On the way home from the Stop the War demonstration in Kennebunkport on Aug. 25, we stopped at a restaurant. The waitress asked us from where we were traveling. When we told her we had been marching with 4,000 others to end the war, she began to serve us a torrent of anger at the current administration along with the meal. “Why haven’t there been more protests?” she asked.

We were reminded that many others like her are feeling angry and frustrated by the policies of this administration but haven’t found a way to make their voices heard.

Six years ago we all felt the shock and horror of more than 3,000 U.S. citizens’ deaths caused by l9 extremists, mostly from Saudi Arabia. As we mourned the dead our shock turned to anger, fear, sorrow and confusion. We wondered what we could do. Some urged retaliation, but against whom? This was not a state-sponsored act, but the suicidal act of a small group trained in Afghanistan and inspired by Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian. Many responded to the attack by holding, wearing or waving flags. Our President responded by bombing Afghanistan, told us to go shopping, and then invaded Iraq.

Today, six years later we mourn the loss of more than 3,700 U.S. troops, the wounding and maiming of many more and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and displacement of millions more. U.S. intelligence estimates that al-Qaida is stronger than ever.

Six years ago small groups of people began to gather at peace vigils around the state to say “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind,” urging a multilateral police response to capture al-Qaida, not war. We shared our sorrow, our confusion, fear and anger and reminded each other that true patriotism means to be willing to stand up to say “no” when our government leads us in the wrong direction. The weekly vigils continue across the state.

There were times we wondered if anything we did could make a difference – especially when mainstream media simply echoed the administration lines and dismissed alternative points of view as irrelevant at best and unpatriotic at worst. We joined millions of people around the world to try to stop the war on Iraq as the Bush administration rushed to war claiming to be protecting America from an imminent attack with nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.

Four years ago Bangor photographer Jim Harney visited Iraq and brought us the faces of Iraqi civilians he met. On each anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, we brought the photographs of those faces to our Chains of Concern at Cascade Park where we lined up from Eastern Maine Medical Center toward Mt. Hope Cemetery to express our concern about the human and financial costs of a war on Iraq.

Today, we wonder if the Iraqi mother hugging her child, the laughing boys, the man carrying the loaf of bread, the doctor with a stethoscope are still alive. And if they are alive, how they endure. The World Health Organization recently announced that 70 percent of Iraqis do not have access to clean water and 80 percent lack effective sanitation. Iraq now ranks as the planet’s most unstable country according to the 2007 Failed States Index.

Each day we hear of more car bombs and mounting death toll of U.S. troops and Iraqis with no end in sight. Seven infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne division who had served a l5-month deployment in Iraq recently pointed out in a New York Times OpEd piece (8/l9/07) that “The vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side.” They point out that “Political reconciliation will occur, but not at our insistence or in ways that meet our benchmarks.”

They confirm what more than 70 percent of Americans now see as a failed policy. And yet, if so many of us agree, why do the politicians continue to pour billions of dollars needed here at home into this futile and deadly war? President Bush says he will “stay the course” despite the will of the majority of people.

In this representative democracy of ours it is understandable that many have decided to put their hopes and energy into electing a president and Congress who will represent the will of the people. Yet, the hijacking of our democracy by the current administration was enabled by elected representatives of both parties.

A nonpartisan, vital and vigilant grassroots movement focusing on the issues, and calling for accountability and a humane foreign policy based on diplomacy and negotiation not on brute force and domination is needed to ensure any elected politician truly represents the will of the people. A massive, vocal movement calling for reordered budget priorities to meet human needs is needed more urgently today than ever.

Let us come together to mourn all of the Iraq war dead and stand up for peaceful alternatives at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 at Bass Park on Main Street in Bangor. Let us demonstrate, with others around the country, our united grief, anger and hope so that politicians of any party will have to truly represent the majority of us and not just those who profit from war and the status quo.

Ilze Petersons is a member of the Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine.