[HCCN] Fwd: Protest to Greet Secretary of War Gates in Bath, Maine

[Judy Robbins]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Global Network" <globalnet at mindspring.com>
> Date: May 21, 2009 5:47:56 PM EDT
> To: "Peaceworks" <peaceworks at lists.riseup.net>
> Subject: Protest to Greet Secretary of War Gates in Bath, Maine
> Reply-To: "Global Network" <globalnet at mindspring.com>
>
>
>
> PROTEST TO GREET SECRETARY OF WAR GATES IN BATH, MAINE
>
>
> For Immediate Release
>
> Contact:  Bruce Gagnon 443-9502
>
>
>      Peace activists will hold a protest vigil in Bath on Friday,  
> May 22 beginning at noon in front of Bath Iron Works (BIW) on  
> Washington Street.
>
>
>      Secretary Gates is expected to meet with BIW workers and tour  
> the weapons production facility at that time.
>
>
>      According to Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Bath-based  
> Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, "The  
> Democrat and Republican politicians will line up
>
> to kiss the ring of Secretary Gates.  This is what we do in America  
> today - we build weapons of destruction.  It's our #1 industrial  
> export product.  And when weapons are the number
>
> one industrial export product of a nation, what is your global  
> marketing strategy for that product line?  War, the more the  
> better.  We don't build rail systems, wind turbines, solar
>
> systems or other such useful technologies that we need to deal with  
> climate change.  But the politicians from both parties understand  
> that the Pentagon has the big money these days
>
> so they are on their knees.  We say that the time has come for our  
> elected officials to get off their knees and say that we've had  
> enough endless war.  The people want health care,
>
> full education funding, our infrastructure fixed, and they want to  
> see an end to spending more than $12 billion a month in Iraq- 
> Afghanistan-Pakistan killing innocent civilians."
>
>
>      In a recent article called "The Disease of Permanent War,"  
> former New York Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges writes,  
> "Citizens in a state of permanent war are
>
> bombarded with the insidious militarized language of power, fear  
> and strength that mask an increasingly brittle reality. The  
> corporations behind the doctrine of permanent war... must
>
> keep us afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending  
> on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant  
> questions of those in power. Fear means that we
>
> will be willing to give up our rights and liberties for security.  
> Fear keeps us penned in like domesticated animals."
>
>
>      Activists from all over Maine are expected to attend the  
> protest.  The protest will call for the conversion of Bath Iron  
> Works to useful civilian production.
>
>
> - End -
>
> Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
> PO Box 652
> Brunswick, ME 04011
> (207) 443-9502
> http://www.space4peace.org
> globalnet at mindspring.com
> http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)
>
>
> __._,_.___
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mainetalk.org/pipermail/hccn_mainetalk.org/attachments/20090521/8edc4325/attachment.htm>