Day 12: More letters in Maine papers and Solidarity from Jeju Island

I was back at BIW this afternoon during the 3:30 shift change along with Mary Beth who took this photo of me trying to hand workers a flyer.

We learned for certain today that the General Dynamics (GD) welfare bill will come back before the Taxation Committee in Augusta on Tuesday, February 27 at 1:00 pm.

I am planning to attend (need to work out a ride) and want to get there at 9:30 am to stand by the House and Senate chambers with my sign as members of the legislature come in for the 10:00 am sessions.  I hope to do that several times next week.

The Letters to Editor continue in papers across Maine.  There were two of them opposing LD 1781 in our local Times Record today and two of them in the Bangor Daily News.  It's quite amazing how steady they have been rolling into papers - now more than 70 letters to 20 Maine media outlets since we began this effort.

Inside of the packed Taxation Committee hearing room yesterday. 

A couple of days ago I printed the letter from 86-year old Suzanne Hedrick that she wrote to the sponsor of the GD give-a-way bill.  Today Suzanne sent me another note that I must share.  She wrote:

I had another one [letter printed] in the Free Press this week. And I had a chance encounter with Sen. John Martin [conservative State Senator] and some lobbyists for BIW. I told them my thoughts about the DESTROYERS and that they kill children and told them I would be arrested  at the next "christening". Take care.

Suzanne is a long-time peace activist in Maine and still drives across the state for protests and various other events.  She is an associate member of Veterans For Peace as well.  She's one of a kind.  We all respect her so much.

Finally, as I was typing this blog post I glanced at my Facebook page and there was a lovely message from Jeju Island, South Korea with several photos of folks doing their daily protest at the new Navy base in Gangjeong village.  They had one sign offering solidarity with us here in Maine who are campaigning to stop the GD corporate welfare bill.  They understand very well what we are doing here as the warships built at BIW are being sent to the Navy base in their community.  So we thank them for their solidarity and send our best wishes back to them!