Greg Mortenson

Each week people including Tina Rodriguez, Drusha Mayhue, Margarita McLarty and Lain Kay worked to hold vigils at the Gallatin County Courthouse.

They organized peace marches down Main Street to show their opposition to the war, all the while emphasizing their support for the American troops fighting it.

Local peace activists held teachings at Montana State University, brought experienced speakers to Bozeman to talk about the war and endured name-calling and ridicule from people with opinions opposite their own.

“I’m really tired of being called names. We don’t do that to the people who support the war,” Kay told the Chronicle last spring. “I don’t know why people who support the war feel the need to be vicious to us.”

Being hated for promoting peace is a familiar feeling for Greg Mortenson, founder of the Bozeman-based Central Asia Institute.

In the days after Sept. 11, Mortenson received hate mail and threats for his work building schools in northern Pakistan. The goal of his program is to increase education for children so they won’t turn to terrorism as a way to survive.

Although some disagree with his work, clearly not everyone feels that way, as demonstrated by the $1 million in donations for his organization that followed some national publicity.

Mortenson was featured on the cover of Parade Magazine in early April, a publication that is distributed to millions of readers each week. The article inspired thousands of people from across the country to send letters to Mortenson expressing a variety of religious and political views.

“It has renewed my faith in the American people, our strength is not so much in our commonality, but lies in our diversity,” Mortenson told the Chronicle in June. “The public is becoming much more educated about terrorism, and is looking at alternative solutions to the real root causes of terrorism.”

© 2003 Bozeman Daily Chronicle