TAX DAY PROTESTS

I was on the street for about 4 hours yesterday here in Brunswick. From 11:00-1:00 I went to the post office, where I was joined by six others, and we handed out leaflets and held signs with messages about how our hard-earned tax dollars are being wasted on war and military spending. Then I went back from 4:00-5:15, with one other person, to do some more. In all we passed out 400 leaflets and had many conversations.

Not everyone was thrilled to see us. There was some hostility. One old man screamed at the top of his lungs that we need to be in Iraq killing as many people as possible. When I told him Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 he said 'They are all the same people." When I told him we've already killed 100,000 people there, mostly innocent civilians, he screamed "liar, liar." The old man was so upset afterward he could not find his car. Two post office workers were outside raking the leaves and one came over to see what all the fuss was. He took a leaflet and said he was against the war.

One thing I noticed is how depressed people are. Dr. Helen Caldicott says that over 40% of Americans are taking medication for depression these days. I can believe it. Many people would say, "I don't want to know about it" or "I'm not interested." Many of them were very grumpy and appeared depressed. One such person is my town councillor. He is a gruff person who does not try to hide his rude, angry demeanor. Not a good way to win votes!

There were 50% though that really appreciated the fact we were out there. They took the leaflets and expressed deep concern about the condition of the country. They showed real outrage about the war in Iraq, how our money is misspent on militarism, and the declining way of life here in the U.S. as social progress is defunded. It is these people that motivate me to go leafleting on tax day.

I think being there helps energize, and at least give some hope, to the people who agree with us but feel powerless to do anything about their concerns. By seeing others out on the street it just might inspire them to make copies of the leaflet and hand them out to friends and co-workers. Maybe they will read the leaflet and talk about our national spending priorities over dinner. They just might write a more informed letter to the editor. If anything good comes from it then it was a good use of my time.

At 5:30 pm last night I joined the weekly peace vigil at our town center. We had 20 folks turn out, which is almost double what we usually get. A half dozen were from nearby Bowdoin College. A group of students had, just earlier in the day, met with our Congressman Tom Allen and delivered 275 postcards signed by students against the war. They had a good conversation with him and urged him to become more out spoken against the war. Rep. Allen is under intense pressure these days after recently voting for the $81.4 billion Bush requested for the war. Rep. Michael Michaud, our other Maine Congressman, just signed on to the Woolsey amendment that calls on Bush to immediately create an exit strategy from Iraq. This will mean even more pressure on Allen, who is supposed to be the more progressive of our two Congressmen.