At Brunswick Post Office on Tax Day

Christine DeTroy hands out flyers at the Brunswick post office

Six of us from our local PeaceWorks group went to the Brunswick, Maine (population 20,000) post office today to hand out flyers about where our tax dollars go.  It's a tradition in many communities to do this on Tax Day to help jog people's minds about how much of their hard earned dollars are wasted on endless war.

I stood by the post box that people can reach from their cars.  I had some conversations with car passengers and with folks walking down the sidewalk.  One guy went on about welfare and those who are getting a bit of money because they can't work due to illness or disability or just can't find a job.  He didn't want to talk about massive war spending nor the zillions of dollars wasted on corporate welfare for the bankster and military industry class.

One woman told me we'd never stop war and should go ahead and kill "all of them" foreigners and "start over".  I'd call that the basic Nazi line.

But there were many honks, waves, nods, winks, and words of solidarity from about 40% of those I made eye contact with.  A key reason I do these vigils is to be in contact with those people who agree with us so that they don't feel alone - it's good for people to see that their way of thinking has support and that they too should show more courage in their convictions.

You could tell that many folks are afraid (of something - what is the latest terror network we should go to war with?).

The ruling corporate oligarchy still has the population relatively under control but their grip is slipping away.  Thus the militarization of local police across the nation.