Retirees get the word out: Film in Livonia to debate war.

Byline: Zlati Meyer

Sep. 22--For 35 years, Colleen Mills taught kindergarteners and preschoolers in Detroit Public Schools to get along with one another and to avoid fighting because violence doesn't solve anything. Now she's sharing that view with adults in southeastern Michigan. The Livonia retiree runs the local chapter of Citizens for Peace out of the home she shares with her husband, George, a 27-year Navy man turned peace activist. Tonight, she imparts her message with a screening of "The Ground Truth" at Madonna University. The film gives soldiers' views of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Admission is a suggested $5 donation. "The more awareness people have, the more compassion people have," Mills said this week. "This film really tells it like it is. ... People need to see this and get an understanding of what soldiers go through."

After the 7 p.m. showing of the documentary, Schoolcraft College student Paul Scaglione will talk about his two tours of duty in Iraq. His mother, Debra Brown, a veteran who is a Belleville real estate agent, will help lead an audience discussion. "I enlisted right before the president came on TV and let us all know we were going to war," said Scaglione, 23, who was discharged in February and works as a Google book scanner. "I was a fresh face in the Army. I probably even would've supported such actions until I was sent to Iraq and none of my questions were answered." Scaglione was a mechanic in southern Iraq from November 2003 to March 2004, then returned eight months later to the dangerous Sunni Triangle for a year. He volunteered to process dead soldiers' remains. "It was pretty violent," he ...