Many Corvallis residents were shocked and disappointed that the Gazette-Times didn't bother to cover last Saturday's peace march, no doubt one of the biggest events of this nature in Corvallis' history, with at least 450 people participating in the hour-long march through city streets culminating in another hour-long rally at the courthouse.

Several residents vented by meeting with the G-T editor and demonstrating in front of the

G-T offices on Monday.

But little did they know that the G-T would soon add insult to injury by publishing an editorial in Tuesday's newspaper entitled "War veterans' honor, dignity alive and well," by Kevin Ferris, who writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Mr. Ferris began his editorial by stating, "There were two very different gatherings of (sic) earlier this month. One was Winter Soldiers (sic) II. … Like its namesake gathering from the 1970s, Winter Soldiers (sic) uses the inevitable horrors of war and the actions of a few to damn all who serve."

The "other gathering," he explained, was a dinner at the New York Stock Exchange honoring Medal of Honor recipients. Mr. Ferris proceeded to describe the heroic war feats of a handful of World War II veterans, and ends the article by referring to them as "men and women whose service and sacrifice have brought honor and dignity to the U.S. military and to their country."

It was more than clear that these venerated veterans were contrasted to the Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who testified at the event entitled "Winter Soldier" (singular, not plural) that took place March 13-16 in Washington, D.C.

For those who are unaware (and if you're a G-T reader, you wouldn't find this information there) Winter Soldier is the term given to a very noteworthy event that has taken place only two times in U.S. history, once in 1971 when veterans of the Vietnam War testified about what they experienced in that war (John Kerry and others later brought that testimony before Congress) and again several weeks ago, when veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars gave testimony of their experiences.

For those who want to know more about Winter Soldier, I suggest you go to the Web: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080407/wintersoldier .

It would have been a good thing had the G-T at least mentioned that this event had occurred, especially in view of the fact that one of Corvallis' own was active in those hearings.

But no. The only "news" we got was a biased editorial from a nonresident, completely out-of-touch with the mind-set of many, if not most, of the residents of this city.

Dianne Safford is a Corvallis resident.