War wasting funds, lives, environment

Draw-a-Thon II interview with Kenny Cole, artist whose drone show "The Hellfire Story" at SPACE Gallery in Portland hosted the 'Thon. Here he talks about preaching beyond the choir.

Here in Maine we are preparing for an organizing meeting to check in about what the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign has been up to lately, and to make our plans for the future. The recent Maine Peace Walk with Veterans for Peace and Buddhist monks and nuns in the lead got press throughout the state (links here, here, here and here!) and helped spread the cost of war message far and wide before ending at the Draw-a-Thon on Veterans Day.

Revelations are coming thick and fast from WikiLeaks' trove of U.S. diplomatic cables; it will be impossible to digest all the information in time for tomorrow. So many wasted funds could provide a useful focus: Karzai administration corruption, "aid" to the empire's many client states, and taxpayer funded State Dept. providing intel for private corporation Blackwater (name hidden, unlike your private parts if you decide to fly home for the holidays).

Activist Tom Sturtevant had a great idea recently about focusing on the Blue Angels' colossal waste of fuel, funds, and immense carbon footprint. How are we still affording stuff like this? Let the unemployed eat jet fuel! We will discuss this at the meeting also.

Before the meeting many of us will stand with the annual weekly advent vigil at Bath Iron Works. BIW is the largest employer in the state and one place where it is believed workers put depleted uranium weapons on Aegis destroyers. Is this any way to make a living?

This Sunday evening there is a good informational program on D.U. that Codepink organizer Beth Adams has put together with help from her friends. That event is Dec 5 in Portland, Maine 7:15-9:15pm at Sacred Heart/St. Dominic Church, 80 Sherman St., Portland, ME. 

fmi (413)-522-7505

A Community Discussion and Action Ideas will follow. Identical programs will be presented in Hartford on December 4^th and Portland, Maine on December 5^th. The program is jointly sponsored by: The American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, Traprock Center for Peace and Justice, The Alliance for Peace and Justice, Western Massachusetts Code Pink and the Nuclear –free Future Coalition of Western Massachusetts, and more!