Arrested
for Sitting In at Snowe's Office
by Karen Saum
On the first day of the war, six of us sat in in Senator Snowe's office
in
Bangor. My job was to distract the staff's attention while three much
younger people had their necks joined with bicycle locks and the key
whisked
from the office. That accomplished, we made ourselves comfortable for
the
duration, which, as it turned out, was until 5:30 that evening. Our
sole
demand was that Snowe explain why she declared Secretary Colin Powell's
lies
to the UN Security Council to be "well corroborated evidence."
Senator Snowe does her constituents a grave disservice when she does
not
level with us about falsified information that has been used to prove
a lie.
Sen. Snowe, by her failure to stand against Bush, will be as guilty
as he of
war crimes. We hold her accountable. Through vigils, petitions, letters,
emails, faxes, and phone calls, we called upon the Senator to oppose
this
war. All of our efforts were ignored or trivialized by form letter
responses. We know of no other way to have the truth heard. Through
our
presence at her office we expressed our outrage.
Instead of speaking with us, she had us arrested. The perp walk, hands
cuffed behind our backs, was made through supporters, cheering us. The
bicycle locks were eventually broken without damaging anyone's neck.
It took
about three hours for everyone to be booked, and it cost us each $40
for the
bond that let us out on our own recognizance.
I decided to spend 48 hours in jail so that I could give the amount
of the
fine as a donation to the Veterans Hospital at Togus. Our brave troops
in
Iraq are not aware that the President plans to help pay for his tax
relief
of $500 billion for the wealthiest 1 percent of the population by cutting
an
estimated $14 billion from military veterans programs. I believe all
of us
who support our men and women being called upon to sacrifice their lives
have a duty to protest this injustice.
— Karen Saum
[Ed. note: We have learned that Karen Saum received
a suspended sentence.]
Back to Peace Talk Index,
Summer, 2003