SALEM, N.H. – Paul Schaefer of Alpine talks softly while standing in front of The Woodbury School, Sunday afternoon. He is not chanting loudly or carrying a sign. Yet this Vietnam veteran is an anti-war protester who has traveled from the Big Bend area of Texas to advocate peace.
Schaefer and Jim Goodnow, also a Vietnam veteran, are part of the Yellow Rose Peace Bus and are members of the Big Bend Chapter of Veterans for Peace. They are volunteering with New Hampshire Peace Action and the American Friends Service Committee, traversing New Hampshire during these days before the Jan. 8 primary – the nation’s first.
“The group has three objectives – get candidates to commit to withdraw from Iraq within one year; use diplomacy with Iran and use funds that would be used in the war back home and in reconstruction of Iraq,” Schaefer said.
As for becoming an activist, Schaefer said it’s been in the past four years that he has gotten more involved.
But, Schaefer, who was in the Navy during Vietnam, said he didn’t support that war, “even when I was in it.”
Since 2003, he said, he’s seen the country go into “an attack mode. Personally, I consider the war in Iraq an illegal war. A criminal war. So … I’m doing my part.”
The Yellow Rose of Texas bus is a traveling billboard, with steer horns in front.
“It’s Texas-style,” Schaefer said. “We’re trying to do it in a big way.”
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