The plight of a lone protester

www.zwire.com By:Katy Ciamaricone 02/05/2003 Her mission: To get people thinking.

One of her signs disputed the Bush administration's rejection of an international agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions. The other read "No war for oil."

Sherman, an Elkton resident, said her rally was part of a nationwide initiative planned at sites around the country Tuesday that included several student organizations and Greenpeace. She decided to participate after she received an e-mail message urging people to join in.

"I heard in Baltimore they were planning to plaster gas stations with skull and crossbones, encouraging people to get their oil from Venezuela," she said. "Because war is not taking place in Venezuela."

The perch on which she stood in front of the Route 279 truck stop is prime real estate when attention is what you're after, Sherman explained. She often shifted her stance to the left so her signs faced truckers pulling into the depot, or right to give departing drivers some food for thought for the long road ahead.

"This is one of the most well-traveled spots on the East Coast, with truck drivers and travelers coming through all the time," Sherman said.

A trucker waited to yield onto Route 279, craning his neck to read Sherman's message, as she continued: "People have been mostly driving by with amused smiles on their faces. Most of them are probably thinking, 'There's just another ex-hippie at it again.'"

Sherman says she's "flexible" when it comes to picking a political party. "I generally don't endorse Republicans," she said. "I was tempted to vote for (Green Party candidate) Ralph Nader - I talked my mother into voting for him - then at the last minute, someone convinced me to vote for (Democrat) Al Gore, because of his stance on equal rights."

This is not the first time Sherman, 50, has protested against U.S. policies with foreign nations. During the 1960s, she saw news about U.S. soldiers who destroyed a South Vietnamese village, leaving dozens of slain civilians, during the My Lai massacre. And though her brother had enlisted in the Army and was sent to Vietnam, Sherman was compelled to travel to Mount Vernon to demonstrate with fellow teen-agers whose own government had disappointed them.

Times have since changed, but not necessarily for the better, Sherman claimed. "The world is now reaching nuclear capacity and the entire planet is in danger. If (enemies) drop a bomb on the East Coast, there is a mountain in Nevada that would keep Bush and his family safe. What's he got to lose?"

So in a check-mate measure, Sherman figured she had nothing to lose by sharing her anti-war opinions with the world - or, at least, those passing by Elkton's Truck Stop of America.