COMMUNITY LEADERS OFFER SOLUTIONS TO BUDGET CUTS

The Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home has announced a news conference and rally inside the Hall of Flags at the capital in Augusta on Monday, April 4 at 11:00 am. The event will be held on the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. – killed exactly one year after his famous anti-Vietnam war speech was delivered.

The National Priorities Project reports that the total debt of all 50 state governments is now $130 billion. The U.S. will spend more than $170 billion on our wars in Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan-Libya this year. Maine’s share of war spending since 2001 has been $3.4 billion.

“Governor LePage and President Obama have it all wrong. Cutting taxes as a job creator is a known dead end street. Studies show that jobs are best created by state investment in education and infrastructure. There won’t be much recovery for Maine or any other state though until we Bring Our War $$ Home. We need to stop endless war spending if we hope to continue to support social progress. Interestingly, 65% of the people across the nation now favor withdrawal from Afghanistan, but it’s only going to happen if the public repeatedly demands it,” said Bruce Gagnon of Veterans for Peace.

Speakers at the event will include:

* Michael Brennan – Former State Senator and social worker (Portland)
* Alexandra Valente and Nicole Moreau – Student activists (UM-Farmington)
* El Fadel Arbab – Immigrant advocate, Fur Cultural Revival (Portland)
* Dud Hendrick – President, Maine Veterans for Peace (Deer Isle)
* Lisa Savage – Public school teacher and CodePink Maine Coordinator (Solon)
* Matt Hight – Union member (Biddeford)
* Peter Woodruff – Union member (Arrowsic)
* Natasha Mayers – Union of Maine Visual Artists (Whitefield)
* Music by Raging Grannies

Members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists will be on hand after the rally to help the public create images of where they believe our war $$ should be spent in Maine.

“Nation-wide people are increasingly using the Bring Our War $$ Home message in their local organizing. Resolutions have passed in Deer Isle and Portland, Maine and also in Amherst and Northampton, Massachusetts and just this week in Hartford, Connecticut. Many other communities are considering resolutions right now and Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles has begun to help promote the message to mayors of other hard-hit U.S. cities,” said Lisa Savage coordinator of CodePink Maine.

See the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign web site here