Portland plot for peace flowers on Memorial Day
Two acres - Veterans and a developer help get a site near the Rose Quarter designated as Peace Memorial Park
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
ANNE SAKER
The Oregonian

For years, the little slice of the city went unloved. Most people ignored its spectacular view of downtown.

But when the sun returned on Memorial Day, visitors came by the dozens, because many hands had turned the forgotten corner into a lush green place, adorned with tender annuals and given a purpose.

About 250 people celebrated the creation of Peace Memorial Park -- a 2-acre site near the Rose Quarter and the Steel Bridge -- by Veterans for Peace and real estate developer Brad Perkins. For them, the unveiling counterbalanced the martial nature of most Memorial Day ceremonies.

Anita Pritchard, who with her husband, Mark, visited the park with their children, said she had laid flowers Sunday at the grave of her nephew, William Ramirez, 19, a soldier killed in Iraq two years ago.

The peace park gave her solace, she said.

"Portland is ahead of the curve here," she said. "There are polls showing that many people are very much against the war. This shows that Portland is actually doing something."

Perkins, 54, said he had long known about the little slice of the city. He remembered standing there with a broken heart after the Trail Blazers lost in the 1990 NBA finals, feeling hope again as he gazed upon the stunning sight of his hometown from that promontory overlooking the river.

But that little slice itself was not beautiful. Surrendered to weeds years ago, the place drove people away with the mind-numbing drone from the Interstate 5 overpass and the MAX trains' rumble over the Steel Bridge.

In July, Perkins said, he decided to do something. He asked Mayor Tom Potter about creating a peace park, and Potter said it was a fine idea. Perkins figured out that the city's Transportation Department owned the land. Department officials were happy to have volunteers clean up the space.

In November, Perkins talked with members of the Portland chapter of Veterans for Peace. "They said, 'Far out, man,' " Perkins said.

Perkins got the city paperwork completed. Then, Grant Remington, president emeritus of the veterans group, said, "On April 29, we broke ground -- and our first rototiller."

The next week, they brought in stouter equipment and tore out the weeds. The Veterans for Peace noticed that one space of the park was circular. "It was evident what it should be," Remington said.

On Saturday, May 20, more than 80 volunteers planted purple petunias and sunny orange marigolds in the shape of a gigantic peace sign.

"People love it," Remington said. "We had a dozen people stop and plant a flower."

The people at Monday's ceremony were young and old, bald and ponytailed, tie-dyed and uniformed. Mayor Potter stepped to the microphone and said he realized he was the only one wearing a tie. Off it came.

"Bring your friends here," the mayor urged the crowd. "I am going to bring people who visit Portland here. This is what we stand for, right?"

Perkins and other speakers told the crowd that Memorial Day must be a remembrance of soldiers' deaths but also of the millions of civilian lives lost in all conflicts.

"There are many that die in war," Perkins said, "people that have died innocently, just living on their land."

At the end, Perkins called up all the children and asked them to distribute bunches of yellow and white daisies.

People walked around the little slice of the city with its peace sign garden, and when they came to the center, they dropped their flowers. And they promised to come back.

Anne Saker: 503-294-7656; annesaker@news.oregonian.com

©2006 The Oregonian

Groups will protest Iraq war on its one-year anniversary

More than 30 organizations will join in activities against the war Saturday starting in Pioneer Courthouse Square

03/18/04

MARK LARABEE

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy Romei was 22 years old when his Huey helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea on Oct. 8, 1990.

He signed up to serve because he wanted to help liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein.

"I wrote to him and told him that I was protesting the (PersianGulf) war," said his mother, Tina Tierson, 59, of Vancouver. "He wrote back to me and said, 'You wouldn't be my mom unless you protested,' and he asked me to do everything I could to get them home."

That was the last letter Tierson received from her son. She spoke about his death Wednesday during a news conference called by the newly reactivated chapter of Veterans for Peace.

Two days before the first anniversary of the start of the current war in Iraq, Veterans for Peace members voiced their opposition to it. While the U.S. occupying forces are struggling to secure Iraq, thousands are getting set to protest the war and the rationale for it.

Tierson and others said they will participate Saturday in a day of action against the war along with people in cities across Oregon, the nation and the world.

"I can't believe it's happening again," Tierson said of the latest Iraq war.

In Portland, 2,000 to 5,000 people are expected to take part in a 1 p.m. rally and march that will begin and end in Pioneer Courthouse Square, said Dan Handelman, spokesman for Peace & Justice Works in Portland.

Speakers, music and information

There will be speakers and music, he said, and more than 30 groups involved in the peace movement will have tables set up around the square with information about their efforts.

"We wanted to make another statement that the world says no to war," Handelman said.

At least 200 such events are planned nationwide. In Oregon, protests also are planned in Corvallis, Eugene, Florence, Medford and Roseburg, Handelman said.

Grant Remington, president of Veterans for Peace in Portland, noted that more than 500 U.S. soldiers have died since the war began by showing headstones on sheets of paper spread across several tables.

"All of us have taken a stand against this unjust war because it was brought to us by lies," said Remington, 55, who was a helicopter crew chief in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.

Bill Bires, 75, a Korean War draftee, said he believes the current conflict in the Middle East is about the control of oil. "I object to American soldiers being sent into a pest hole like Iraq is now, in order to ensure future profits for the oil industry and for globalization," he said.

He also said he was unhappy with the Bush administration's policy of bringing back the American war dead "under the cover of darkness" and not allowing the media to photograph their coffins.

"I think that this is the greatest disrespect that the administration can visit upon us as veterans," Bires said. "They did what they were asked to do, and now they are being treated shamelessly."

Family friendly event

Saturday's rally is being billed as a peaceful, family friendly event. Organizers have obtained a permit from the city, and police are planning to close several downtown streets to accommodate the marchers.

Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth said his department has been working with the organizers so there is clear communication during the march. But he said the bureau has developed contingency plans in the event any fringe group tries to disrupt the peaceful demonstration.

"Based upon our experience, there is a small element of people whose intention is to disrupt the event, and they do so by engaging in criminal behavior," Foxworth said. "We are making plans to deal with that so it doesn't mar the event."

Mark Larabee: 503-294-7664; marklarabee@news.oregonian.com

Copyright 2004 Oregon Live. All Rights Reserved.

FROM 1190 KEX RADIO (Portland)

http://www.1190kex.com/news/localstory.php?id=7804

Veterans to join peace march

Audio available here

Mar 17, 2004

A long-dissolved peace group for veterans is reforming in Portland.

Vietnam veteran Grant Remington struggles with emotion as he thinks about

the War in Iraq, the hundreds of American soldiers who have died. "It's hard

for me to talk about this and not really get angry." He says the anger's

growing among veterans, which is why Remington helped rebuild the Oregon

chapter of Veterans for Peace. The group will be in this Saturday's peace

march in Portland. Vietnam and Desert Storm vet Deb Hedding says it will be

a powerful sight. "We're going to be carrying the boots of folks that can't

be here today. Why? Because they were killed in this unjust war." Thousands

of people are expected at the march.