Join CODEPINK, ARTISTS & POETS to CALL FOR SPENDING ON VISIONARY SOCIAL NEEDS!

Next Thursday, February 18, artists and poets will gather in the Hall of Flags at the State House in Augusta at 10 AM to offer a solution to drastic budget cuts being faced everywhere. Our message: overspending on military is the number one cause of the current fiscal crisis, and offers the best hope of a solution to funding problems across the board.

Artist Rob Shetterley, creator of a well known series of portraits Americans Who Tell the Truth, will present the work of more than 40 Maine artists. “We offer these drawings as suggestions for wiser and healthier uses of our tax dollars,” said Shetterley, speaking on behalf of event sponsor Maine Union of Visual Artists. “We believe that the primary functions of government are to enhance community, protect the environment, care for the unfortunate, provide education…”

Shetterley and other artists spent the previous Saturday envisioning positive uses of Maine’s $320,000,000 contribution to the wars each year, creating images and poems that were used by the Maine Union of Visual Artists to make a publication all state legislators will receive via CODEPINK messengers on Feb 18.

Poet Martin Steingesser will perform his poem “Money Medicine” and artists Nathasha Mayers, Kenny Cole and others will ask passersby in the Hall of Flags, “What would you do for Maine with the $2.5 billion?” drawing their visions on the spot. By holding the DRAW-IN, the group hopes to call attention to harmful priorities in spending, “using art to thaw the hearts and minds of legislators frozen by fear, budget freezes, and draconian cuts.”

Both art events were held as part of a statewide campaign, Bring Our War $$ Home, that launched on Jan 14 with a well-attended news conference at the State House. Health providers, social workers, and educators joined Rep. Peter Stuckey and former State Senator Michael Brennan at that event, calling for a curb on military spending.

The DRAW-IN is intended to amplify this message with the creative output of Mainers. Other efforts in the campaign include bringing warrants to towns calling for pressure on Maine’s representatives to stop funding war, and a door hanger campaign that will fan out across the state on tax day, April 15.

Rob Shetterley: “One truth we’ve learned is that we can’t have guns and butter. When the government feeds the Pentagon our money, feeds the people fear, the people are starved. Maine taxpayers have paid $2.5 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and lost security abroad, security at home, and faith in their governments.”

We hope to see you there!

Lisa Savage
CODEPINK Maine Local Coordinator
lsavage3 [at] gmail [dot] com

BringOurWarDollarsHome.org