As many of you know, on April 29th, Peace Action Maine, the Maine Civil Liberties Union and a host of other concerned individuals and organizations filed a petition to repeal LD 2309, a recent state law that complies with parts of a federal law, the Real ID Act of 2005. In order for our people’s veto to get on the ballot in November, we need to collect 60,000 signatures by July 17th. That’s 1000 people collecting 60 signatures.

We’re on our way to reaching this goal, but we need more help. For this reason, we’re trying to get in touch with as many peace and justice activists and organizers across the state as we can.

Many of you have already been active in this campaign. If so, we need you to keep up the good work – keep collecting signatures and keep recruiting others to join you. Gather your friends and canvass your neighborhood, table outside of your local grocery store, circulate your petition at an upcoming fair, festival or parade that’s happening nearby. We don’t have that much time left to get the signatures we need!!!

If you haven’t yet been involved in this campaign, won’t you join us?! Do you want to be fingerprinted or retinal scanned the next time you try to renew your driver license? Do you want the state of Maine to spend $185 million of your tax dollars so that it might place your private information in a national database that might be accessed by anyone (state agencies, federal agencies, corporations…), without regulation? Do you know at least sixty people who are as incensed about this new law as we are?

In these times, we activists certainly are not at a loss for causes to be involved in. We know that you are busy, that your time is stretched thin, but we’re asking for your help anyway. LD 2309 and the Real ID Act of 2005 are pieces of legislation that rapidly accelerate the construction of our checkpoint society. This campaign offers a rare chance for us to push back. We must not let this opportunity to pass us by.

We have three weeks left.

To learn more about this issue and how you can continue to get involved, contact Stephanie at (207) 772-0680 or stephanie [at] peaceactionme [dot] org More information about this campaign may also be found at www.realrepeal.net.