The first day Rich Davis and Karen Porter knew there would be a large turnout for both their pro- and anti-Iraq war demonstrations, the two leaders said a prayer together over the phone.
Five weeks later, on the fifth anniversary of the Chester County Peace Movement's first Saturday protest at High and Market Streets in West Chester, the two groups stood on opposite corners. In between, hundreds of people had turned out on both sides, the decibel level increased and relations soured.
Porter, whose Peace Movement has been protesting since before the Iraq war began, said she felt betrayed by a speech Davis gave in September in which he said, "the terrorists love it when they see protesters on TV."
Davis was offended by the way an e-mail Porter sent out referred to members of his group, the Chester County Victory Movement. It described them, some of whom brought their motorcycles and wore jeans and leather, as "thugs" and "dressed up in costumes that only say, 'I won't hurt you because those cops are here - but I would if I could.' "
They're both passionate people influenced by the Vietnam War, who say their movements would have eventually started without them. But they've become the face for their causes, and have given up on trying to convince, or even talk to, each other. Here are their stories.
Karen Porter
When Porter, 60, of West Goshen, first started her peace movement, she thought the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan made sense.
After five years of organizing the protests, expanding the group, and waking up before five in the morning to read articles and send e-mails to the Peace Movement's mailing list - it now has about 1,000 subscribers - she's become more of a pacifist.
"It's not only futile," Porter said of war, "but it never ends. It just goes on."
She's not a total pacifist, though. She doesn't think the U.S. had to drop two atomic bombs on Japan, but she's not sure if it had a choice in fighting Germany. And she doesn't know whether "if you attack me, I won't attack back. You know, I'm not sure I'm totally there," Porter said. "That's an ideal for me."
Porter considers Davis' group a test for her. She said they were intentionally dressing and acting a certain way to intimidate her group, and the e-mail that referred to them as "thugs" wasn't a mistake, but "nave on my part. Because I was describing things as I saw them."
At the end of the five-year anniversary demonstration in October, Porter said they'd be at the corner for five more years if necessary.
