Focus on Peace & Justice
Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice would like not to focus on the
controversy surrounding the July 4th parade -- a single day, a single event
now in the past. It is more important to work constructively towards a
better future for our country. To set the record straight, we're a peace
group. We do not engage in vandalism. We did not plan to disrupt the parade,
ask members to harass the parade organizers, or threaten anyone with a
lawsuit. Any public response to the Committee's decision was independent,
reflects public opinion and is a healthy exchange of views. There are,
however, larger threats to peace and justice domestically and around the
world that we need to address.
Our goal of participating in the Winslow parade, as with all of our peace
actions, is to remind people about the terrible costs of war, and the need
for our leaders to find better ways to resolve conflict. We want to put
forward a vision for the future of this nation that doesn't involve sending
our best and brightest young men and women, along with a huge amount of our
tax dollars, overseas for war. Recent polls indicate that the majority of
Americans feel the invasion of Iraq was a mistake.
We plan to work constructively for peace and getting our troops home safely.
We invite everyone to help direct America's future rather than focus on
yesterday's news.
Chris Rusnov
Robert Hayes
Waterville Area Bridges for Peace & Justice
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Subject: Join us for Parade in Hallowell, Sat.
June 16
From: "Chris Rusnov"
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 22:22:33 -0400
Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice has been invited to participate in the Old Hallowell Days Parade on Saturday, July 16.
Line-up is from 9:00 am to 9:45. The parade starts at 10:00 am and should be over no later than 11:15. It's a short walk down the Main street in Hallowell.
We will give you exact location to meet as soon as we know.
Please let us know if you can participate. We could use at least 20 people.
Our "float" is a sculpture of a huge shopping bag decorated as an antique American flag out of which is pouring military hardware -- planes, boats, guns, etc. "We keep buying war...at what cost?" There are also posters that list the domestic programs that could be funded with the money we are now spending on war. We will also demonstrate the "human cost of war" as we hold the newly designed posters that list the names of the US soldiers who have died, and posters giving the statistics of the US wounded and Iraqi civilians killed.
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Saturday, July 2, 2005
Peace group denied float
By AMY CALDER
Staff Writer
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WINSLOW -- The Winslow 4th of July Parade Committee has barred a peace group from having a float in the parade, saying it does not fit into the theme of keeping the American spirit alive.
Waterville Area Bridges for Peace & Social Justice asked to participate in the parade but received a letter from Parade Chairman David Morissette denying the request.
"We are all about supporting our troops and our veterans and feel that any anti-war message or protesting is just not good for our parade and our spectators, even if it's done quietly and peacefully," Morissette's letter states. "We are not against what you stand for, we just don't feel it is what's best for the Winslow Family 4th of July Parade."
Bridges for Peace member Robert Hayes of Winslow said Friday that the group's reaction to the denial was not one of anger or surprise.
"We thought that they are mistaken, and part of the American spirit has to do with free speech and respect for people who have sacrificed for peace and freedom and not forgetting those people."
Bridges for Peace has asked the parade committee to reconsider its request. Hayes said that in resubmitting its request it described the group's parade float as a sculpture of a 6-foot-tall shopping bag with military hardware protruding out of the top of it -- guns, bombs, warships and airplanes -- with signs that say, "We Paid for War" and "Peace is Patriotic."
The float would list what the country could have purchased with the money spent on war -- construction of highways, child care centers, health care and other services, he said. Another sign would list the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq war.
"The contrast between those costs of war and the human costs of war sort of was our theme," Hayes said.
Ron LeClair, chairman of the Winslow Family 4th of July Celebration, said Friday that members of the Bridges for Peace group had sent him some e-mails on Friday asking for reconsideration and he would review them.
"As of right now I'm sticking behind my parade committee," he said. "I have a lot of soldiers coming to this. You want to criticize the government, go do it any other day, but don't do it on the Fourth of July."
LeClair said the festivities are family-oriented and he wants people to have fun.
"There's a time and a place," he said. "This is not the time and place. It's America's birthday. This is an event for families."
One of the questions members of Bridges for Peace were asking Friday was whether the committee had the right to bar them from the event if the town of Winslow uses taxpayer money to help fund it.
LeClair said the town pays $4,000 to hire police and firefighters to serve as security officers for the festivities.
"The town helps pay for the bill to keep the events safe," he said.
Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said that, in general terms, if a town sponsors a parade and excludes a group from taking part, it would mean government-funded discrimination, which is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
The committee hosting the parade is not a town committee, although it receives an in-kind donation of security officers.
"The MCLU's perspective is that taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used to fund discrimination against any group that wishes to peacefully and patriotically participate in Fourth of July celebrations," Bellows said.
South Solon resident Lisa Savage, a member of Bridges for Peace, said she wrote a letter to Morissette saying she was not sure what the committee's interpretation of the American Spirit is.
"I was a U.S. history major and I think that tolerance for dissent is the belief that the absence of free speech is the first step toward tyranny," Savage said.
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Sunday, July 3, 2005
Parade chief: Peace group out
By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WINSLOW -- Ron LeClair, chairman of the Winslow Family 4th of July Celebration, said Saturday he will uphold his parade committee's decision to exclude a peace group's float from Monday's July 4 parade.
Members of Waterville Area Bridges for Peace & Justice had asked LeClair to reconsider the parade committee's decision.
"I'm sticking to my decision," LeClair said. "They are not going to be allowed in the parade. They're out."
Chris Hayes, a member of Bridges for Peace, said her group does not plan to press the matter further.
"We are not trying to get into the parade anymore," Hayes said. "We just plan to stand on the bridge and send letters to the editor to get the word out."
Hayes said Bridges for Peace members will demonstrate on the Messalonskee Stream bridge on Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Monday, hoping to catch some of the people going to the Winslow July 4 parade.
They also will be on the bridge at their usual time from noon to 1 p.m. Sunday, she said.
"The point we are trying to get across is the peace message," she said. "I don't want our peace message to get lost in the controversy over not being in the parade."
LeClair, however, said that is not the message he is hearing.
He said people who identified themselves as members of Bridges for Peace on Saturday harassed him and his family over the phone and have done likewise to Parade Committee Chairman Dave Morissette. Morissette confirmed this.
LeClair also blamed Bridges for Peace for graffiti found Saturday on Winslow 4th of July Celebration fund-raising signs around town, although he did not have proof.
"It happened right after we told them they couldn't be in the parade," he said.
Hayes said her group does not condone harassment.
"Only last night I sent out an e-mail to our entire list, encouraging people to realize that these are volunteers who put this celebration together, not elected officials," she said.
LeClair said he upheld his parade committee's decision after reviewing pictures of the Bridges for Peace float, which he said features bombs overflowing from a bag that is decorated with a painted American flag.
He said such a float is inappropriate for an event meant to celebrate America and the courage and sacrifices of its military.
Hayes disagrees.
She said the float is a statement about the human and economic cost of the war in Iraq. The bag, she said, is a shopping bag about 3 feet wide and 6 feet high that features a painted antique American flag. Warships, war planes and guns are coming out of the bag, she said.
Signs on the side of the truck, Hayes said, put numbers to the cost of the Iraq war, including $178 billion spent and 1,747 American soldiers killed.
Hayes said Bridges for Peace has been invited to participate in July 4 parades in Bangor and Bath.
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Peace group ban stands
By JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WINSLOW -- This Independence Day Parade had it all.
From waving military recruiters to New England Patriots cheerleaders to a corporate clown dancing behind the red, white and blue Wal-Mart truck as loudspeakers blared the tune of "Bye, Bye Miss American Pie," Monday's celebration of freedom had everything.
Everything, that is, but freedom of speech.
It might not have looked that way at first glance, however.
Swathed in patriotic bunting, corporate opinions flowed unhindered down the streets of Winslow; slogans for oil companies, used cars and various branches of the military met with no protest. Every proposed float was allowed, according to Ron LeClair, chairman of the Winslow Family 4th of July Celebration, except for the one that promoted peace.
The group that proposed the float is Waterville Area Bridges for Peace, a group that regularly demonstrates and protests the war in Iraq. LeClair said Bridges for Peace was the only group out of at least 200 to be refused a spot in the parade -- and it was because of the group's anti-war stance.
Earlier, Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said there might be a possible First Amendment violation since a group was excluded based on its opinion of the war and the town at least partially sponsored the parade.
However, Monday at the parade LeClair remained unmoved by such questions.
"Nope, I'm going to stick to my guns on this," he said. "If you're going to complain about the government, do it any other day."
So Bridges for Peace wasn't allowed to run its float, and the parade proceeded without any obvious hitches.
"What do you think, it's a great parade, isn't it?" LeClair asked.
Indeed, according to his estimate, 30,000 to 40,000 people attended, making it the largest attendance ever in the parade's 15-year history. Parade operations went smoothly in the absence of the Bridges for Peace float; the A-10 bomber flyover met with much applause, as did several veterans' groups. A first-ever high-school band composed of students from Lawrence, Waterville, Skowhegan and Winslow marched and played.
On the Messalonskee Bridge, the Bridges for Peace group met with a warm reception, according to a founding member, Chris Rusnov of Winslow. Veterans and families of soldiers waved and gave members of the group the thumbs-up sign as they drove past or stopped to stand with them, Rusnov said.
The friendly response came as hardly a surprise, she said, based on recent polls. She may have been referring to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released on June 21 that shows six in 10 Americans as opposing the war in Iraq.
Rusnov said LeClair told her Bridges for Peace could not have a float in the parade because "they didn't want anything political in it."
"But I guess it's how you define 'political'," she said.
LeClair allowed organizations in the parade such as Falun Dafa, a group calling for termination of persecution in China; several members of Congress or their staff; and U.S. Army recruiters, according to a program provided by parade chairman Dave Morissette.
Perhaps the motive for blocking Bridges for Peace was not to prevent the group's presentation from offending veterans and families of soldiers overseas, said Lisa Savage of Solon, another founding member of Bridges for Peace.
LeClair and Morissette may have had the protection of another group in mind, Savage said.
"I think they didn't want us to interfere with the recruiters," she said.
"Military recruiting has a huge budget of your tax dollars. And when there is one dissenting voice, they see that as a threat. I don't think that's healthy for America, not for my children, not for anybody's children."
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Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Well-intentioned parade organizers made bad decision
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Good people with honorable intentions sometimes make bad decisions.
Such was the case when the Winslow 4th of July Parade Committee prohibited a peace group from having a float in this year's Independence Day parade.
Waterville Area Bridges for Peace & Social Justice was among more than 200 groups and organizations that asked to participate in the parade, one of the largest in Maine. The peace group was the only one that was rejected by parade organizers.
Those organizers, who do a terrific job each year putting together an excellent show that attracts thousands of spectators, told Bridges for Peace that it could not enter a float meant to raise awareness of wars' human and financial costs.
While well-meaning, parade organizers made a mistake.
Bridges for Peace should have been allowed to participate in the parade along with members of the National Guard, Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion.
It would have been a true celebration of American freedom and tolerance to see peace activists in the same parade with a U.S. Navy color guard, Purple Heart recipients and the 15th Alabama Infantry.
The "peace" float should have been part of the procession that moved down Benton Avenue and Bay Street -- right along with the two Army trucks pulling howitzers, the Air Force mini-jet and all the bands, organizations, antique cars and Shriners in go-karts.
asdfasf Fourth of July parades celebrate our freedoms by commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia.
Those freedoms include one of our most cherished rights: free speech. Such speech includes parade floats that urge peace and denounce war.
The Bridges for Peace float was a likeness of a 6-foot-tall shopping bag with guns, bombs, airplanes and warships sticking out of the top. It was emblazoned with signs that read "We Paid for War" and "Peace is Patriotic," and with a list showing how money spent on war might have otherwise been used, such as for highways, child-care centers and health care. A second sign on the float showed the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, currently about 1,750.
