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<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Global Network" <<a href="mailto:globalnet@mindspring.com">globalnet@mindspring.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">May 21, 2009 5:47:56 PM EDT</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Peaceworks" <<a href="mailto:peaceworks@lists.riseup.net">peaceworks@lists.riseup.net</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>Protest to Greet Secretary of War Gates in Bath, Maine</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Reply-To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Global Network" <<a href="mailto:globalnet@mindspring.com">globalnet@mindspring.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div> </div><div><br></div><div align="center"><font size="5"><strong>PROTEST TO GREET SECRETARY OF WAR GATES IN BATH, MAINE</strong></font></div><div align="center"> </div><div align="left"><font size="4"><strong></strong></font> </div><div align="left"><font size="4"><strong>For Immediate Release</strong></font></div><div align="left"><strong><font size="4"></font></strong> </div><div align="left"><strong><font size="4">Contact: Bruce Gagnon 443-9502</font></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><font size="4"></font></strong> </div><div align="left"><strong><font size="4"></font></strong> </div><div align="left"> Peace activists will hold a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>protest vigil</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in Bath on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>Friday, May 22</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>beginning<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>at noon</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>in front of Bath Iron Works (BIW) on Washington Street.</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> Secretary Gates is expected to meet with BIW workers and tour the weapons production facility at that time.</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> 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</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">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</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">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</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">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</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">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,</div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left">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."</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> In a recent article called<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22646.htm"><strong>"The Disease of Permanent War,"</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></a>former<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em>New York Times</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>foreign correspondent Chris Hedges writes, "Citizens in a state of permanent war are</div><div> </div><div>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</div><div> </div><div>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</div><div> </div><div>will be willing to give up our rights and liberties for security. Fear keeps us penned in like domesticated animals."</div><div> </div><div> </div><div> 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.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>- End -</div><div> </div><div>Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space<br>PO Box 652<br>Brunswick, ME 04011<br>(207) 443-9502<br><a href="http://www.space4peace.org">http://www.space4peace.org</a><br><a href="mailto:globalnet@mindspring.com">globalnet@mindspring.com</a><br><a href="http://space4peace.blogspot.com">http://space4peace.blogspot.com</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>(Blog)</div><br><br><div width="1" style="clear: both; color: white; ">__._,_.___</div><img height="1" src="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97476590/grpId=2055093/grpspId=1705759335/msgId=25241/stime=1242936761" width="1"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>