Over the course of our time at this major tourist lunch location literally thousands of people drove by us heading either north or south along Maine’s coastal route.
Photo: MB
The famous Red’s Eats, one of the major tourist stops in the state, had a long line of people waiting to order their over priced lobster rolls. (Just for your info Red’s is owned by the Gagnon family – no direct relation to me as far as I know.)
Photo: MB
As the traffic crawled by us the numbers of peace signs, waves and honks was more than impressive. We even got some massive truck horn blasts.
It was a beautiful day in the mid 70s with a lovely breeze coming off the water. The only downside was the huge amount of chemtrails over our heads.
We calculated that we got about 2% nasty middle fingers and yells in support of Trump. About 34% looked ahead as if they didn’t see us. The remaining 64% enthusiastically gave us positive affirmations. (This was obviously not a scientific poll but we’ve done this enough to get a good feel for the numbers.)
We were last at this spot two years ago in another of our monthly protest vigils. At that time we had about 35 or more folks with us.
The difference between then and now? At lunch together after we finished the protest it was pretty much unanimous that lots of people are either working on political campaigns for the coming November mid-term elections or they have given up as they see the endless wars on Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Ukraine-Russia, Sudan and more just drag on. Alot of people grow weary and/or just move on to other hot issues.
Sadly, its always been this way during my long career as an organizer. When wars first begin there always is a big protest surge and then as they continue on over the years with no resolution people lose heart and tend to fall out.
We live in America where we have a fast food culture. People want their social/political change NOW – like at the drive up window at McDonalds. But in the real world that’s now how things really work.
Photo: Lisa Savage
There are many exciting close congressional races underway (especially for the US Senate) across the nation. The US Senate race in Maine is one of them. The Democrat (Troy Jackson) and Republican (incumbent Susan Collins) are neck-and-neck in the polls. But the truth is that most of the Democrats, while good on some social issues, say things like we must still help Ukraine and Israel ‘defend’ themselves. Many say they don’t want to send ‘offensive’ weapons to Israel but want to send ‘defensive’ weapons. Most of them also say the same about Ukraine.
So in the end with a Dem party take over of Congress we won’t see significant changes in military spending and war$. It was the Obama-Biden administration that started the war against Russia in 2014 using Ukraine as the hammer. The Dems in the leadership in Washington stand solidly by Israel.
With the oligarchs in control of Washington these days, spreading their cash around like it is Christmas, its hard to make a serious dent electorally.
My own reason for persisting with these protests is because I know the public is fed up and afraid – they are angry with the way things are – they do want change – but they have generally lost hope.
Photo: MB
By getting out on these busy Maine streets, full of summer tourist traffic from all over the country, we can show people they are not crazy and they are not alone. And the enthusiasm we witnessed today is evidence that they appreciated seeing us. Some walking past me thanked me for being there. And I thanked them back.
Our upcoming three-month protest schedule is:
- Friday, October 2 at Bath Iron Works navy shipyard for Keep Space for Peace Week. We gather at 11:30 am on Washington Street. BIW builds Aegis destroyers now parked off the coasts of Iran, Russia and China with ‘missile defense’ interceptors on-board.
- Saturday, November 28 in Brunswick at the intersection of Pleasant Street and US Highway 1 across from the police department. We begin at 1:30 pm.
- Saturday, December 5 at Christmas shopping mecca Freeport in front of L. L. Bean mega-store on Highway 1 at 1:30 pm.
Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America’s declining empire on his blog Organizing Notes.
