Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine

On Tuesday June 3, 2008 at the annual Bar Harbor Town Meeting, a resolution was passed which put Bar Harbor on record as opposing a war with Iran unless expressly authorized by Congress.

Concerned by the research of Seymour Hersh and other investigative journalists that the Bush administration was preparing to launch an invasion of Iran, MDI Peace and Justice, led and inspired by citizen activist Susan Murphy, sought a special meeting of the town at which to vote on a resolution condemning such action.

We were advised to gather 234 signatures — ten per cent of the number of voters in the last election — on a petition asking the Council to call a special meeting. We did gather those signatures and attempted to present them to the Town Council as instructed. The Council refused to accept the petition or to hear the resolution, incorrectly invoking the town charter and dismissing our legally prescribed attempt. The headline, by the way, in one of the local papers, was “Peaceniks Plea Quashed.”

MDI Peace and Justice decided to persist and planned to address the annual town meeting, our intent being to challenge the ruling of the Council chair, based on a lawyer colleague’s research into both the Town Charter and the state statute.

We had heard, in the meantime, that the town of Harpswell, Maine had passed a similar resolution. We were also contacted by “Cities For Peace” an organization which assists towns and cities in passing such resolutions and chronicles those which have succeeded. In addition, Ron Greenberg contacted the National Priorities Project, which calculates not only the cost of the Iraq war
borne by each town, but also illustrates what could have been achieved with that amount of money if it had not been squandered on the war. Realizing the enormous impact of these facts (shown below) we decided to make that the basis of our request to the town that our resolution be heard.

Lacking the legal and strategic knowledge and experience that we realized might be crucial to our success, we turned to attorney Art Grief, a citizen of Bar harbor experienced in dealing with town government and, indeed in litigating petition cases. Art shortened our motion, negotiated with the meeting moderator and forcefully, concisely and brilliantly made our case before the assembled citizens of the town. In the discussion that followed his making the motion, we detailed the costs of the war and what could have been accomplished the wasted money, and in the voting that followed, the resolution passed by about fifty votes. The resolution reads as follows:

Resolved that the Town of Bar harbor, through its annual town meeting, opposes any military action by the United States against the Islamic Republic of Iran without express Congressional authorization in accordance with the War Powers Act.

For those of us who labored long on this mission, for true warriors for peace like Suzanne Fitzgerald, for the 247 signatories to our petition, for attorney Lynne Willams who graciously gave of her time to research the charter and the statutes, for Art Grief whose expertise helped bring our dream to fruition, for Susan Murphy who conceived and guided the entire effort, this was a dramatic, emotional and historic moment. Our hope now is that our experience will motivate, inspire and instruct other towns to pass similar resolutions.

Dan Lourie
MDI Peace and Justice

Bar Harbor taxpayers will pay $1.4 million for the cost of the Iraq War in Fiscal Year 2007. That amount of money could have provided:

• 444 People with Health Care for One Year OR
• 2,164 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year OR
• 36 Public Safety Officers for One year OR
• 24 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR
• 189 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR
• 11 Affordable Housing Units OR
• 426 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
• 202 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
• 27 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
• 18 Port Container Inspectors for One year