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Weigh in on the war
BY SARA DONNELLY
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On Sunday, July 17, Congressional Representative Tom Allen will host a town meeting on Iraq in the auditorium at Portland High School in Portland. According to Allen’s spokesperson Mike Sullivan, the meeting was called because the war is a hot topic everywhere Allen goes. "Tom is finding that when he visits any community, that’s what people want to talk about," says Sullivan. The meeting will run from 2 to 4 p.m. and will include a brief opening statement by Allen and Rick Barton, Senior Advisor for the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit, bipartisan think tank which studies global policy issues. After their respective remarks, Allen and Barton will open up the floor for you and your friends to spout off about the mess overseas. Though Sullivan says constituent concern over the war prompted Allen to call the town meeting, Activist Dud Hendrick of Maine Veterans for Peace tells a different story. He says protestors negotiated a commitment to the town meeting during what Hendrick described as an amicable antiwar demonstration in Allen’s Portland office staged by MVP, the Maine Council of Churches, and Peace Action Maine in June (see "Get Active," by Sara Donnelly, June 24). Whatever the reason, Allen has set aside a couple of hours to listen to your thoughts on the war. He will then take your sentiments back to DC, where he’ll, um, take action, in some way not yet laid out. Portland High School is located at 284 Cumberland Avenue. For more on the meeting, call Representative Allen’s office at (207) 774-5019 or (800) 862-6500.
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