| Posted on Fri, Feb. 14, 2003 |   |
 |
|
||
|
Troops cheered from the sidelines
SUPPORTERS MOBILIZE TO SEND CARDS, CARE PACKAGES Mercury News And now, the silent majority. With the anti-war movement getting most of the attention, Bay Area residents who back President Bush's campaign to disarm Iraq or want to show their support for U.S. troops have begun to organize as well. And, as reservists head to the Persian Gulf, they are mobilizing with urgency. Among their efforts: Small counterprotests are becoming more common at anti-war rallies. Two Southern California businessmen have collected nearly 1 million Valentine's Day cards, and are delivering them to military personnel around the world. A Silicon Valley group is gathering paperback books, toothbrushes, socks and sunblock for care packages that will be mailed to soldiers stationed overseas. ``We want to make sure that the anti-war side is not the only side that is out in public,'' said Jim Robinson, a Vietnam War veteran who lives in Fresno. ``There is a group called Peace Fresno, and they protest every Friday. A few of us decided to go out and counterprotest, and we've kept it up. As long as they are there, we are going to be there.'' Robinson is active in a conservative organization called ``The Free Republic,'' which has chapters around the country. ``Operation Infinite FReep'' is dedicated to ``show support for our troops, President Bush, the families and victims of the recent terrorist attacks, and the United States of America.'' Robinson supports using military force to disarm Iraq. But like many people interviewed, he is most concerned about the tens of thousands of men and women who are being deployed for possible combat. ``We don't want this to turn into the 1960s,'' said Robinson, who served on Navy destroyers. ``When we came home we were treated like dirt, and we want to make sure that that doesn't happen again.'' A majority of Americans -- nearly six in 10 -- support attacking Iraq even without the approval of the United Nations, according to two national polls released this week. Christina Clark, a 23-year-old teacher's aide at Holy Spirit School in San Jose, was 15 when a close friend joined the Marines. She sent him a care package, and soon got letters back that his buddies also wanted care packages (Note: Candy is popular). She formed ``Christina Cares,'' but recently merged her efforts with ``Operation Yellow Ribbon.'' Clark and Jared Sowards are collecting donations from valley residents, and volunteers will gather at a San Jose warehouse Feb. 22 to assemble care packages. ``It's not about whether you are for a war in Iraq or against it,'' said Clark, whose fiance was deployed recently from the Navy base in San Diego. ``It's for the troops. These men and women are moms and dads and aunts and uncles. Everyone who is out there is someone's someone.'' Similar support-the-troops efforts took place during the gulf war in 1991. But e-mail and the Internet have made it much easier to publicize efforts. In Southern California, two businessmen are close to their goal of distributing 1 million valentines -- many of them handmade -- to U.S troops. The valentine campaign was an offshoot of letter writing that Michael and David Fleming started during the 1991 gulf war. This time, they have spread the word on their Web site -- www.valentinesfortroops.com -- and have gotten a far greater response. ``The post office has to use a special truck to bring us all the cards,'' said Michael Fleming, the owner of an ice cream parlor in Santa Clarita. ``We've received valentines from all over the country.'' Another support group is ``Marine Moms Online,'' which debuted in July 1997 and has about 3,000 members, many of whom have become close friends. Zeta Peterson has an 18-year-old son in the Marines in Pensacola, Fla. He probably will not be sent to Iraq, but Peterson still mailed nearly 75 Christmas cards to sons of other moms she had met online. ``We're mostly a support group, but it's an amazing group,'' said Peterson, who works for Hewlett-Packard and lives in Morgan Hill. ``In January, my nephew was murdered in Michigan. A Marine Mom in New Jersey gave me a free airline ticket so I could fly to Michigan and be with my family at a time when we needed each other the most.'' Sunday, another big anti-war demonstration will be held in San Francisco. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend -- including Cinnamon Stillwell, a self-described ``former liberal'' who recently joined the Free Republic. ``I want people to know, and I'd like our troops to know, that the anti-war movement does not speak for everyone in the Bay Area, and they don't have a monopoly on the streets,'' said Stillwell, a freelance writer who plans to counterprotest with 30 or 40 others on the steps of City Hall. ``I question the claims that this is about anti-war; it seems like it's anti-everything.'' Stillwell, 33, was born and raised in Marin and jokes that she ``used to be on the other side.'' ``I'm an ex-hippie child,'' she said. ``But Sept. 11 blew my mind, and seeing our country attacked like that was a big shock. It led to a conversion of sorts. It really woke me up to Islamic terrorism and the ideology behind it. It's out there, and it's very real, and it's very scary.'' |
||