Persistence is a virtue

Persistence is a virtue:Laray Polk is conducting what she calls an "intervention." Dressed in black from head to toe, Polk is perched on the curb outside a downtown parking garage, pleading with two young Hispanic men hurriedly getting into a sleek black government sedan. The driver, a military recruiter, starts the car as soon as he can, and as one of the men slides into the front seat, he looks at Polk with a shrug, saying, "I've got my life set." Infuriated, Polk shakes her right index finger at the driver and shouts, "Shame on you! Shame!"

To an onlooker, "confrontation" might be a more accurate word for describing what happens when Polk, 44, sees military recruiters bringing young men and women to their office near Ferris Plaza to enlist. But the main reason she's downtown every Thursday for 45 minutes, starting at noon, is because she's one of the Women in Black. Unaffiliated with the fictional, male-dominated alien-fighting organization of a similar name involving Will Smith, the Women in Black are an international activist group that opposes war and violence by standing silently in public areas and wearing--shock of shocks--black. Last Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the Dallas chapter's weekly vigil outside The Dallas Morning News building; just three members turned out to protest.

"In Dallas, far from the pillars of power," says Polk, "this is the spot where the people who influence public opinion have seen us every week." Whether the Morning News--or anyone else, for that matter--is listening isn't really the point. Added silver-haired protester Peggy Hill: "Is everyone who went into The Dallas Morning News influenced by the Women in Black? No. But having somebody there every week is something."

Silent but for conversations with a few curious drivers who pull over with questions, the women say that their persistence, not their numbers, is key. "I've come to appreciate how important consistency is, rather than a big show," says Trish Major, communications director for the Dallas Peace Center and part of last Thursday's protesting trio. Seventy-year-old Hill, who is a theology instructor at a local private school, says the group missed only Thanksgiving Day during the past year's demonstrations. Their patriotism, she says, is unquestionable.

"We're as American as apple pie."