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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">Dud Hendrick <<a href="mailto:dudhe@myfairpoint.net">dudhe@myfairpoint.net</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><b><br></b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>Watchfires of Freedom </b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="6" style="font: 25.0px Helvetica"><b>Political Action to Expose the Lies for Escalation in Afghanistan</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">On Thursday, December 17</font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 11.0px Helvetica"><sup>th</sup></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> at 5 pm in front of the Federal Building in Bangor non-partisan activists from across the state will replicate “Watchfires of Freedom” in protest of President Obama’s policies and speeches. In this, the first of several planned ceremonies, the group will protest the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, re-enacting the model of women suffragettes, who burned the hypocritical words of President Woodrow Wilson in front of the White House in 1919. Wilson had lectured in Europe, extolling the virtues of democracy, while at home women were denied the right to vote.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">President Obama’s speech was full of fabrication and falsehood designed to win public approval for the continuation and enlargement of this misguided war. Obama has now committed more soldiers and more money to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than the Bush Administration. We will read sections of the speech, expose the lies, and then burn the words in a small urn. Our use of fire is metaphoric. Fire purifies and transfigures. We will be demonstrating our disrespect for official lies and explaining how they actively betray our Constitution, our democracy, our soldiers and the cause of peace.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><br></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Robert Shetterly, one of the organizers of this event, has written:</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">We are here today not to advance the agenda of any political party. Our agenda is democracy and truth. It’s an old truism to say that the first casualty of war is truth. It might equally be said that the first casualty of untruth is democracy. Democracy is a sacred trust. That trust must burn with the pure, transparent clarity of a flame. If a democracy is really to be <b><i>of, by and for the people</i></b>, the people can only take on its responsibility if they know everything their elected officials know. How else, then, can they make decisions to devote their precious lives and resources to solving their common problems? Elected officials who employ fear, patriotism, propaganda, secrecy, and false history to mislead their own people have betrayed democracy.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px; line-height: 25.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Unfortunately, President Barack Obama in his speech of December 1, 2009 calling for the escalation of the War in Afghanistan, used multiple duplicities about the present and the past to make his case for expending more blood and money.</font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">While the style of our president is articulate and persuasive, his content is hypocritical and purposely misleading. Our intent is to burn the lies and shed light on the truth. George Orwell said, “When deceit becomes universal, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” If truth is war’s first casualty, then telling the truth must be the harbinger of peace and justice.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></div><div><br></div> </blockquote></div><br></body></html>