THE OCCUPATION PROJECT

Yesterday I spent the day camped out in my congressperson’s office. Mainers are planning to stage sit-ins every Wednesday until Tom Allen agrees to refuse to fund the War.

Last Wednesday, a friend’s friend Natasha was arrested and spent the night in jail. You can read all about it HERE. What you won’t read is that Tom’s Communications Director, a big burly man with black hair, burst into tears when the police came to haul everyone away. Natasha said that made everything all worth it.

This “Occupation Project” is spreading across the good ol’ US of A. So far, in addition to Maine, “sit-ins have led to arrests at the local offices of U.S. Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.”

About thirty of us packed like sardines into Tom’s little waiting room. Five read prepped statement to the big, burly black-haired Communications Director, who stood patiently and silently facing each reader with a resigned look in his eye.

An old white-bearded man named George used scotch tape to stick 20-30 pictures of him and his grandkids all over Tom’s freshly painted walls, along with flowered silkscreens filled with husky magentas, lime greens, yellows, and anti-war slogans.

I sat next to Looki from Holland, about 80 years old, her grey hair pinned back in a bun and held there with a barrette, her eyes rheumy. Looki looked like she might weigh all of 80 pounds.

Natasha and the other 12 arrested last Wednesday are not allowed within miles of Tom’s office, on pain of death.

The head of Peace Action Maine was with us: big guy in his thirties with his hair tied back at his neck and pulled into a bun.

Another of our fearless leaders was a young guy, thin as a carrot and with a halo of curly red hair. His wife was also thin as a carrot but she had black hair and glasses with thick black rims and manages the best Goodwill store in the area, the one across the Million Dollar Bridge in South Portland.

We all sat on the floor, read poetry and talked.

Tom’s staff refused to give us the key to the bathroom. But we outfoxed them; went next door to the Immigrant Legal Aid Fund and got their key.

Around 5 pm, a camera man from Ch. 13 News, and a slinky young reporter with long black hair came and interviewed four people out in the hall, a Sociology Prof from USM, two other guys and a woman who sneaked over from New Hampshire.

At 5:30 we unwilling to be arrested left, and six stayed. Among them were three old men with white beards and moustachios who, as we left, were lined forlornly in a row on Tom’s off-white waiting-room couch beneath an oversized, neon-orange Georgia O’Keefe flower.

My friend Jan poked her head back into the room and said, “Don’t worry, it’ll be alright.” (Jan’s been arrested three times). One guy said, “Don’t you worry about us.” I.e., you’re giving off fear vibes in our direction, don’t do it. Jan looked appropriately chastened, and we punched the elevator down button and left.

Nothing in the paper this morning about our six heroes. Hope they’re okay. And I hafta wonder if the big burly guy managed to get through the ordeal with shedding tears this time.
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thnx to maineinfo.net for the pic of Exchange Street where we picketed, and where Tom Allen's office is.