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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=24488140 The Times Of India October 8, 2002 Times News Network Worried about economy, Americans oppose war SORRENTO, Maine: Over dinner in a pastoral autumnal setting in Sorrento, Maine, a group of eight disparate people is arguing about, and against, the impending war against Iraq. �The Congressmen we sent to Washington are not representing us,� says Ellen Devine, a local historian and realtor whose family helped found this community of 220 people in the remote Northeast part of the country that is closer to Canada than USA. �They go to the capital and just do what the administration wants them to,� adds John Holt, the pastor at the local church. Jim Wagner, a retired math professor from the University of Maine who drives around in a car with a bumper sticker that says �Bomb Iraq? NO!� nods in agreement. There isn�t a person among the ten for supper who disagrees. The table is admittedly Democrat, but Maine and Mainers are fiercely independent. The state narrowly went to Gore in the last election, but its two senators are pro-choice Republican women, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. The Congressman representing District 2 (including Sorrento) is Democrat John Baldacci. The state�s District Two has about 130000 registered Democrats, 100000 registered Republicans, and 300000 registered Independents. Ross Perot polled more votes here than any state else in the US. And the last prominent Mainer politician of national profile was William Cohen, a Republican who was half-Jewish � in itself unusual in mostly white Maine � who served as the Defense Secretary in the Democratic Clinton White House. Oh Maine is certainly independent. It�s official slogan is �Dirigo� (I lead) and it�s generally said that �As Maine goes so goes the nation.� The state�s unofficial slogan is �The way life should be.� One can see the spirit of free and liberated thinking even in a place like the American Legion Club in Lewiston, Maine, a hang out for retired American servicemen, which you�d think would be a Republican watering hole. The sentiment is definitely more Republican here, but even former soldiers who fought in Korea and Vietnam are sceptical of the need for the administration to take on Iraq at this time. �There are more pressing matters on hand�the economy for instance,� says a former soldier who introduces himself as Norm. Others nod. There is only one ex-serviceman among half-dozen who is for immediate action. The Maine street mood appears to be permeating across much of America, excepting hard-core Republican areas, judging by polls and reports from different parts of the country. There is a growing sense that the US Administration is simply not in touch with the American people, and this is a war being planned by Washington without the consent of ordinary Americans. According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, a majority of Americans say President Bush and Congressional leaders are spending too much time talking about Iraq while neglecting problems at home, especially the economy. Nearly half of all Americans are worried that they or someone in their household will be out of a job within a year. In some ways, what the Bush White House is engineering is precisely what some US officials privately accuse the BJP in India and the military regime in Pakistan of doing � drum up war rhetoric to shore up its political fortunes. The country is slated for a mid-term poll next month when all of the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and many governors are up for re-election. �The war rhetoric is distorting the mood of the people,� says Kaileigh A. Tara, former mayor of Lewiston, a Maine town that with its boarded shops and gloomy ambience seems straight out of the Depression era. �We need to focus on the economy.� Such feeling seems fairly uniform among informed, much less enlightened circles, from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. And some of the feeling is finding expression in demonstrations across the country against the impending war. Over the weekend, dozens of anti-war rallies erupted across the nation with ordinary Americans announcing their opposition to conflict against Iraq. Organised by the Not in Our Name Project, a grassroots group opposing Bush administration actions, the marchers called Bush a "warmonger," "racist" and "irresponsible." Such demonstrations are picking up strength and momentum. The rallies are expected to culminate in a big anti-war protest in Washington on October 26. But the media, some of which appear to be actually lusting for conflict and the ratings it will bring, is more focused on the drums of war instead of the chants of peace. In Washington, cable networks keep up an incessant chatter about the need and the rationale for punishing Iraq. Out here in the real America, where few people access cable, Washington war babble has no resonance. The concerns here appear entirely different. Their politics, like politics in much of the world, is confined to bread and jobs. Law-makers seem not to realise it. One Massachusetts legislator confessed that mail from his constituents was 1:40 against war and suggested the �people ought to be educated.� Nonsense, responded one of his constituents in the Boston Globe. It was the Congress that needed to be educated by the people. As the week dawned, US law-makers began debates on the floor of the legislature about the war on Iraq. It remained doubtful if any of them were reflecting the opinions of their constituents. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
