The editorial “Protest by Ballot” (BDN, Jan. 17) denigrates not only the 11 arrested in Bangor for their selfless act of nonviolent civil disobedience in Sen. Snowe’s office on Sept. 21, 2006, the International Day of Peace, but impugns the hundreds of others arrested across the entire country where 356 similar nonviolent Declaration of Peace actions took place during that week. Their heroic civil disobedience is to be applauded, not belittled.

The editorial rhetorically asks if Sen. Snowe was the “right target” – what a silly question; of course she was the right target, as she and all members of Congress are the only chance we have to end this obscene, blasphemous and indefensible assault on humanity. But if there were to be any others, aside from the members of Congress identified as beneficiaries of September’s civil disobedience, it would be the members of moral conscience and integrity who are disgusted with the Bush administration’s hubris and hegemony, but who have been silent thus far.

Now is the time for Congress to hear from them, less their silence betray themselves and all of us. The Bush cabal would have us falsely believe that the dissenter’s voice empowers the enemy, when the reality is the dissenter’s silence is the true surrender and ruin of our country’s soul.

Nine days after the “Bangor Eleven” arrest we witnessed the largest anti-war demonstration in Maine since the start of the Bush administration’s illegal war and occupation of Iraq when over 1,500 protesters marched through the streets of Bangor. Dismissively, the BDN editorial claims that today’s peace activists’ “tactics amount to only a pale shadow of the thousands who marched in the ’60s and ’70s to force an end to the Vietnam War.” This faulty analysis is illustrative of the tragic shortcomings of today’s corporately controlled mass media outlets having predominantly played down anti-war actions in the United States. However grossly underreported, there have been millions more people in the streets of this country (not to mention abroad) protesting this senseless and unprovoked attack in the first four years of the war in Iraq than the first four years of the war in Vietnam.

Although the time has been served and the fines have been paid associated with first acts of the Declaration of Peace, the massive nationwide civil disobedience that took place six weeks prior to the “remarkable electoral revolt” continues to fuel the electorate. In Maine, the recently launched online petition campaign at maineimpeach.org has garnered over a thousand signatures in just the first few days, and plans are already well under way for the next statewide peace action on March 17 from everyvillage-me.us.

Protest by ballot is without question a wonderful demonstration of a free country correcting its mistakes, but we cannot afford to wait two more years. We must increasingly protest by all peaceful means forcing an immediate end to this bloody, shameful mess we’ve allowed to continue for the past four years.

V. Kelly Bellis of Ellsworth is the webservant for PaxChristiMaine.org.