Bridges for Peace had every right to request a spot in the parade and every reason to expect the request would be granted.
Parade organizers' explanations for rejecting Bridges for Peace were contradictory to the spirit of July 4. Parade officials said people are free to criticize the war and the government any other day, but they should not do it on the Fourth of July.
We remind the organizers that freedom and constitutional rights are not conditional or situational. They apply every day.
The organizers seem to have forgotten that when they declared that Independence Day is no time for Americans to exercise their independence by speaking freely about some of the most important, serious and dangerous issues facing the nation.
In another editorial recently, about flag burning, we wrote that it is easy to be for free speech when we agree with what is being said or done. The test of a truly free society is whether it tolerates speech that some -- or many -- find offensive.
The same applies to the ban that kept Waterville Area Bridges for Peace & Social Justice -- and its float -- out of an otherwise inspiring July 4 parade.
Organizers in Winslow do not have to like or agree with what Bridges for Peace says, but we would have thought they would defend the group's right to say it.
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Friday, July 8, 2005
Winslow event has aftertaste despite successes
By JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
WINSLOW -- Organizers of Winslow's largest-ever Fourth of July celebration said this week they didn't mind working around the clock, planning for the event a full year in advance, or haggling with the Pentagon about certain military music groups.
They did it for their community.
So, in the final days, when their efforts brought them a barrage of angry phone calls, e-mails and talk about lawsuits, they said it was, well, discouraging.
The hard work of more than 100 volunteers seemed to be eclipsed by the barring of a single float.
Event chairman Ron LeClair said the committee granted 200-plus other organizations spots in the parade, and record crowds were treated to "one of the best shows that they have ever possibly seen."
"The committee and its volunteers, 139 strong, put in their blood, sweat and tears so everyone could enjoy this event," said LeClair. "It was a breathtaking relief .... The tears started to flow at how successful this event turned out."
The important story is that most people enjoyed the event, LeClair said, not that a "small group" (Waterville Bridges for Peace and Justice) was denied a spot in the parade.
"We're focusing on 26 people," LeClair said, "They've got enough coverage."
LeClair said his 33-member committee had been planning the event all year, and volunteers put in hundreds of hours to make the celebration of freedom a reality. This year's July 4th celebration was Winslow's largest ever, he said. Not only did parade attendance break every record, possibly running as high as 40,000, but more than 60,000 watched the evening's fireworks display, LeClair said.
The fireworks display, "the most spectacular, breathtaking fireworks show ever," LeClair said, was also the largest Winslow has ever put up, costing $15,000.
In addition, an estimated 50-60 military personnel attended, playing music, participating in events and busily recruiting, LeClair said.
The Army-Navy rock band performed God Bless America.
The fireworks and parade weren't the only events provided by LeClair's planning committee, however.
LeClair said various music groups and dancers, both local and otherwise, performed for crowds all weekend, "for the most spectacular music that you ever heard."
"They rocked the house with well over 6,000 people in the crowd -- the largest crowd ever," LeClair said,
Area girls competed in the Miss Fourth of July Pageant held at Thomas College, children went for sea plane rides, air boat rides and had their pictures taken with the New England Patriots cheerleaders.
Despite the successes, the final days were marred.
LeClair said he forced the Bridges for Peace group to move its float from the park entrance. The community's uproar following his decision to ban Bridges for Peace from the parade resulted in a barrage of undesirable e-mails and phone calls, LeClair said.
Dave Morissette, parade chairman, sent an e-mail containing his resignation, citing unfair media coverage and ensuing public scrutiny as his reasons. Morissette, in the e-mail, told LeClair that he wasn't about to work as hard as he and the other volunteers did just to have his name dragged through the mud. Morissette was unable to be reached for comment.
Gino Gilbert, committee treasurer, said if Bridges for Peace had contacted the parade committee before June 29, then the committee and the group might have "come to terms on what (kind of float) we could have allowed."
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