Mainers protest war with Bangor walk for peace

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Emma Howard, 10, of Bangor walked because she doesn’t think war and freedom are the same thing. She walked because her mom was walking, too.

John Cancelarich, 76, drove from Presque Isle to walk because he believes there is strength in numbers and because the three-hour drive to Bangor was worth making that point.

Marian Fowler, 62, of Millinocket walked because she’s tired of the killing, of the lies and the deception, she said.

Her husband, Albert Fowler, 63, walked because he said war is forcing the United States to be something it shouldn’t be.

He walked because he fought in Vietnam, made it out alive and because he still is able.

Every one of the 100 or so who departed from Davenport Park in Bangor on Saturday morning and walked a 1.5-mile stretch to Eastern Maine Medical Center could have done almost anything else on the sun-splashed spring day.

They could have worked in their gardens or gone hiking or biking. They could have drove down to the coast and dipped their feet in the ocean.

But they didn’t.

Instead – at the end of the deadliest month this year for U.S. troops in Iraq – they joined together in a message of peace.

They walked and held signs that read “Has the war made us safer?” and “Veterans for Peace,” and simply “Join Us,” hoping that their small gesture was not made in vain.

“Honestly, I’m not sure that this does anything, but it feels a lot better than sitting at home,” said Dana Williams, 53, of Bangor.

The peace walk in Bangor was held in conjunction with a national protest Saturday in New York City that saw thousands of anti-war protesters march through Manhattan to call for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Busloads of demonstrators from Maine made the trip to the event in New York, which was coordinated by the group United for Peace and Justice.

The ones who couldn’t go held their own rally in downtown Bangor.

“It would be nice if we didn’t need to do it, but it’s important to stand up every so often,” said Valerie Carter of Bangor, who walked with her daughter, Emma Howard.

Howard’s T-shirt had a picture of President Bush with a line drawn through it and the words “can’t wait until 2008.”

She said she hates war.

When asked how much a 10-year-old could know about the subject, she replied, “Well, we don’t really talk about the war in school. You can’t even say anything bad about the president or you’ll get in trouble.”

But she’s old enough to know that it’s wrong, she said, and that a lot of people have died: more than 2,300 U.S. troops since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, including 69 in April.

Saturday’s walk in Bangor started at 11 a.m. in Davenport Park across from the Greater Bangor Area Homeless Shelter. The location was a symbol, organizers said.

Instead of investing in war, the administration should invest in affordable housing for all, according to Doug Allen, a philosophy professor at the University of Maine.

The march finished about 45 minutes later at EMMC, which Allen said served as a symbol for directing money from the war and toward health care.

“We’re spending so much money on this war,” Albert Fowler said. “And that money is being spent unwisely. Just think of all the problems with our own infrastructure.”

Ilze Petersons of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine and the de facto leader of the walk, said she recognized many faces from the many other events her group facilitates.

It was the ones she didn’t recognize on Saturday that softened her heart, she said.

One of those new faces was Don Withers, 48, of Hampden and he wasn’t alone. He brought his three children, Aaron, 13, Roxanne, 9, and Simone, 7, to walk with him.

“It’s time for the leadership in this country to see that there are plenty of us out here who don’t approve of what they’re doing,” Withers said before joining the mass in a chorus.

“I’m gonna lay down my sword and shield … down by the riverside … ain’t going to study war no more,” the group sang.

And then Withers was gone, filing into line with the others as they walked toward downtown Bangor. His youngest daughter reached up and grabbed his hand and the father took it without looking down, their own little sign of peace.