Risky talk for democracy

For more than a year, a loosely assembled anti-war group in Maine has demanded that Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins attend a denunciation of the failures of the United States in Iraq, with special anger focused on George Bush. The activists refer to this exercise as a town meeting.

I spent a couple of hours the other night listening to tapes, provided by the group, of such a meeting held in Belfast recently for the benefit of Rep. Mike Michaud. It consisted of statements by 30 or so audience members. The statements were forceful, articulate and always polite. Now and then, someone added humor, which was appreciated.

Each speaker received applause. No one deviated from the assertion that the war in Iraq was immoral and illegal. There was some controversy about Bush, with the room divided between those who said to impeach him and those who said to censure him first and then impeach him.

The event was to a traditional town meeting what a gated community is to a downtown neighborhood. Dissent had been tucked away; the lines of thought neatly clear. It is also familiar – Bush’s screened audiences at rallies agree with whatever he says with a fervor similar (though opposite in outlook) to the sentiment at the Belfast gathering, even if those with the wrong bumper sticker could have attended there. But neither forum has the testing of thought and persuasiveness that characterize traditional town meetings, and that loss not only of respectful disagreement but even the attempt at respectful disagreement is not good for any of us.

One of the activists, Maureen Block, recently sent me some beautiful lines from a book called “The Open Space of Democracy” by Terry Tempest Williams. “Democracy invites us to take risks,” Williams writes. “It asks that we vacate the comfortable seat of certitude, remain pliable, and act, ultimately, on behalf of the common good. … It doesn’t matter whether an answer is right or wrong, only that ideas be heard and discussed openly.”

I like the lines especially in this case because risk is often the unspoken issue when deciding what obli-gations elected officials have for affirming the public’s demand to be heard on important issues such as the war. But for genuine communication, risk must exist for both the official and the citizen – just as elected officials risk getting an uncomfortable earful, citizens risk hearing opposition to their ideas. That was not apparent on the tapes.

The means employed to force Snowe and Collins to attend these meetings also are curious. The anti-war group’s Frequent Visitor Program has activists showing up at the senators’ state offices and reading off the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. The implication, of course, is that these offices must be reminded of the dead by protesters who care more about them than do the senators.

Sometimes the protesters ring a bell after each name; sometimes an X is drawn on a sheet. Office activity – essentially, services for Maine residents – necessarily stops under this pietism. The media are called ahead of time, sometimes during the event and corrected by the activists if the event is not properly covered.

Both senators point out that they have met and continue to meet with war protesters and are aware of the arguments and the honest depth of passion against the war. If that Belfast meeting was a fair sample of the comments, they also would have read similar statements in letters-to-the-editor sections around the state. An activist group I met with had had a smaller meeting with Collins recently – they arrived with the number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq attached to their chests – and spent their time talking not about the war but about the need for a “town meeting” about the war.

It’s all such a waste. The war has been a disaster in so many ways, or as one person worried about the war said, “The problems that we face today in Iraq are a direct result of the missteps and mistakes that have been made throughout this conflict. Insufficient troops on the ground during the initial invasion; abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib; inability to adequately train sufficient numbers of Iraqi troops; and lack of equipment for our troops should not be the hallmark of our policy in Iraq. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they have become.”

That’s Olympia Snowe, by the way, when I contacted her office earlier this week. Collins sounded almost as frustrated when talking about the conditions for troops to leave Iraq, which she has visited twice. “There have been some improvements, but it certainly isn’t what we were expecting based on what we were told by the administration,” she said. “I just don’t think the administration has been straightforward with Congress or the American people about the capabilities of the Iraqi troops.”

There’s a lot to talk about and there is common ground, but for understanding something besides reading statements before an audience that already agrees with you will be required. That is the risk of democracy, and I notice that the lines from Terry Tempest Williams say nothing about insisting on press coverage.

Todd Benoit is the editorial page editor of the Bangor Daily News.