Maine Women Oppose Government's Military Plans
by Mary-Elizabeth Cori-Jones
MCCW members who met with Sen. Collins include from left Ruth Gabey, Wendy Hazard, Victoria Hershey, Rosalie Paul, Charlotte Aldebron, Jeanne Schork, Mary-Elizabeth Cori-Jones and Jillian Aldebron
The idea for what developed into MCCW started in early December, when I was pacing around my kitchen thinking, "I can't be the only one who disagrees with what is happening in this country, but where is everyone, and how can we let it be known that we're out here so we can get public debate going?" It occurred to me that many people were probably feeling intimidated by all the flags and rhetoric out of Washington, and didn't want to be labeled "unpatriotic" if they dared to disagree with administration policy. This thought was particularly galling to me, since I have always considered it an obligation for citizens of this imperfect democracy to speak out on issues they feel strongly about. I wanted to widen and deepen the debate on major issues, to give the many who were silent a public and non-threatening way to speak out.
I also knew it would be difficult for a bunch of unorganized citizens to make headway unless some unique approach could be devised. Perhaps if women from all 16 Maine counties were to join forces and request a meeting with our two women senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins might agree to see us. And certainly, meeting with members of one's congressional delegation would be above reproach, by anyone.
After a few calls to friends who offered their support and ideas, we drafted a letter to the senators, and sent it off on January 3, 2002. As the weeks passed we were disappointed that there was no attempt by their offices to schedule a meeting with us. Perhaps mail was slow in reaching their D.C. offices due to anthrax screening, but by late February there was still no response to our original request.
We decided it was time to give ourselves a name, The Maine Counties Coalition of Women, and publish an op-ed piece in the Portland Press Herald, which we hoped would get the senators' attention and let others know of our efforts. When there was no response to the article in the paper, despite repeated calls to both Maine and Washington senate offices, we organized women from across the state to visit all 12 of Snowe's and Collins' Maine offices on the afternoon of March 22, 2002. By late that same afternoon, Susan Collins' office in Washington called to say that the Senator would like to meet with us on March 28th, and we counted that as a small success. There was no word from Olympia Snowe.
At our 15-minute meeting with Senator Collins the next week, eight women from four different Maine counties (including 12-year-old Charlotte Aldebron who had come with her mother, Jillian, from Presque Isle, and who brought her own message for Senator Collins) made it clear to her that we were opposed to the emerging pattern of administration abrogation of international treaties and particularly the forward motion of the Missile Defense Initiative once the ABM was abandoned; that we objected to the steadily expanding deployment of US troops and military installations around the globe as well as continuing military aid for foreign regimes; that we wanted to end Israeli brutality toward the Palestinians by cutting the US' $10 million-a-day funding to Israel; and that we believed the US Patriot Act represented a dangerous assault on our constitution and civil liberties.
Victoria Mares Hershey, attended the meeting, and wrote a column for the Portland Press Herald which was posted on the website commondreams.org., leading in turn, to a KPFK Los Angeles radio interview with a couple of MCCW members. The KPFK interviewer said that LA women felt isolated in their opposition to government policy, and wondered if the MCCW could suggest ways to help them connect, as we had in Maine. There was some discussion of the Women in Black groups in Maine and elsewhere, and their potential for bringing women together for related events and actions.
Charlotte Aldebron's classroom essay on the flag also appeared shortly after the MCCW meeting with Senator Collins, on commondreams.org, where it received huge attention across the country, eliciting over 700, mostly positive, e-mails, as her mother, Jillian, reports. Charlotte also read her essay at the Bath Mother's Day rally, and a couple of weeks later was even able to hand deliver it to Tom Daschle, the nation's most powerful Democrat.
A petition asking for an opportunity to discuss our issues is in circulation, and will be delivered to Sen. Snowe's office in Portland or Bangor soon. In the meantime, calls to her offices remain unreturned.
Apparently, Senator Snowe feels she has more important things to do than listen to her constituents. By remaining a viable organization until she faces another election, the MCCW might well be able to remind Maine voters of this record of unresponsiveness.
Finally, on Monday, May 20th, four intrepid members of MCCW made long trips to Bangor from southern and northern Maine, with assurances from Chellie Pingree's staff that we would have a chance to talk with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle who was appearing there on Chellie's behalf. However, when it was announced that he was about to leave the briefing for the airport and we had not yet had our chance to speak with the senator, I managed to intercept him, somehow evading the Secret Service, so that Jillian and Charlotte Aldebron, Liz Vernon and I could speak with him. Our comments centered on the country's urgent need to know that there is a true Democratic opposition alive and well in the US Congress. We also emphasized the importance of an independent commission to investigate events surrounding 9/11 so that the country does not get a repeat of the Iran-Contra fiasco, when the bi-partisan joint congressional committee stopped the investigation just as it began to move perilously close to the White House. Perpetrators of some of those illegal government operations enjoy new prominence in this administration.
It should be said that during the few months of MCCW's existence, many women — new friends from Aroostook to York, and Somerset to Sagadahoc — have made contact with each other. They are meeting, writing and talking to each other, and planning strategies and actions together, and they are in touch largely because of generous help from Larry Dansinger and Claire Gelinas of ROSC, Ilze Petersens of the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine and Wells Staley-Mays of Peace Action Maine, among others.
Our loosely-organized efforts continue to bring together women from existing peace and justice, environmental, socio-political advocacy or community organizations as well as unaffiliated individuals, (and many supportive men!) in sharing concerns, ideas and actions that attempt to bring about needed changes in our government's goals, priorities and directions.
To find out more about MCCW, contact M.E. Cori-Jones or Eileen Liddy epliddy@megalink.net, or Jillian Aldebron aldebron@ainop.com
"Isn't it ironic that when we have weapons of mass destruction they're called deterrents, but when someone else has nuclear weapons they're weapons of mass destruciton?"
— Kate Clinton
Back to Peace Talk Index, Summer, 2002
