Maine Drone Peace Walk
Preserve Our Privacy: No Drone Spying in Maine
Limestone to Bath
October
10-19
For immediate Release
Contact: Bruce Gagnon (207) 443-9502 (office) or
(904) 501-4494 (cell)
Peace activists from
Maine and beyond will walk through large portions of our state from October
10-19 in order to bring the issue of drone surveillance at home and drone
killing overseas to the public’s attention. The walk will begin in Limestone in
Aroostook County and end in Bath.
President
Obama has announced that as many as 30,000 drones will be flying around the US
doing
surveillance of the American people in the coming years. Thirty-seven states
have applied to host one of six military drone test centers across the nation.
There
is much talk about bringing drones to Maine and making the Presque Isle airport
a weaponized drone test center, thus the reason for starting the walk in
Aroostook County.
Last spring the Maine legislature passed
a bill that would require police to obtain a warrant before snooping on citizens
across the state. Gov. LePage
vetoed the bill.
According to
Lisa Savage, co-coordinator of the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$
Home, “This walk is important to raise awareness of how the government
spends our tax dollars on very expensive drones to keep us all under
surveillance. Drones are being used to kill thousands of innocent civilians,
including hundreds of children, around the world. People here in the U.S. say
they want their tax dollars spent on health care, education, jobs and veterans
benefits -- not drones.”
Doug Rawlings
from Maine Veterans For Peace said,
“As I walk down these Maine roads that I have driven for the past 35 years, I
will be going past bridges and schools that have been built since World War II
military expenditures were converted over into infrastructure funds. My father's
generation put away the munitions and started building the country that has
given us the life we now lead. Over
forty years ago I served in an artillery unit in the Central Highlands of
Vietnam. Our howitzers dropped rounds on countless Vietnamese peasants, and I
didn't blink an eye. Now I realize the anguish we wrought then, and visit now on
Afghan and Pakistani children with our Predator drones. I cannot, in good conscience, accept or
support such a use of my tax dollars.”
The drone walk begins in Limestone on
October 10 and will pass through Caribou, Presque Isle, Old Town, Bangor,
Skowhegan, Mercer, Farmington, Waterville, Belgrade, Augusta and Bath. (Some driving
will be necessary between some of these communities. The walk will average about 13 miles per
day. In the evenings walkers will
be fed at local churches and will stay in local
homes.)
On October 18 the walkers
will hold a protest against drones inside the Hall of Flags at the state capital
in Augusta at 3:00
pm.
The walk will
conclude on October 19 with a 10:00
am protest in Bath at the
“christening” of the Navy’s first “stealth” destroyer at Bath Iron Works.
Buddhist monks and nuns from
the Nipponzan Myohoji order will lead the non-violent peace walk.
The walk is being organized by
Maine Veterans For Peace and the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home.
The walk will be held during Keep
Space for Peace Week and is just one of many such events that will be held
around the world.
The daily schedule and entire
walk route can be found at http://www.bringourwardollarshome.org/Maine%20Drone%20Peace%20Walk%20Schedule.pdf
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END -
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)
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