2,000 MARCH TO PROTEST U.S. POLICIES

Myron Taschuk had always described himself as "not very political." He rarely looked beyond the evening news, he did not discuss world events heatedly with friends, and he certainly never felt compelled to drive from his home in Durham, N.C., to protest the Reagan administration.

But Taschuk, holding a sign that said, "CIA in Nicaragua -- Guilty," did the unexpected yesterday afternoon. He joined about 2,000 other protestors in a 20-block march from Meridian Hill Park to Lafayette Park in a wide-ranging demonstration against President Reagan's foreign and domestic policies.

"I'm new at this," said Taschuk, 31, a building contractor. "But the other night, I spent a whole evening reading a report about atrocities in Nicaragua, and now I can't sleep with a good conscience knowing that my tax dollars are going to rape and destruction and the killing of babies. So here I am."

The event was sponsored by the same coalition that organized the April 1985 "March for Peace, Jobs and Justice," which attracted about 26,000 participants. It was one of 17 similar demonstrations held across the country yesterday, marking the beginning of a planned series of protests "to manifest in the streets our opposition to what the Reagan administration is doing," said organizer David Hostetter of the Washington Peace Center.

Yesterday's group, which mostly represented the mid-Atlantic states, focused on such issues as stronger sanctions against the South African government, the "I'm new at this {but} I can't sleep with a good conscience. . . ."

-- Myron Taschuk, Durham, N.C. plight of Native Americans, nuclear war, the homeless, and the federal government's Central American policies. Their buttons and banners reflected those causes: "Break the ties to apartheid." "Stop the forced relocation of the Navajo and Hopi people." And, "I'm ashamed of what my country is doing in Central America."

"Sister and brothers, in the best sense, this scene is reminiscent of the Sixties," said longtime antiwar activist Philip Berrigan in a speech to the group at Lafayette Park. "Change never comes from the churches or from politics, but from the docks and the streets and the jails."

Nina Bohlen, 27, a development consultant working on earthquake reconstruction in Mexico City, was drawn to the march yesterday despite being in a wheelchair with torn ligaments in her leg. Her concern: U.S. involvement in Nicaragua. "I feel that the present policy of supporting the contras will lead to an endless war of attrition," she said. "I think there's a general lack of understanding about what we're doing down there, and there must be a groundswelling of opposition."

Javier First Day of Light, 42, an Apache artist, was concerned with the rights of Native Americans. "I am tired of what has been happening to us since the landing of the Europeans," he said. "We are fighting for our land.

And T.E. Luokkala, 69, a retired social worker from Pittsburgh and a member of Veterans for Peace, drove here to protest "the Reagan administration's interventionist policy all over the world."

"I've had it," he said.

Behind the stage, apart from the milling crowd of demonstrators, dogs and children, was a small counterprotest -- a group of five young men holding American flags and signs that read "We Love America."

"We're here to show our support for our president and our country," said Ron Abramson, a member of the College Republicans at the University of Maryland. "We believe that many of these people here today are really Communists -- you can tell by their literature."

Jerry Brittain of Bethesda, a member of the Grey Panthers of Metropolitan Washington, said she was glad to be back in her favorite arena, activism. The march was her 60th demonstration.

"I go to all the demonstrations that relate to peace and justice and jobs," she said. "I never miss a one. We don't seem to end the wars and we don't seem able to take care of our problems."

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