May 2005

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Marks on Congressperson's Wall Represent Dead in Iraq

Bruce K. Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011, 207/729-0517, globalnet@mindspring.com, http://www.space4peace.org. A version of this article appeared originally on the Space for Peace blog, http://space4peace.blogspot.com, on March 18, 2005.

Thirty-five people occupied the Portland office of our Congressperson, Tom Allen (D-ME), today. We entered the office at 11:30 am and Karen Wainberg, the president of Peace Action Maine, read a statement. She said, "Your recent vote in favor of $81.4 billion more for the war was heart breaking for us to witness.… We have come to your office to strongly urge your sponsorship of the Woolsey resolution that demands the Bush administration develop an exit strategy immediately.... We want to see leadership from you, Representative Allen, on the war issue. It is not acceptable for you to just sit back watching to see which way the wind blows.....We strongly request that you hold a public town hall meeting on the war so that people in your district can give you their feedback on your current position."

As we entered the office, a camera from one local TV station was there waiting for us as well as a reporter from the Portland Press Herald newspaper. Doug Rawlings, president of Maine Veterans for Peace, talked with the media about why we had come. The Brunswick Times Record also had a front page story about the occupation today, having done the interview yesterday in advance of the action.

Previously, we've organized similar occupations in the offices of Maine's Republican Senators, Snowe and Collins. After word got out about our previous occupations, we heard from a peace group in western Pennsylvannia. They wanted to organize an occupation at their congressperson's office as well. As we protested today, there was another sit-in being held simultaneously at the office of a Republican congressman in Pennsylvannia.

As in the previous actions, we began reading the more than 1,500 names of American soldiers killed in Iraq and an equal number of names of innocent Iraqi civilians. One thing we immediately noticed, as we read the names and their cause of death, is the large number of children killed in Iraq from cluster bombs and other US bombing raids.

Each person read two pages of names and then passed the list on to the next person. His staff stepped around us to get to the fax and copy machine. Our voices, as we read, were surely a hindrance as they tried to talk on the phone. From time to time, an office worker would stop typing and listen intently to the names. Hour after hour the names were read... a seemingly endless string of death. Business as usual was interrupted today.

Artist Pat Wheeler brought along a large banner she had made with the words "Iraqi war dead" written in the upper left hand corner. The rest of the banner was empty. As each name was read an X was made in either red or black chalk on the banner. By 2:00 pm the entire banner was full of the marks. Then folks began to put X's in between the existing X's. We took turns holding the banner up against the wall so that those marking the X could use the wall as a backboard.

It was discovered that the chalk was bleeding through the banner and the freshly painted white walls (the Congressperson just moved into this new office) was now full of dark chalk marks. By the end of the day, virtually the entire wall was covered with the X's.

By 4:00 pm we finished reading the names. We gathered in a large circle in the front room of the office and stretched the banner out so everyone could see it. The entire banner was covered with over 3,000 X's. We invited Representative Allen's four staff persons to join our circle, and they did. I began by saying that we had not come to criticize them, we knew they were just doing their jobs. I said that we had come because of the Congressperson's vote on the 2006 Iraq war appropriation and that we were now more determined than ever to keep coming back to the offices of Maine's congressional delegation until the war was brought to an end. Pointing to the banner, I remarked at how chaotic it looked with all the X's. Representative Allen had just voted to give even more money to make Iraq even more violent and chaotic. I told the staff to tell the Congressperson that in a truly democratic society his job would be to serve the people. In a truly democratic society, I said, he would care what the people had to say. I reiterated our demand for a public town hall meeting on the subject.

As we were preparing to leave, one of the staff women said her husband was a Vietnam veteran and had died in the last year. She told us that if he were alive, he would be with us today.

One reporter asked me yesterday what we expected to accomplish from the occupation today. I told him "We have no rosy expectations. We understand what's at stake. Our government has been taken over by big money. But we must do something."

Today we did something. It was something good. I think even the congressperson's staff, in their hearts, agree.

Human Rights Activist Faces Deportation

Suzanne R. Carlson is an activist in Greenfield, MA.

Richard Sitcha is a Cameroonian human rights activist who, in 2001, exposed the government's killing of nine young men. He was accused of revealing "state secrets" and tortured. He fled to the US, was initially granted asylum, then had his asylum status revoked in September 2003.

A deportation attempt in April 2005 was prevented by a legal stay. He needs an appellate lawyer. Write: Sitcha Defense Committee, POB 1263, Greenfield, MA 01302. Phone your Senators' offices to urge attention to the violation of Sitcha's rights and to demand protection from deportation. Calls are especially needed to Senator Kerry, 617/565-8519.

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