Countywide : Rallies Will Address Both Sides of War

Peace activists and supporters of military action in the Middle East will demonstrate across the county today.

The Ventura County Coalition for Peace in the Persian Gulf will protest between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the intersection of Saviers Road and Channel Islands Boulevard. The group, which expects more than 500 people, will also demonstrate from 1 to 3 p.m. at Buenaventura Plaza at Telegraph and Mills roads.

Supporters of the U.S.-led forces in the Middle East, including Vietnam veterans and members of the American Legion, will rally between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. at the Ventura County Government Center on the corner of Victoria Avenue and Telephone Road. Organizer Francie Botke, a Ventura artist, expects to draw about 200 people.

Also in Ventura, members of the God Bless Americans League will picket against a controversial exhibit being shown at the Momentum Gallery on Palm Drive between 10 a.m. and noon.

In Thousand Oaks, members of the local National Organization for Women and SANE/Freeze, a peace and disarmament organization, will join the Conejo Democratic Club between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the intersection of Moorpark Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Students from Thousand Oaks High School, Westlake High School and Moorpark College, who have been demonstrating at that intersection every night this week, plan to join the rally, said Terry Grando, a senior adviser to the club.

In Ojai on Monday, St. Thomas Aquinas Church plans an ecumenical service for peace between 7 and 9 p.m.