Military Flyover Sparks Martin Luther King Day Protest in Texas  

SAN ANTONIO

      A flyover by Air Force jets during this city's Martin Luther King Day celebration last week sparked a protest by Iraq war opponents who said the military presence ran counter to the teachings of the late civil rights leader.

      The San Antonio commemoration — a three-mile march followed by festivities at a city park — attracts tens of thousands of participants each year, making it one of the nation's largest King Day events.

      The holiday was also marked with gatherings in other Texas cities.

      The anti-war group in San Antonio, numbering perhaps two dozen, chanted ``Shame'' while two Air Force T-1A Jayhawk training jets flew overhead, a first in the event's 20-year history. Later protesters released a pair of white doves.

      Members of the group, who were mostly White, also sang protest songs that drowned out speeches from the podium lauding King and his legacy.

      Bexar County constables threatened the protesters with eviction from the park for creating a disturbance, while some Blacks in the audience shouted them down for intruding on their event.

      ``Take it to the White House — go tell Bush,'' yelled Carolyn Webster. ``This is Martin Luther King Day. This is about peace and unity.''

      Phil Schulman, one of the protesters, conceded that the group may have gone too far by interrupting the official program, but he said its message was consistent with King's message.

      ``Dr. Martin Luther King asked a lot of himself, and he asks a lot of us,'' said Schulman, a pastor at a Unitarian Universalist church in San Antonio. ``Everyone wants to claim Dr. King, but if you want to claim him, you have to follow his legacy and stand up for peace and justice.''