By MARIE-CLAUDE HAMEL Palisadian-Post Contributor On the eve of her 90th birthday, Palisadian Martha Dresher has an inordinately challenging mission: to stand up for peace and the preservation of American civil liberties. Although it seems like an overwhelming task for the average citizen, Dresher has been committed to this fight for peace ever since the Vietnam War, when her son Paul, then 18 years old, successfully filed as a conscientious objector to avoid going overseas. Born in Tampa, FL, Dresher received her graduate degree in Political Science from Yale and moved with her husband Melvin, a mathematician, to Washington D.C., where she worked for the Combined Raw Materials Board, a group of representatives from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States in charge of distributing raw materials to the Allies during World War II. After the birth of their daughter Olivia, the Dreshers moved to Los Angeles, where their son Paul was born, and finally settled in the Palisades in 1958. As an active member of her community, Dresher opens her door once a month to host meetings for Palisadians for Peace, a group she founded with four other Palisadians about two years ago. ‘We try to promote nonviolent solutions to disagreements,’ she said. Acting as treasurer of the group, Dresher is also the official archivist and files a copy of every piece of literature the group distributes. ‘I have so much material I have to retire. Anything that isn’t pertinent, I keep in my daughter’s room,’ she said. Dresher explained that her group sets up an information table every week at the farmers’ market on Swarthmore Avenue, during which time the members distribute petitions against nuclear weapons, clean money campaign petitions, petitions against certain provisions of the Patriot Act and voter registration forms. Although now mainly involved with Palisadians for Peace, Dresher began her first protest efforts by marching against the Vietnam War. ‘I was opposed to the war. It was a very awful period of all of our lives,’ she said, after explaining that her neighbor’s oldest son was killed at war by friendly fire. In the 1980s, Dresher actively took a role in the California Nuclear Weapons Freeze Initiative, which called for the halt of nuclear weapons production. She helped select one person in each voting precinct of the Palisades to hold teach-ins, make phone calls and get a crew to go door to door to promote the initiative. ‘I think it was a marvelous introduction to an educational time,’ Dresher said. ‘We didn’t get all we wanted, we didn’t get Congress to come through with the freeze, but all the representatives in Congress received a lot of pressure and we kept track of their voting records.’ Additionally, Dresher became active in Palisadians for Arms Race Education, a group that was active during the Cold War and had for its goal to educate community members about the dangers of nuclear weapons. ‘We had a great group going for a while and then the threat seemed to pass and we gradually stopped functioning as a group,’ Dresher said. At the core, Dresher said that her fight for peace comes from her Methodist religious background and her Bible studies. ‘It said ‘Thou shalt not kill,” she said. But Dresher also admits that she has mixed feelings about whether or not she is a true pacifist, since she believes in the right to defend oneself against an assailant. ‘I have never solved that problem,’ she laughed. Dresher’s ambivalent feelings are rooted in the fact that she herself was assaulted when she was returning from a class at Santa Monica College in the ’70s. ‘A man came up from behind and snatched my purse.’ Dresher fell in the gutter and cracked a rib. But in spite of her one hesitation about the merit of defending oneself, Dresher is staunch in her belief. Although her husband passed away 12 years ago, Dresher said that he always supported her involvement in anti-war groups. ‘He was delighted. We felt the same way about the same things. Although we kept our votes secret, I trusted his judgment.’ Dresher said that the same support was expressed by her children when they were growing up. ‘Fortunately, there was an agreement across the board on that.’ Although no longer living in the Palisades ‘ Olivia now lives in Seattle and works on editing and publishing fragmentary/memoir writing, and Paul lives in Berkeley and is a composer and a performer ‘ both continue to give her the support she needs. Though Dresher’s work has touched her family and friends, her positive thinking has also had influence on other members of the community. Marcy Winograd, who has been involved in Palisadian for Peace for about two years, said that Dresher is like no one else. ‘She’s a fabulous addition to our community. She’s a peacemaker within our organization as well,’ Winograd said. ‘Her whole life is a testament to commitment to social justice.’ Winograd, who is also active in the Swing State Sisters and tries to register voters in the hope for change, said that she found inspiration in Dresher’s attitude. ‘She’s always smiling and laughing and positive in her outlook,’ she said. ‘I can’t think of a better mentor.’ In addition to the Palisadians for Peace monthly meetings and the information table at the farmers’ market, Dresher holds peace vigils every Thursday afternoon at the corner of Sunset and Swarthmore but the efforts to grow the membership are ongoing. ‘It’s hard to get people to come,’ she said. ‘We have our core, usually, and we have people who say ‘We like what you do,” but Dresher added that residents who wish to make a difference need to take the initial step. ‘Try to get as much information as you can and raise questions about what the media portrays,’ she said. Dresher said she thought it appropriate that the words of Mahatma Gandhi grace the little flyers of Palisadians for Peace, which she hands out. ‘We must be the change we wish to see in the world,’ it reads. ‘I think it fits right in,’ she said. ‘If there is ever going to be a change, it has to come from us.’
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