PARADE IN BATH

Thirty-five of us made up the PeaceWorks group in the Bath, Maine July 4 parade yesterday. I was the one inside the huge puppet in the top photo. It was hot inside it but I had a great time.

Thousands of people lined the more than mile-long parade route and we got a generally good response from folks. Behind the Bring Our War $$ Home banner were a series of signs that said things like: Child care; Public transit; Affordable housing; Health care; Schools & teachers; Solar power; Wind turbines; Clean environment; Roads, Bridges & Snow plows; and other such messages giving people a glimpse at our vision for life after we stop wasting our money on war.

At the end of the parade, as we all gathered, our Congresswoman Chellie Pingree marched by and we all yelled congratulations to her for her good votes the other day on the war spending supplemental in the House of Representatives. So it was good for her to see us still out there working the issue and that we are committed to staying on the case.

Climate change is indeed real as yesterday and today it is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit here. The usual Maine weather of sunny and cool summers seems to be a fading memory. When we first moved here in 2003 we only used a fan once that first summer. Now we use them almost every day.

All the more reason that we need to end the wars and convert the military industrial complex to peaceful and sustainable production.