As we drove up to The Frontier Cafe & Cinema last night we spotted a display sign outside with the name of the film we were sponsoring and the words 'Sold Out'. What a thrill it was to see that the place would be packed - with 40% of the people attending faces we did not already know.
Joyokgol from Jeju Island, South Korea said a few words and then sang a song entitled 'No Navy Base' before we began the wonderful documentary by South African filmmaker Mark Kaplan. I had previously seen the film via computer so watching it on a full-sized theatre screen for the first time was exciting.
After the film was over I jumped up and said a few words including the following:
Over the years we've had seven of us from Maine go to Jeju Island. When we were leaving people asked us, "What are you going to do when you go home?"Joyakgol took over and answered questions from the audience which in most part stayed around much longer than I had expected after the film was over. You could tell that people have the Trump versus North Korea mounting tensions on their minds. Joyakgol clearly stated that North Korea was not going to attack the US or South Korea and was a militarily weak nation that would be destroyed in a war. North Korea boasts as a way to hide their weakness. The people of South Korea understand this he said and the American people need to come to understand this fact as well.
We need to look around and notice the local manifestation of this [US imperial] insanity and begin to deal with it. That is the reason we are focusing our Maine Peace Walk this year in the Bath-Brunswick area.
We officially begin our peace walk with an orientation today beginning at noon and then we'll do a 3-4 pm vigil at Bath Iron Works as shipyard works knock off for the day. It's going to be a great week - when ever you bring good folks together sparks fly and lives change.
Bruce
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