Musings on Activism: Tell me which side are you on?

Yesterday afternoon there was a rally in t he Maine State House, sponsored by Occupy Maine and The Bring Our War Dollars Home Coalition of Maine. There were a variety of speakers, ranging from high school students, to the current mayor of Waterville, Karen Heck.

Morgana, and you can see LePage in the background

The rally was an interesting interaction between the speakers and the audience. Perhaps the best moment of the afternoon was when Governor Lepage walked in as high school student Morgana Warner-Evans was introducing her song titled "Which Side Are You On" and she said that both of her parents are teachers, and that she was tired of public officials saying that teachers are lazy. She even changed the words of the song to say "They say up in Augusta, you're on a big rampage. You're either with the union, or you support LePage. Tell me which side are you on? There was even one point where it seemed that LePage stuck his tongue out at us before going back into his office as the audience was chanting "shame, shame, shame"

Karen Heck was a phenomenal speaker, asking "what kind of country have we become when we are killing and maiming women and children halfway around the globe? At the same time we're abandoning poor women and children here at home"

Waterville Mayor, Karen Heck

I also spoke about the impacts that military spending has on higher education, and how student debt it expected to reach 1 trillion dollars by the end of this year, and how tuition has increased 29 percent in the last 5 years alone, and students are borrowing twice as much money as they were a decade ago.

Towards the end of the rally, there was an interesting interaction between myself and some of the State Senators and Representatives. They were standing behind the stairs, talking rather loudly, and I went over, and politely asked them to lower their voices as it was difficult to hear the speakers, and in return I received an extremely disrespectful "we'll quiet down when you do"

Overall, the rally was successful, there were about 100 people in attendance, and Channel 5/13 was there covering the rally, and I was even interviewed, although I do not know if I made it onto TV. But having mainstream news coverage is always a plus for us.

For a video of the rally you can contact Regis Tremblay of Occupy Maine TV at 207.400.4362.