Some residents of Mill Valley's Redwoods Retirement Center feel President Bush is leading the country into war and they demonstrated yesterday - using canes, walkers and wheelchairs - to let him know they want no part of it.

"He doesn't tell us what's going on," said Nora Boskoff, 84, organizer of a curbside demonstration yesterday outside the nursing home on Camino Alto.

"It's becoming like (Soviet) Russia or (Nazi) Germany."

PROTEST: Mabre Krueger, 88, makes her way yesterday to the corner of Camino Alto and Miller Avenue for an anti-war protest organized by a group of residents from The Redwoods retirement community. Dozens of protesters attended the demonstration, many using canes, walkers and wheelchairs as they stood by the roadside waving signs and singing protest songs. (Photo/Jeff Vendsel)

Last week, she decided the time had come to start the nursing home's first peace group and anti-war demonstration. Little did she know that more than 80 other residents would be there to support her.

"We didn't expect this many people," she said.

One of those who joined Boscoff was Leonard Prossor, 87, who spent six years in North Africa and Italy during WWII while serving in the British army.

"Many of these people have experienced war," he said, gesturing toward the demonstrators.

He said the Bush Administration doesn't know what it's inflicting on the world because so few of them actually experienced the mayhem of war.

"I regret I was privy to killing people," he said.

Bea Lott, program coordinator at the nursing home, said only about three or four of the residents attended the large San Francisco anti-war rally last month because it required so much standing. The nursing home doesn't necessarily support the anti-war position but she said the residents have a right to speak their minds and it is her job to help them accomplish that.

"We'll have coffee, hot chocolate and American flags next time," she said, referring to another demonstration scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday. "Next time it will be more colorful."

The event was colorful enough for passing motorists coming home from work and getting out of school. Many of them honked their car horns and hollered out support to the protesting seniors.

Mutsu Muneno, 95, was the oldest resident protesting. Burrowed inside a winter coat, gloves and a wool hat, she chanted "No War," while holding up one end of a banner that spelled out PEACE. She said Bush needs to do a better job of convincing the public before taking such drastic measures with America's troops.

"I don't support any of this," she said. "It winds up killing the young."

Copyright 2003 Marin Independent Journal

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