[url]http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/127505_protests20.html[/url]

Street battle continues in Anacortes two months after war

By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

ANACORTES -- Wind whips the big flag around Ann Emerson's face as she clings to her sign: "A patriot for peace." She's dressed in royal blue: the sweater, the matching socks. Even the veins standing tall on her frail hands are cobalt-colored.

"As long as we're out here, people may ask questions," says the passionate, 89-year-old peace activist. "Questions like, 'Why are you still out here?' "

It's a good question.

"I'm staying here until peace breaks out," says Howard Pellett.

President Bush has declared major combat in Iraq over. Protesters all over the Puget Sound area have packed up signs. But a standoff between Bush supporters and anti-war demonstrators continues in this salty little town, at the busy intersection of Commercial and 12th avenues, the turnoff for tourists headed to the San Juans.

It's a battle of ideology, and a battle of wills. And, although numbers have dwindled, sometimes to a solitary stalwart, neither side is willing to budge.

"We're still here, because they're still there," says 33-year-old Erin Yount, carrying a baby in one arm and a "Support our troops" sign in the other.

Almost every Friday and Sunday, the patriot pro-Bush faction gathers on the northwest corner, waving American flags, carrying signs with yellow ribbons tied around the handles. "Proud American," "Remember 9-11," they read.

Andy Stevens shows his true colors at the intersection of Commercial and 12th avenues in Anacortes.

"There's nothing wrong with peace," says Andy Stevens, 60, an independent video producer in Anacortes. "I love peace. But what are you going to give up for it?

"We're never going to get peace until we develop a zero tolerance for terrorism."

Opposite them, war protesters hold their vigil, carrying signs that say "United for Peace" and "How did our oil get under their sand?" One protester changed the "q" in "No Iraq War" to an "n."

"It wasn't a war. It was an invasion," says Howard Pellett, 64, a retired IRS agent and former Bothell city councilman who decries the role of the United States as aggressor. "I'm out here trying to get people to think."

The corner standoff has been going on almost eight months. Trucks and cars whiz by, belching fumes and honking. A young man screams a sarcastic "Death! Great!" at the Bush group. An old man yells, "Get a job!" at the peace activists.

Either side may get a thumbs-up, a scathing digital salute, a V-sign for victory, or a peace sign -- what Stevens calls "the footprint of the American chicken." It was Stevens, a vet who wears alligator cowboy boots, who tore up one of the protesters' signs -- he claims the man was an infiltrator from across the street -- an act that brought police to the corner to dampen tempers.

There were other little skirmishes. Both sides complain opponents held signs in front of theirs. Words were exchanged. Emerson, who takes her protests sitting down, said the pro-Bush folks one time crowded around her chair, blocked her sign, and told her that her flag should be yellow. "You're with Saddam Hussein."

Andy Stevens' wife, Mary, who owns the local Select Styling beauty salon downtown, complains the opposition has continually tried to dilute the pro-Bush effect.

When her group held up "Support our troops" signs, protesters countered with "Support our troops/Bring them home" messages.

And a sign on one side of the street that read, "These colors don't run" became a "These colors don't run the world" sign on the other.

The "colors don't run" sign belonged to Stevens, who had posted a pro-Bush message on the reader-board outside her salon. "A client said, 'Mary, aren't you afraid it will hurt business?' I said, 'It can close my business! I'm not going to wait until it's popular to be patriotic.' "

The "don't run the government" sign belonged to Ann Emerson, the 89-year- old protester who worries the administration is leading the United States into another war. "I'm just as patriotic as they are, because I think, I read. They just swallow the party line."

Those could be fighting words in another, bigger town. But Emerson is a customer who gets her white coif shaped at Select Styling, and Stevens was quick to negotiate a disarmament treaty with her at the embattled intersection.

Stevens, 55, gave the 89-year- old a hug and said: "I'm glad you're here, even if you're on the wrong side.

"I forgive you, honey."

Demonstrating in a small town is a far cry from marching in a big-city storm-the-streets rally.

"Here you always see your grocer, your postman, the people you know," Howard Pellett says. "You get the message telegraphed that they are for you or against you."

Pellet has been a rock for the protesters, always there, rain or shine, in a group or standing solo. His sign is stapled with three layers now. "No Iraq War" gave way to "Bring the troops home," which was stapled over with "United for Peace."

He passed on "Impeach Bush" as too confrontational.

This public role is an uncomfortable fit for the serious-minded retiree from neighboring Guemes Island. "I don't really enjoy standing on a street corner, holding a sign, especially in a small community."

But Pellett says he doesn't know what else to do. "I am so afraid of the future. I worry about my children, my grandchildren. I worry this war is motivation for every two-bit dictator with 25 cents and a couple of scientists to acquire nuclear weapons."

He's a quiet guy, but determined. Nobody can tell him to shut up, he says. It's America. And he's in this Anacortes slug-out for the long haul.

He won't be alone. His opponents have vowed to hold their territory at 12th and Commercial until their soldiers "take the field."

That means the war in Iraq may be a long, distant memory by the time the street battle of Anacortes is finally ended.

Says Pellet: "I'm staying here until peace breaks out."