War protest leads to 11 arrests in Bangor

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BANGOR – Eleven protesters were arrested Thursday after refusing to leave the Bangor office of U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, whom they were pressing for an end to the war in Iraq and to bring American troops home.

The 11 peace activists were part of a larger group of about 60 protesting the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. The protesters also were marking Thursday as an International Day of Peace.

Most left Snowe’s third-floor offices and hallway at One Cumberland Place shortly after 5 p.m. when told to do so by the building’s owner and then the police.

Those who remained behind were arrested, charged with criminal trespass, and escorted down the stairs by police. In the lobby, they were identified, photographed, placed in plastic handcuffs and walked past applauding activists to waiting transport vans that took them to the Penobscot County Jail.

But for nearly 90 minutes before that, activists camped out in Snowe’s office, with about 30 of them filling the office and more spilling out into the hallway. Inside the office they sang songs such as “I’m Declaring Peace” and “We are a Gentle, Angry People.” They invoked the teachings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.

“The world stands aghast at the path we have taken,” Dan Lourie, 69, of Bar Harbor said, drawing upon a King speech in 1967 protesting the Vietnam War. Lourie said the speech could have been written that morning, it was so pertinent.

The International Day of Peace marked the deadline for Congress to sign the national peace movement’s Declaration of Peace, which among other things calls for developing a plan for withdrawing all American troops next year and redirecting resources away from the war effort to benefit needs at home such as education and veterans service, organizers said.

“The U.S. war in Iraq is an endless fire consuming lives, resources and the fragile possibilities of peace,” Chris Stark, 52, a Spanish teacher at Hampden Academy, said Thursday, reading from the statement of intent from the Declaration of Peace.

The activists had sent Snowe and other delegates a copy of the declaration to sign three weeks earlier, but had not received a response from Snowe.

Although the activists held a brief vigil earlier outside the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building, where U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office is located, Snowe is up for re-election and was the focus of their attention.

Snowe was in Washington, D.C., and Gail Kelly, Snowe’s state director, listened and greeted the activists with handshakes, smiles and occasionally hugs, but could only offer a promise that she would forward the concerns and messages to Snowe.

“I will make sure that every piece of this gets to the senator,” Kelly said.

Last December, 19 war protesters were arrested for refusing to leave Snowe’s Bangor office. One served time, the rest were required to perform community service.

Some of the emotion-filled messages Thursday came as tags attached to infants’ shoes, tiny footwear intended to represent the fact that before the war, children accounted for half the Iraqi population and therefore were many of those who were in danger, injured or killed.

Nancy Hill, 53, a fishmonger from Stonington and mother of two adult children, presented Kelly with a small denim sneaker with “Pooh” written on the bottom and a design of Tigger on the side. She asked that Snowe and Americans try to understand the Iraqi people and “emotionally walk in their shoes” and accept what people have in common.

“As a mom, I can almost imagine an Iraqi mom’s terror at having a child threatened or killed,” she said.

All those arrested made bail.

Arrested protesters

Jeanne Olivett, 59, Brooklin

Ron Greenberg, 58, Bar Harbor

Suzanne Fitzgerald, 74, Bar Harbor

Richard Paget, 63, Stonington

Daniel Lourie, 69, Bar Harbor

Christopher Stark, 52, Winterport

Nancy Hill, 53, Stonington

Constance Jenkins, 58, Brewer

John Miller, 59, Blue Hill

Douglas Allen, 65, Orono

Ilze Peterson, 63, Orono