'Now, at 77 years of age, he’s become an agitator'

From Cost of war spurs Newberg councilman to protest :

NEWBERG, Ore. — Bob Larson is a retired banker, a registered Republican, a U.S. Air Force veteran and the president of the Newberg City Council.

Now, at 77 years of age, he's become an agitator.

Larson stood on a traffic island Thursday displaying two signs for drivers on Oregon 99W: "Stop the war now" and "Bring our troops home now."

Larson isn't a peace activist decrying the deaths of 4,000 Americans and an uncounted number of Iraqis. A much larger number brought him to the island — 15 billion. That's an estimate of how many dollars the U.S. spends each month for the wars of the Middle East. It's a figure that rankled the lifelong fiscal conservative.

"I'm not anti-anything," Larson said. "I'm a financial nut. When I read that we're spending $12 billion a month, and more than $3 billion a month in Afghanistan, $15 billion going to the war is too much when we have so much needed here."

But Larson is willing to be helped by those whose primary motivation is the loss of life. Larson, who attended Newberg's George Fox University following his retirement from the business world, was joined Thursday by Christiana Mata, a 19-year-old freshman from Olympia, Wash.

Mata hopes to become a minister and work for world peace. She had never stood in protest, nor held up a sign. But one of her classes recently read the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

"I really wanted to do something," Mata said.

"Jesus fought for justice; he was a rebel," she added. "Not only did he die for our sins, but I believe he calls us to bring peace to the world."