WAR $$ ROAD TRIP

* I take the train early Friday morning to West Hartford, Connecticut where I will speak that evening on the Bring Our War $$ Home topic. The event will be held at the St. James Episcopal Church. Hartford taxpayers have spent $419.8 million since 2001 to pay for their share of the wars.

From Hartford I will take a bus to Northampton, Massachusetts to participate in a War $$ Home Teach-In that will be held the Edwards Church. There I will be on a panel and also do a workshop. Taxpayers in Northampton has paid $111.7 million since 2001 on war.

It's been interesting that quite a few peace groups in New England have been picking up on the war $$ home campaign theme.

* I get emails almost every day now from our friends on the Walk for a Nuclear Free Future that we recently hosted here in Maine. They keep checking in to see how our war $$ campaign is going. I think they might be spreading the word about it as they go along - which would be a great help to the cause.

* My son Julian called the other day from New York City where he is a debate coach and said he would be attending the Global Network's annual meeting on May 9 in the city. Very exciting for me.

* Yesterday I taped another edition of my public access TV show and had Edgar Cahn as my guest. He was the founder of the "time bank" movement. Quite an interesting guy, now in his 70's, he went to work right out of college for Robert Kennedy (Justice Department) drafting the poverty program legislation in Washington. Then he moved over to help create the Peace Corp and other such service programs.

Last night I had to do our weekly radio show on WBOR-FM on my own as co-host Peter Woodruff had some personal business to attend to. The show theme was Cuba Week and I had a guest for half an hour who is from the Brunswick-Trinidad Sister City Association. We talked about life in Cuba and played a bunch of Cuban music. I was dancing around the studio a bit.

* Every Tuesday a local church has started a thing called the "Neighborhood Cafe" here in Bath. The church already hosts a food pantry on Tuesday night so now the idea is to cook food and when people come to pick up food at the pantry they can have a meal. It's been a good experience and I have been washing dishes as my contribution to the effort. My old military training coming back to use. My other great skill developed during my time in the Air Force is running a floor buffer.