Great Peace March Stalled in Barstow, but 560 Still Struggle to Continue Trip

BARSTOW — The Great Peace March, stalled and struggling to live up to its name, received more promises of support Saturday, but few tangible provisions arrived to bolster the faltering demonstration.

In addition to small amounts of food brought in by occasional visitors, the most important acquisition Saturday was a permit allowing the marchers to occupy a campsite in Barstow. Leaders hope that marchers will be able to move to that site today.

Beset by financial problems that caused the collapse of PROPeace, the trek’s sponsoring agency, the marchers have been stuck since Monday in an encampment eight miles south of here, their ranks thinning by the day. A head count found 560 marchers remaining from the 1,400 who left Los Angeles March 1 for a planned 3,000-mile cross-country journey.

Attempting to raise funds under a new corporation called The Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament Inc., march leaders are trying to arrange to get the marchers to Las Vegas and replace a truck kitchen, portable sanitation facilities and other equipment that are to be seized Monday by creditors.

Reasons for Dropouts

Despite the problems, spirits remain high among marchers. One of the 30 marchers who officially checked out Saturday was 69-year-old Harry Bortin of Whittier, suffering from an infected blister.

“I think I’d be more of a hindrance than a help,” Bortin said. “The march has been terrific. I’m going to try to raise money for the (new) corporation.”

Among those returning home Saturday was Doug Friz, 47, of Irvine, who said he was “in fine physical condition, although I have a cold.”

When PROPeace organizer Mixner informed the group that, following bankruptcy, there would be no support vehicles, Friz said he decided that it was “no longer a workable proposition to carry on the Great Peace March. We just couldn’t get across country, or the desert even. The bottom dropped out for me.”

Lost His Job

Friz’s wife, who was not marching, drove to the campsite Saturday morning to bring him home.

Although Friz said he had no regrets, he is “at loose ends right now,” because the state refused to grant him leave from his job as a vocational rehabilitation counselor.

“I’ve had a marvelous experience with PROPeace and the great peace march,” Friz said. “It was such a wonderful, loving group of people. It was a cooperative, caring, committed group of people and a beautiful time.”

Friz said that most of the two dozen or more marchers from Orange County, like a majority of the marchers, were “tough, dedicated, tenacious people.”

Times staff writer Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this story.