion about the justness of the mission in Iraq. "My biggest fear out here is ... that we're going to be called back because of political gains before the job's finished," he said. "That's the only thing I fear out here. Now that we started something, I want to be able to get the chance to finish it right the first time." Fellow Vermonter and shipmate Joseph Zack of Killington, a 26-year-old pilot who flies search-and-rescue missions, said of the peace protestors, "We're out here fighting for the country, and that's their given right to protest. We'll let them do their business, and we'll take care of our business out here."
Bortz pointed to soldiers such as Beattie, Zack and his son and noted that many young people who don't go to college feel that entering the Army or Navy is the only chance for success. "Basically, kids who struggle in high school think that if you want to grow up, a place to do it is in the service. The attitude is "We're going to teach you how to kill so you can grow up." He recalled that only one in 27 soldiers come from well-off families and asked, "Who comprises the military force? Most are coming from the working classes." Bortz said that his son Andrew was in that one out of 27, but that "he signed up before Iraq was back on the radar screen."
Twenty-year-old United States Marine Corps Private first class Andrew Paul Bortz was sent to Kuwait and assigned to an infantry support division. He and his colleagues are now helping ready troops for the march on Baghdad, getting supplies to front-line troops and directing soldiers as to where they need to go.
Paul Bortz said, "I'm embarrassed that he's there. I didn't try to stop him." Now, Bortz and his wife, the Rev. Catherine Nichols, anxiously await any communication with Andrew. "I just got a letter - it was such an enormous relief. We haven't heard from him in two and a half weeks." For the Bortz family, this separation is something new. "He's the first in our family in four generations to be in combat, to be a soldier," Bortz commented.
Nichols said, "I feel very strongly that our being against the war doesn't have to be a negation of Andrew." Bortz agreed, noting that he brings his son's picture to each peace event he attends. "It's a little picture, and I pass it around. People lift it up to their hearts. People come up to me and say, 'Now I know a person whose family is involved in the war,'" he said.
Along with the sentiments of Nichols, Bortz, White and Colwell, which surface frequently at peace vigils and anti-war meetings, there are a number of slightly different but equally important perspectives - those of children. Burlington fourth-grader Ari Kornbluh and several of his classmates voiced their opposition to the war just hours before it began. "Bush was telling everyone to get duct tape because there's going to be another terrorist attack,'" he said. "I thought that if you buy the duct tape and write 'No War' with it, it would be kind of cool." Ari and his classmates said they were concerned for the many Iraqis who will inevitably fall victim to the attacks. "The people who don't have anything to do with war are mixed up with the soldiers,'' he said before the first attack. "If we shoot a bomb at Iraq, it will kill innocent people as well as Army people."
With the reality of war now upon the country, many argue that peace protests have failed to prevent the conflict, while others say that this was never the aim. White asked, "Will this change policy? Personally, I don't think [the protests] are going to change policy, but it's a very short jump over to the fact that I think it's affecting policy on an international level."
Bortz agreed, but had an additional take on the affect of the protests on war. "The war was planned a long time ago, the demonstrations wouldn't stop it," he said. White noted, "I think we have a very arrogant administration, many people would agree with that. They're concerned with corporate interests and where the money is. That arrogance says that they're not really paying attention to what the people are doing or saying."
Bortz pointed to oil as a main cause driving the war, commenting, "We are addicted to oil - that's the distressing thing to me. The awful thing is we can afford the war." Bortz has now organized a group of
people who are boycotting products and companies that are tied to war, in particular oil from the Persian Gulf. Bortz says he and others are interested in "starting to tie consumption in with war. That's the difference this protest can make. It's not just about violence, it's about consumption." He commented, "American automobile companies - there's not a single one that cares about increasing their mileage per gallon."
Bortz pointed out that environmental activism and an anti-war perspective often go hand-in-hand. "The Templeton Peace prize was given to a professor who said that global warming is much more important than Saddam Hussein," Bortz said, adding, "My biggest concern is the environment."
He singled out other issues that support his perspective that the situation in Iraq is by no means the most grievous danger today's world faces. He said, "The weapon of mass destruction that we should be worried about" - AIDS - affects 50 million people a year. Bortz continued, "If we really cared about weapons of mass destruction, we'd be concerned with what allows 30,000 kids to die in the world each day - hunger." Bortz said, "We know how to fix that stuff, but we're not doing it."