A weekly look at noteworthy addresses in the Southland

On The Gulf War “I landed in Los Angeles just at the end of the ‘Gulf Massacre’ and the buildings . . . were tied in yellow ribbons. And I found that quite difficult. I remember the (weapons) buildup toward that massacre . . . and I didn’t ever really believe that they would use them because we had done so much work in this country to educate people about the lethal effects of nuclear war and war in general.

“What had happened was, is that the Berlin Wall had just come down, that (President George) Bush’s ratings were very low, that the (members of the) military-industrial complex were not going well with their stocks and shares . . . I think the war was pretty well planned.

”. . . I would go to conservative colleges and I would have dinner with the presidents, faculty and students, and they would all be wearing yellow ribbons and flags. I (would ask them) do you know what war really means, do you know what really happened in the Gulf? That 200,000 people were slaughtered, that there wasn’t a war, there was no retaliation? Sixty percent of the civilians killed were children . . . they would cry. And I thought, my God, the support for this massacre was paper-thin. . . . And it’s been propagandized out of reality by a press that was prostituted to the Pentagon.”

Looking Ahead * Wednesday: Edward N. Ney, U.S. ambassador to Canada, will address Town Hall of California at noon at the Biltmore Hotel. For more information call (213) 628-8141.

Announcements about prominent speakers should be sent to Speaking Up, c/o Times researcher Michael Meyers, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053