When we brought our children to Maine from California in 1970 my husband and I were convinced we had found the land of plain living and high thinking we had read about in the works of Henry David Thoreau. We meant to live close to the land in peace. Since that time, despite seasons of doubt, I have often celebrated Maine as “the way life should be.”

I find new reason to do so in the high thinking of Judge Alan Hunter, who heard the case of two friends arrested for protesting the Iraq war at the Bangor office of Sen. Susan Collins. In sentencing the two dissenters, Hunter wisely observed that while acts of civil disobedience may make us feel uncomfortable that is not always a bad thing.

In stark contrast came the recent account on www.commondreams.org from Nov. 27 of the brutal assault on Kathy Kelly, the founder of Witness for Peace, by the military police at the notorious School of Americas (recently renamed the Western Institute for Security Cooperation) at Fort Benning, Ga. Kelly, who inspired many Maine peace activists during a visit this past summer, reported that on Nov. 23 during a peaceful protest she was arrested and processed – shoved, hog-tied, kneed in the back and aggressively searched, and then thought to be a “flight risk.” This earned her a $1,000 bail.

Reading her story made me wonder what country I live in. I realized that I could no longer afford to be a Maine transcendentalist and ignore the violence that has invaded America. I am frightened and saddened to think that America’s sons and daughters are brutalizing dissenters in the name of “patriotism.” I hope others will read Kelly’s story and join me in asking Maine’s U.S. senators and representatives to investigate this terrible injustice.

Charlotte C. Herbold

Winterport