This is from the Loveland Reporter Herald Sunday edition.
========================
The young man driving north on Taft Avenue gunned the motor of his red and white Ford Bronco an yelled something unintelligible.
His look suggested uncomplimentary words.
"If they really want to make their point, they ought to come over and tell us in person," Loveland resident Deb Stucklen said Saturday as she stood at one of the city's busiest intersections with signs showing her opposition to war in Iraq.
"We can't hear what they're saying as the car speeds by," she said.
A girl, a passenger in a dark-colored Honda, was traveling south on Taft Avenue. She looked over at the group and gave the thumbs-up as the driver waited for the light to change at Eisenhower Boulevard.
"We get more positive honks and waves and peace signs," Loveland resident Jim Mosley offered. "At least I'd say 10 to 1 positive to negative, of course with a lot more blank stares."
So it goes at Taft Avenue and Eisenhower Boulevard from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. every Saturday, Stucklen said.
Loveland's peace demonstration, which started here a month ago, follows a weekly vigil in Fort Collins at Mulberry Street and College Avenue on Saturdays from noon until 1 p.m., she said.
The Fort Collins demonstration geared up shortly after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and Stucklen said another group now meets to counterprotest.
"I don't know what the other group is named," she said. "All I know is they say, 'Support our troops' and 'Thank a vet.' They have a (sign with a) picture of (Osama) bin Laden with bars in front of his face."
The people Saturday in Loveland's group of 10 said they oppose an impending war in Iraq for various reasons, among them the harm that could come to innocent civilians.
And they stood in the cold to make that point.
Their signs cite millions of deaths since sanctions were imposed in 1991. They display pictures of babies losing battles against illnesses.
Stucklen holds one sign with a doe-eyed girl without arms, her head wrapped in the traditional hijab scarf that covers the head and neck as a symbol of modesty.
The caption: "War maims." "Saddam Hussein is a jerk. He's evil. I totally agree," Holly Roessner said.
But she also said that was beside the point.
"There are other ways" to achieve peace, Roessner said. "You don't have to go and bomb the daylights out of people to get them to pay attention. You really don't."
"The babies there, the children and the old people are dying."
Sam Nordstrom is sniffling but remains on post, waving and holding his sign. The Loveland High School senior forgot his gloves but decided to stop in Loveland before going home after protesting earlier in Fort Collins.
"This is the first one I've been at down here," he said, adding that he's attended the Fort Collins demonstration five times.
Although only 17 and not yet old enough to vote, Nordstrom still has politics on his mind.
"I look forward to it," he said of voting. "With the elections coming up, Bush and the oil industry, it's just such a ploy for oil and political gain."
Mosley looks a little warmer than the others with his multi-colored jacket and hat and the salt-and-pepper beard he's been growing for 30 years.
The Loveland man sums up his views in big, red letters on a white poster board: "Only love prevails."
"It's a universal truth," Mosley said. "Look to the history of war. It's always a temporary solution. The data supports me."