On Thursday, MU Students for Progressive Action braved pouring rain to hold a peace protest marking the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. While some students still are protesting for peace, the number is smaller than in previous conflicts. To gain perspective, we talked to a man who has been protesting every war since World War II.

John Schuder started protesting war as a college freshman in Illinois during World War II. More than half a century later, he's still at it.

For the past 26 years, Schuder has been holding anti-war posters outside the Columbia post office every Saturday from 10-11 a.m.

“Since the 1940s, (the U.S.) has been fighting wars or getting ready to fight them," he said. "The war system hasn’t ended wars. It’s long past time to try to do this with diplomacy and peace.”

In his 45 years as an MU professor of surgery, Schuder witnessed many changes, especially in student attitudes. He said students today are much less active as protesters.

“Students should be making a lot more noise,” says Schuder, about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. “Back then (during the Vietnam war) we were saying ‘Where are all the adults?’ Now we’re saying ‘Where are all the kids?’ Back then, there were week-long vigils and parades through the streets.”

His early peace vigils in Columbia were outside the city post office, then in the building that now houses the YouZeum. When the post office moved to Walnut Street, Schuder's group moved, too.

Schuder came to Columbia in 1960 to work as a professor in MU's surgery department. He originally was an engineer after graduating from Purdue in 1954, but said he was turned off by the field's emphasis on guns and bombs. He switched to medicine, where he worked on pacemakers and other devices to save lives.

In Columbia, Schuder played an active role in the community, co-founding a Quaker church that for a time met in his living room, as well as the local chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation, a group that promotes nonviolent alternatives to conflict. Both organizations are still active today.

He was also closely involved with the student protest movement at MU, organizing weekly peace vigils outside Memorial Union during the Vietnam war.

Once he even bailed students out of jail.

In 1969, four student members of Students for a Democratic Society sold a copy of the Free Press Underground, an underground student newspaper. It included an article titled "Motherfucker Acquitted," as well as a cartoon of Chicago policemen raping the Statue of Liberty.

The Dean of Students told the students they could no longer sell the paper on university property. He said they had to cross a line on the sidewalk to city property to sell the paper.

“We being naïve, I guess, stepped across the line,” says Trish Vandiver, one of the students. “Almost immediately a plain-clothes police person stepped up and arrested us, put us in a police car and took us to jail. John Schuder was the sponsor of the SDS at that time and he was the one who came and bailed us out of jail."

The University of Missouri Board of Curators expelled the students. But the Supreme Court ruled the move unconstitutional when Free Press Underground editor Barbara Papish appealed the case all the way up. Papish vs. the Board of Curators remains one of the most important First Amendment cases in history.

“We did get the bond money back,” Schuder said with a grin.

Students cause less of a stir today, Schuder said. He believes this might be because the draft is no longer an active fear for students.

Jeff Stack, current leader of Mid-Missouri FOR, agreed that students are not performing at the same levels of activism and opposition as during the Vietnam War, partially due to the inactive state of the draft.

“This war affects a relatively small amount of people," Stack said. "Pentagon strategists do not want to unleash rampant activism . . . if they did decide to resume the draft, there would be extensive activism among students.”

Stack also cited technology as a difference in the activity of this generation, saying that technological developments cause people to live in a more compartmentalized society—one that is almost narcissistic. But technology is a two way street, as it allows for students to be more knowledgeable of their surroundings.

“Students are more aware than before," Stack said. "There is greater public concern and a more persistent reality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

However, heightened awareness also provides for divided attention, Stack said.

“Students care about global climate change and animal rights issues—collectively there is greater student involvement," he said. "But more people need to become involved and help end wars.”

Students have a myriad of choices when it comes to issues to support, but Stack said protesting wars will, in effect, solve other problems. He said the money channeled toward it could be used to solve the health care problem.

Schuder and Stack both said the younger generations are key to ending war.

Schuder, 87, said his age is catching up with him. He's tired and has to rest a lot these days. Soon he may have to put down his sign.

He hopes there will be others to pick it up.

“We have more signs than people,” said Schuder, of his weekly protests these days. “But some (people) are better than none.”