MPJEN

Date(s): Tue, Mar 2nd, 2010 thru Wed, Jun 2nd, 2010

Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home, fund our communities
(This introduction is an excerpt from Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine March 2010 newsletter http://www.peacectr.org)

Taxpayers in Maine have paid $2.4 billion for the total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending since 2001. Maine's unemployment rate is 8.3%, and the governor's proposed budget has the potential to eliminate 7,000 to 10,000 jobs. The job losses will be felt most acutely in the long-term care and nursing home sector, in-home health care, and in services for the mentally ill, developmentally disabled and by other families with low income. Major losses will also be felt in schools and in higher education. There should be a vigorous debate about cutting these services versus increasing taxes, and it should include discussion about stopping the funding for these wars.

Bring Our War $$ Home is a three-month campaign aimed at increasing awareness about the connection between the cost of these wars and the loss of services in our communities. It began on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and will end on April 15th, Tax Day. Many peace activists throughout the state have been steadfastly working on this campaign. Please join us by committing to at least one action below. For more information, go to: http://bringourwardollarshome.org/costbytown.html

Do your part to Bring Our War $$ Home!

Choose at least one action below that YOU can take to help in this effort. Each of these is explained further down the page.

1. Ask your legislator to sign a letter to Rep. Pingree & Michaud (see below)
2. Contact Rep. Michaud and Pingree yourself
3. Join a door-to-door/neighbor-to-neighbor action
4. Write a letter to the editor
5. Donate to the campaign
6. Attend the March 20th Bangor teach-in; or a national gathering in Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco.

For more information or to volunteer to help in any way, please contact:
Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home
Send mail to: Global Network, PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011.
Call 207-443-9502, or email info@BringOurWarDollarsHome.org

Estimated Average Yearly Cost to Maine People of Iraq and Afghan-Pakistan wars since 2001:

Winslow $2,068,000; Waterville $2,823,000; Vassalboro $1,003,000; Unity $468,000; Oakland $1,404,000; Fairfield $1,617,000; Clinton $828,000; Albion $482,000; China $1,017,000; Sidney $871,000.
http://bringourwardollarshome.org/costbytown.html


1. Ask your legislators ASAP to sign a letter to Representatives Pingree and Michaud OR send their own letter.
See letter at http://bringourwardollarshome.org/Letter%20to%20Pingree%20and%20Michaud.pdf
Only 9 have signed so far. If your Legislator responds that she/he doesn't want to box in Michaud, Pingree and Obama, or that this is not appropriate business for a Legislator, or that they can't support an absolute shut-off of war funds --- share with them your thoughts on why spending our tax dollars on war reduces the funds that come back to states for essential programs, increases the federal deficit and increases hate toward the U.S. -- all of which make all of us a lot less secure. Find your state legislators (senator and representative) by going to http://www.congress.org Enter your zip code under "Get Involved..." You will be provided with links to ways to contact your legislators -- phone and email.

2. Contact Rep. Mike Michaud and Rep. Chellie Pingree yourself
We are focusing our energy on our two members of the House of Representatives in Washington DC because nationally it has been determined that our best chance of stopping war funding is in the House. For that reason we urge you to help us get others to call on Rep. Chellie Pingree (District 1) and Rep. Michael Michaud (District 2) to vote NO on any more war spending and to become leaders in Congress on this important issue.

Rep. Chellie Pingree
57 Exchange Street, Suite 302, Portland, ME 04101
Phone: (207) 774-5019 Fax: (207) 871-0720
http://www.pingree.house.gov/

Rep. Mike Michaud
6 State Street, Suite 101, Bangor, ME 04401
Phone: 207-942-6935 Fax: 207-942-5907
http://www.michaud.house.gov/

3. Help distribute information door-to-door over the weekend of April 10-11. The Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home has created a pizza-style door hanger
http://www.bringourwardollarshome.org/GN%20Door%20Hanger%202010.indd.pdf to distribute in your neighborhoods.

You can place an order with us for some number of these door-hangers and then organize folks in your community to put them on door knobs as a way to create more awareness, discussion, and pressure on Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud as they prepare to vote on still another war supplemental next spring. (Last December they both voted in favor of another $138 billion for war funding.)

To cover the printing and mailing costs we will have to charge you 10 cents each so if you want 200 of them that would cost you $20. Five hundred of them would cost you $50. We will need to have your order in to us no later than March 20 so we can get them printed and distributed statewide.

It is our hope that the peace movement in Maine will use the weekend of April 10-11 and then also April 15 (Tax Day) as good times to bring the issue of war $$ home to the public. People will have taxes and federal spending priorities on their mind.

The basic idea is that we need to expand our present base of people in the state who are publicly expressing their outrage about continued war funding. In order to make this much needed growth happen, we are going to have to get out and do some good old fashioned grassroots door-to-door work.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and contact us if you can help.
Thanks for all you do.

Bruce Gagnon, Lisa Savage & Gary Higginbottom
http://www.bringourwardollarshome.org/


4. Write a letter to the editor
Be sure to include your full name, town you live in and your phone number (they won't publish the phone number but may call you to verify that you sent the letter and that you are only submitting your letter to their newspaper). Be sure to mention your members of Congress by name. We hear from congressional staff that a letter to the editor that mentions the member gets strong attention in their offices.

For newspapers other than the ones listed below, go to: http://www.maine.info/newspaper.php

Kennebec Journal (Augusta) and the Morning Sentinel (Waterville) http://centralmaine.mainetoday.com/readerservices/lettertotheeditor.html

Bangor Daily News
http://www.bangordailynews.com/external/contact/

Portland Press Herald
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/readerservices/lettertotheeditor.html

Lewiston Sun Journal (250 word limit) letters@sunjournal.com

5. Donations to the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home can be made to the Global Network and sent to PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011.
Donations are tax deductible and all funds will go toward this effort. Call 443-9502 or email us at globalnet@mindspring.com if you have any questions.


6. Saturday, March 20th National Day of Action
Demonstrations in Washington DC, San Francisco & Los Angeles http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=M20_homepage

Active Community Teach-In: The Impact of the War in Afghanistan on Health, Fuel, Food & Jobs

BANGOR
Saturday, March 20th, 10 AM to 5 P.M.
Unitarian Universalist Church• 120 Park Street in Bangor

Keynote Speaker: Mariam Atifa Raqib, President of Afghanistan Samsortya and former member of Afghanistan Women's Council

Panelists: Mary Beth Sullivan, “Bring Our War $$ Home” coalition; Peter Kellman,“US Labor Against the War”; and Maryalice Horrigan, Gold Star Mother.

Workshops: • Building the movement to bring war $$ home • Creating people-to-people connections with Afghanistan • Making connections with labor • Promoting alternatives to military service

Free and Open to the Public. For more information call 942-9343, email info@peacectr.org, or visit http://www.peacectr.org

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Info from the American Friends Service Committee on Pentagon spending

More Money for War? No, A Time to Act for Peace!
When President Obama released his budget proposal this week, it confirmed the bad news we'd been anticipating. His budget would increase already bloated Pentagon bureaucracy and fund the troop surge in Afghanistan with $33 billion this year, and then add $159 billion next year for the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Meanwhile, it would freeze spending on many "non-security related" programs for the next three years. Thank you to the thousands of you who have already contacted your members of Congress, urging them to shift money from the Pentagon and the wars to meet real human security needs: more diplomacy, green jobs, poverty reduction and education programs.
Background

FCNL's analysis of the president's proposed FY2011 budget
Our Nation's Checkbook campaign: get involved!

Tags: Afghanistan/Pakistan Economic Justice Iraq War Peace & Peacemaking