Vigil, not a picket

The Bangor Daily News of Nov. 20, 1995, had a story headlined, “Abortion picket leads to summons.” Our activity is a prayer vigil, not a picket.

The city solicitor wants us to get a parade permit so that his definition of our activity as being a picket or parade prevails over our own view that we are there to repent and to make restitution by offering life-affirming choices so fewer babies will die by allowing those already killed to give graphic public testimony. Seeing those pictures convinces some women not to abort.

The early Christians could avoid being fed to the lions in pagan Rome by merely offering a pinch of incense in the temple of Nero. By doing so, they would acknowledge the supremacy of the Roman state over their Christian convictions.

The $2 fee for a parade permit is the pinch of incense that the city solicitor wants us to offer to acknowledge that his view of our activity is the one that counts, not our own view. If we refuse, the city of Bangor cannot feed us to the lions, but it can fine us $500 for every time we come to pray, repent, and offer restitution. In my case, that would be $52,000 in fines every year to coerce me into denying my own view of my activity and accepting his. The 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids excessive fines.

The First Amendment forbids statutes of ordinances that restrict the free exercise of religion, assembly, speech and the printed word. When the city of Bangor forces us to obtain its permission, for a $2 fee and under the threat of repeated $500 fines, before we can assemble to repent publicly for our sins of omission and to publicly offer restitution by displaying pictures and signs, it violates the First Amendment.

Even more ominously, on Nov. 22, the Bangor police summoned two Evangelical Christians who were merely offering leaflets on the public sidewalk on Harlow Street. Their pictures and signs were inside one of their vehicles, which was parked at curbside. There is no language in the parade ordinance that requires a permit to distribute leaflets on public sidewalks. This police action is clearly illegal, and we videotaped it to show at the trial.

For those Christians, as for me, the journey to Calvary is not a “parade” and our mission is not to protest, it is to be forgiven and to do penance. Terence J. Hughes Orono