It started the way things do in a small town. It was the autumn of 2001, New York's World Trade Center had been attacked, there was talk of the U.S. military invading Afghanistan, and people here were calling one another, huddling over camomile tea at the Sunnyside Up coffee shop, asking what could anybody do?
Some of the professors over at Oregon State organized seminars to explain who the players were.
"They talked about the histories of Iraq and Afghanistan and Iran. They brought in experts on Muslim fundamentalism, and they made it quite clear there was not a clear connection between Islam and terrorism," said Mike Beilstein, a City Council member and retired chemist.
On Oct. 7, the day after bombs began falling on Kabul and Jalalabad, several dozen people got together and held a candlelight vigil against the war in Afghanistan.
The next day, Beilstein stood with an antiwar sign outside the Benton County courthouse. Two other people showed up with signs of their own.
The next day, more protesters came.
Since then, a war has started in Iraq, a new president has been installed in the White House, and the Taliban has been beaten back, only to regroup.
Yet in Corvallis, they're still saying no to the war in Afghanistan.
They have been there seven days a week, 365 days a year, between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., since that autumn day in 2001.
"Some days, we have 100. There's never been just one. Usually, it ends up with at least five or six people by 6 p.m.," said Ed Epley, 72, a retired phone company worker who has been the mainstay of the vigil over the years.
He donates most of his afternoons to the cause, and uses his 1961 Volkswagen van to transport banners and signs back and forth to the sidewalk protest site.
Drivers often honk in support as they pass by. They drop off cookies or ice cream bars or, as on one recent day, gas money for the VW.
Sometimes people park and pick up a sign or a flag.
Other times, insults -- or worse -- are hurled out of car windows.
"Disgusting things, like cups with human sputum," said Carol Alexander, 63, a longtime environmental activist who has often joined the vigil.
"We've had ice cream cones thrown at us. Hamburgers," Epley said.
"We had a rash of moonings for a while," Alexander added.
By and large, however, the response has been positive, the protesters said.
