NORTH TO BANGOR

Today Mary Beth Sullivan, Karen Wainberg and I drove north to Bangor for a meeting with a dozen activists from that part of the state to review our effort to turn the Maine Congressional delegation around on Iraq. For the past several months we have been working to put pressure on our two senators and our two congressmen to hold a town hall meeting so citizens in the state can have a public forum to address the war issue. They have been slow to respond and we've stepped up the pressure by increasing the numbers of calls and visits to their offices.

Today's meeting was a good one and we made some plans that we will move forward with in the coming months that will increase even further our visitations to their offices here in Maine.

It is really frustrating for us because it is clear that the politicians do not want to hear from the citizens of the state. Polls are showing that growing majorities of the people do not support the war and folks are growing restive about the enormous amount of our hard-earned tax dollars being wasted on the war. Thus the politicians don't want to talk about it.

Many people in our country who agree with us have given up. They feel powerless and are waiting for someone else to do something. They want someone else to move first. So we decided in our meeting today that we have to keep advancing, we have to keep moving, to keep trying to break through the doors of numbness. We've got to try to help folks come alive. This is supposed to be a democracy, and democracy only works when people get engaged.