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Securing an end to the United States’ wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was the unifying topic during a peace rally Saturday in front of the University of Maine’s Fogler Library.
The rally, organized by the Maine Peace Action Committee, featured three speakers, several bands, and an a capella performance of “Age of Aquarius” and “Here Comes The Sun” by the cast of UMaine’s production of “Hair.”
Students gathered around a picnic table on the mall to paint rally signs with slogans such as “Live Love, Love Life,” “I’ve Got Soul But I’m Not a Soldier,” and “Make Love Not War.”
Ron Warner of Veterans for Peace addressed the crowd of approximately 40 people. The Vietnam veteran spoke to attendees about the money the United States spends on defense, and how that money could be better spent on education.
“Here in Maine, they’re proposing cuts at [the university] while Maine taxpayers have paid $2.8 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001,” Warner said.
Warner spent last fall and winter traveling across the country, staying in different states and talking to locals and reading local newspapers.
“Most every state was in dire financial condition and had or was about to make drastic cuts in social services,” Warner said. “The total cost to U.S. taxpayers of our wars in and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 is approximately $1 trillion.” Warner said, adding that the nation’s military spending accounts for more than 50 percent of the U.S. budget.
Warner asked the audience rhetorically why no other country in the world feels threatened enough to “defend ourselves at such a level.”
The defense budget isn’t “for defense, but to intimidate countries and support a corporate empire that rapes the world for its natural resources and exploits the people of the world to maximize corporate profits,” Warner said.
“The proper way to defeat terrorism is through the international cooperation of intelligence and police agencies and the elimination of its root causes of poverty, injustice and despair,” Warner said.
Joshua Trombley, who coordinated the event with Jamie Dandretta, said that turnout to the event was not as high as he had expected. While approximately 200 people had planned to attend, according to Trombley, the crowd topped out at approximately 40 people.
Trombley said learning about the protesting of past generations spurned him into action.
“I went to see the show ‘Hair’ four times, and that kind of inspired me to start thinking about … protesting stuff, how large a part of the culture it was in the ’60s and ’70s,” Trombley said. “I realized we’ve been at war for almost nine years now, and there really aren’t any large student protests.”
Although Trombley was not a member of MPAC, he contacted group faculty representative Doug Allen before planning the rally. Trombley said the event would not have been approved without affiliation with MPAC.
Allen, speaking a short time after Warner, recounted his experiences as a teacher during the Vietnam War, calling it “the high point of student protest.”
He went on to compare today’s student protests to those of the ’60s and ’70s, and while he said the energy at the Saturday rally left him hopeful, “this is a first step and not a final step.”
“I’ve been involved in peace work for about eight or nine years and more so lately — my son died in Iraq four and a half years ago,” said Mary Horrigan, the event’s last speaker. Horrigan is a member of American Gold Star Mothers, a group of women who have lost a son or daughter to war.
Horrigan said she hoped her speech would “call attention to some of the cost of this war, not only monetarily, but also physically and psychologically.”
She spent much of her speech focusing on what she called the “propaganda machine” that goes into high schools around the nation and recruits underprivileged students who could not otherwise afford colleges, using “handsome, clean-cut, well-shaven” soldiers in uniform to convince them to enlist.
When the Bangor-based band Sam and Yuri performed a cover of The Beatles’ song “Let It Be,” rallygoers danced in front of them holding their signs. Trombley raised a sign that read “Join Us” above the crowd, inviting passersby to the gathering.
Some students who attended the rally said that they would consider joining MPAC and being more active in pro-peace activities. Trombley said getting people involved was the primary goal of the rally.
“Now I definitely want to get involved,” said Cody Miller, a first-year music education student. Miller said that he felt it was time for “a love revolution.”
Bangor Daily News