My dad earned a hatred of war from the deaths of his friends, from being shot down and held captive in a POW camp and from watching the destruction that he had delivered through his own bomb sights. These horrors visited him in nightmares to the end of his life last month.

He waged a campaign against the invasion of Iraq, churning out letters to the editor, hobbling with his cane down the halls of Congress to lobby our delegation and posting protest signs in his field next to Highway 99W.

When he took his "Bring them Home" sign to the Support Our Troops rally in Salem, he was harassed and shouted down with chants of "USA! USA! USA!"

But sending our children to die and kill invading another country didn't seem like "supporting our troops" to him, but an arrogant waste of their lives. He stood his ground, hoping that more Americans would stand up for peace.

I was missing from his peace campaign. Convinced that war was inevitable, I didn't protest it. So the Americans who died in Iraq belong to me. The Iraqis killed or tortured belong to me.

In a Democracy that chooses war, no voter is a civilian. We are at best undeclared combatants funding war under our flag. We don't have George Gordon to try to save us from war any longer. So now it is our time; our duty to wage peace.

Shan Gordon, Baltimore, Md.