Human chain recalls 9-11 victims Bangor rally also mourns soldiers, civilians who died in Iraq, Afghanistan

As a memorial to those who died in the terrorist attacks and what came afterward in Afghanistan and Iraq, about 60 people lined one side of State Street in Bangor on Saturday afternoon, signifying a chain linking Eastern Maine Medical Center and Mount Hope Cemetery.

Organizers said the idea was to represent the unnecessary loss of life and many carried large photographs of civilian Iraqis – women and children – injured by U.S. bombing in Iraq.

Although the group fell short of actually making a human chain from the hospital to the cemetery, those present said that opposition to American policy in Iraq is growing.

Donna Allen, a Bangor educator from Winterport, wore a button that came from a Vietnam War-era protest that saw hundreds of thousands of people march on Washington to end the war and return American soldiers home.

“I’m just an ordinary person with an ordinary job,” she said. “But if hundreds of thousands of ordinary people got together and acted as one, then the troops could come home. The war would be over.”

Others saw vigils like this continuing to have an effect on the American psyche.

Catherine Foxson of Bangor has been participating in these vigils since October 2001, one month after the terrorist attacks, and has noticed the change. More motorists are honking their horns in support and fewer jeering and yelling vulgar language. She’s seeing more thumbs up than middle fingers out and she said more and more people are stopping and asking questions or giving their support.

But she admits this country has a long way to go before it achieves the peaceful way of life she envisions.

“I think, along with many families of the people who died on September 11, that more death is not the answer,” she said. “Violence begets violence.”

Al Larson of Orono served three tours of duty in Vietnam in the U.S. Navy and stood tall Saturday, bearing the American flag and a simple sign that showed that this country had surpassed a deadly milestone recently, with 1,002 killed in action in Iraq.

Just days earlier he had received an e-mail with the pictures of the U.S. soldiers that had been killed in Iraq. He noticed that all too many were young people, whose short lives had been snuffed out so quickly.

“So many were so young,” he said.

Larson questioned what they had died for and said that Americans still hadn’t learned the lessons of Vietnam, from handling guerrilla warfare to the loss of innocent civilians, killed or maimed in massive bombardments.

He wondered whether the billions of dollars already spent in Iraq couldn’t have been better spent on education and job creation here at home and increased efforts to hunt for terrorists abroad.