AIR SHOW GIVING US THE BLUES

The Hell's Angels are flying over our heads right now, getting ready for this weekend's "show" here in Brunswick. Our protest plans have been front page in the local papers several times during the past week. The Maine Veterans for Peace protest claims that the airshow is not "clean family entertainment" as it is sold to the public. Instead we claim it is a recruiting gimmick to attract young people into the military at a time they are having more difficulty with enlistment levels. Even the local paper here in Brunswick acknowledged this yesterday when they printed that the Navy flight team was created in 1946 by Adm. Chester Nimitz, then chief of Naval Operations, as a "flashy recruiting tool, particularly in the nation's heartland." Many people are wondering about the massive waste of fuel at the air show, just following the pronouncement by G.W. Bush that we should not "fill our tanks unless we really have to." At this time of imposed austerity, following the tragic hurricane, shouldn't the "Great State of Maine Airshow" be cancelled? The Hell's Angels should be grounded. The Sept 10 protest begins at 9:00 am with a march from the downtown Brunswick gazebo out to the Navy base main gate where a rally will follow.