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Thursday, December 26, 2002 - While millions of other Americans celebrated Christmas at home Wednesday, Bill and Genie Durland rode a train across the heartland on the first leg of a difficult journey to a troubled region.

The Durlands marked a holiday of "peace on Earth" by turning their thoughts to war - or, more precisely, preventing it in Iraq.

The southern Colorado couple, part of a four-member Colorado delegation headed to Baghdad on a grassroots peace mission, see a greater calling in the threat of conflict than remaining in the comfort of their home this season.

"We believe there's no reason for a war with Iraq, and the people of Iraq have suffered immeasurably from our sanctions over the years," said Genie Durland. "We want to show the people there that we don't consider them enemies, and we want to demonstrate some kind of solidarity with them."

Longtime peace activists, the senior citizens joined Christian Peacemaker Teams and Voices in the Wilderness, two organizations dedicated to "getting in the way" of aggression through their presence in foreign countries.

"We just really strongly believe if this is a problem, we're not going to solve it by bombing them," said Genie Durland, a Quaker, as is her husband. "We're pacifists by nature, dedicated to violence reduction at a very basic, person-to-person level."

In their two-week foray, the couple will join an increasingly vocal backlash against President Bush's hard line toward Iraq and the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Actor Sean Penn recently paid a highly publicized visit to Baghdad to protest the looming conflict. A Los Angeles Times poll released earlier this month indicates that two-thirds of Americans believe Bush has failed to make the case that a war with Iraq is justified.

"I love my country, and it breaks my heart that we are taking this kind of arrogant 'police country to the whole world' attitude, and I think we just need to stand up and witness against that," said Genie Durland, 67.

Still, the Durlands are aware that critics may label them anti-American, traitors, "Hanoi Janes" - a derisive reference to actress Jane Fonda's polarizing trip to North Vietnam in 1972.

"It seems to me that we have the right and obligation to express the best morality at the time. Dissent is part of what makes this country great," said Bill Durland, 71, a retired law professor at Trinidad State Junior College who also taught at Colorado State University and the University of Southern Colorado.

Although they are visiting an Islamic country under the banner of Christianity, they do not intend to proselytize, and plan to visit mosques and meet with clerics, among others.

"We try to dress appropriately and try to act appropriately and to listen," said Bill Durland. He is a former two-term Virginia legislator and unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the Colorado House in 1998.

He acknowledges that they might be putting themselves in danger - either from the Iraqis or the United States in the case of an attack - and admits that, as part of a group of 15, they may have limited effect.

"I guess I'm too old to be scared," Bill Durland said. "Each of us has probably little influence in the long perspective, but that's what we're called to do. And just as you never know how the words that you write affect someone's lives, we feel the same way."

Robert "Doc" Leonetti of Trinidad and Sue Gray of Basalt also are part of the delegation.

The Durlands, from the town of Cokedale, west of Trinidad, have a history of protesting for peace. They participated in two similar tours of Israel and the occupied territories. And they were convicted of misdemeanors for trespassing at a Navy submarine communications site in Wisconsin last Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Three years earlier, Bill Durland was one of seven winners of Colorado's MLK humanitarian award for contributions to civil rights.

"An old friend of ours, Daniel Berrigan, used to say, 'I can't not do it,"' Genie Durland said, referring to the late Jesuit priest renowned for leading national anti-war demonstrations. "And there's something about that double negative that really drives home the point when you feel strongly about something."