http://www.thestate.com/headlines/a1docs/marines15.htm

Published Monday, November 15, 1999, in The State.

Military protest, peace vigil draws few supporters

By BILL MCDONALD Staff Writer

A vigil protesting the Marines' urban warfare training in Columbia attracted only 10 supporters to the steps of the State House Sunday.

But even so, said Harry Rogers, outreach coordinator for the Carolina Peace Resource Center in Columbia, "we're getting our message across." The group sponsored the vigil.

Rogers, who served in Vietnam and returned as a pacifist, said his organization did not oppose the role of the military as a peacekeeping force.

In fact, the military has been playing that role in such trouble spots as Kosovo and East Timor, he said.

But "the military training you're now seeing in Columbia only leads to violence. Real change comes most meaningfully from non-violent action," he said, quoting from the words of the late Martin Luther King Jr.

Rogers also criticized Columbia city officials for not publicizing the warfare training exercise sooner: "People have been calling us wanting to know what all the helicopters flying overhead are all about."

Bruce Pearson, a retired USC linguistics and anthropology professor, said the two-week training exercise also raised disturbing questions:

"Why was Columbia selected? Why does such warfare training need to be conducted in a peaceful city?

"I don't like to think that this is aimed at some kind of eventual intervention in our cities. These are war games, not exercises in maintaining civil order."

The real role of the military, he said, should be to ward off injustices that lead to conflict and to serve as peace keepers, not serve as examples of violence.

Rebecca Rogers, chairman of the peace center's board and the wife of Harry Rogers, asked that all South Carolinians join with them in expressing support of nonviolent responses to conflict.

The Marines' military training, she said, sent out the message that it was "OK to resort to violence to solve conflicts."

Also, the money spent on the training exercise, she said, could have been better spent "helping the homeless and needy in our community."

Sunday evening's small crowd, Harry Rogers said, did not dampen the enthusiasm of the peace center supporters .

He quoted Margaret Mead, the late anthropologist, on the power a small group can wield:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

The Carolina Peace Resource Center is affiliated with the national Fellowship of Reconciliation. It is located at 305 South Saluda Avenue in Columbia.

For further information, call the peace center office at (803)-252-2221.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Tminus45&counting.down), November 16, 1999

Answers

So now we are in bed with the peaceniks?

-- (betterbed@than.dead), November 16, 1999.