By Fritz
Taylor
Recently in a
short archive caption about the Bath Iron Works in Maine where many of the top-of-the
line and billion-dollar expensive destroyers are built I mentioned, as a little
background for knowing about the place that I am a Vietnam Veteran. I also mentioned
in an earlier archive caption while I hate the NRA I favor my Second Amendment
right to bear arm. But whatever vestiges I have of my growing up in Fulton County,
Georgia I “got religion” on the questions of war and peace through the hellhole
of Vietnam experience. Not right away, certainly not right away since I come
from a long, a very long line of military people and not completely at first since
I initially mistook being anti-war with pacificism which I was, am uncomfortable
with. Now though I am comfortable with the twenty plus years I have spent
screaming (if necessary) against the endless wars, the bloated military budgets
and the glorification of the fog war creates in the public, and among soldiers
and politicians.
Now I was
strictly Army, Fourth Division so you know I saw some hellish action in Vietnam,
particularly when we were sent to re-enforce up in the Central Highland and I
can tell you plenty about that branch of the service, the waste and the like. You
can always learn sometime new though in this struggle against war and endless
budgets. I certainly did the year I went up to Maine to walk the walk Peace Walk
then held annually about quiet Bath and its well-oiled shipbuilding capacity. Each year they organizers, more about them in
a minute, try to gather in a theme that speaks to the militarization of our
country, of the world, the particular role Maine plays in that process and of
course from our perspective some alternatives. In 2016 that was around creating
the environment for a sustainable future, very much more in doubt in the few years
since that walk, which meant a serious frontal attack on the role the military
plays in not making the future world sustainable. I should have mentioned before
that leaflets are passed out with messages along that line along the line of
march, the sites selected like Bath Iron Works where things need to be changed
and evening programs at the various nightly stopping points dealing with the overall
theme message.
I noted in the
last archival caption that I have been doing these walks for a few years even
though I had my fill of marches in the Army. Moreover, I had my doubts whether
such a walking program over a couple of weeks would do anything for the cause,
still have questions.
Enter the
great equalizers. I started, kicking and
screaming at first about doing this trek once my friends Sam Eaton and Ralph Morris
went up to Maine to help out in the annual Maine Peace Walk sponsored by the Maine
chapter of Veterans for Peace and other local activist peace groups. Ralph and
Sam pointed out that even a few VFP dove-encrusted flags on the march would ensure
that some message was getting through. Having seen that flag business work a
million times before I bought in -for part of the trek.
Of course if
you had read the previous caption you know that “helping out” entailed walking
half the freaking state of Maine at least on the oceanside, the side where U.S.
Route One slithers down the coast. Over a period of several days. I had started
up in Brunswick, up at Bowdoin College where I met walkers who had started up I
believe in Rangeley which I do not have a clue where that is except it is
pretty far north in Maine with plenty left before you reach the Canadian border.
(As it turned out Sam and Ralph who started their own treks there were clueless
when I asked where the place was except the military has a tracking station there
which links that nowhere Maine town with the American’s military’s globalization
of their forces in many fields. I said good work brothers for starting there,
yes, good work indeed.
As noted
before and it bears repeating when you mention Brunswick you really automatically
mention Bath as I found out. In little old out of the way Bath, which is a
pretty town along the river and close to the ocean, you have the very large
Bath Iron Works which despite its benign name is the main producer of the Navy’s
destroyer fleet, the modern one which goes for billions a pop. Needless to say
the organizers planned a serious stop at that location along the route to protest
these ships being built (and proposing as an alternative something like a Green
New Deal to keep the citizenry usefully employed). The place crawls with plenty
of possibilities along that line.
That year’s
walk was quite an experience, learned some stuff but what was, is really important
is that over the past few years a number of mainly Maine citizens have taken it
upon themselves to protest by acts of civil disobedience every time some new
destroyer is launched (and by extension no money is allocated for sustainable
future programs). Hats off to the sister and brothers of that branch of the
resistance struggle. My kind of people. Hats off to Sam and Ralph and Maine VFP
and others for doing this tough work.
Finally, Hats
off to me for not bitching too badly about my poor aching from that freaking
hundred- mile walk. Even in the Army I had troubles with blisters, corns, and
every other type of foot problem, including a seriously sprained left ankle trying
like hell to avoid a almost too late seen land mine. I supposed compared to
some of that stuff, now a little fog of war misty a few blisters and assorted
troubles are a small price to pay to make a very big statement.
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