MARCH OBJECTS TO WAR IN IRAQ.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

VALENCIA - After years of counseling troubled teens, retired teachers Betty Beatty and Patty Carmody say their experience has taught them that violence is never the solution to conflict.

Now, the former elementary and junior high teachers are hoping to spread that lesson throughout the Santa Clarita Valley by urging residents to oppose the looming war in Iraq that they contend is unjust and immoral.

``We've see what violence does to the people it touches,'' said Beatty, who founded SCV for Social Justice with Carmody a month ago. ``We know it's not the answer.''

On Sunday, Carmody and Beatty - along with about a dozen like-minded others - held a peace walk, stepping off from the corner of McBean Parkway and Valencia Boulevard and marching past Santa Clarita City Hall to the Santa Clarita Valley Civic Center.

``There's no sign up here that we're on the brink of war,'' Carmody said. ``I feel pretty strongly that we need to find an alternative to war. We're hoping to wake up Santa Clarita.''

While some drivers honked and waved in support of the protesters, many of whom carried handmade signs reading ``No Blood for Oil'' and ``Pray for Peace,'' others booed and shouted at the protesters to go home.

``We're definitely in the minority out here,'' Beatty said, laughing.

The Rev. Val Zdilla, a priest at St. Clare's Catholic Church in Canyon Country, said he joined the march because a war against Saddam Hussein will harm mostly innocent Iraqi civilians.

``There's no justification for war right now,'' Zdilla said.

Both Carmody from Saugus and Beatty from Valencia are parishioners at St. Clare's.

Other protesters had a more partisan view and condemned the Bush administration's foreign policy.

``(President George W.) Bush and (Attorney General John) Ashcroft are hellbent on making war,'' said Paulette Canavaras of Lake Elizabeth. ``I won't allow them to go to war for oil and kill people in my name.''

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Retired teacher Patty Carmody marches for peace instead of war in Iraq during a protest in Valencia on Sunday.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News