A group of anti-war protesters, arrested Tuesday evening after they refused to vacate Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski's Capitol Hill office, sent out this release:
Sen. Barbara Mikulski Has Her Own Constituents ArrestedNonviolent Maryland citizens protesting Iraq War are taken away by Capitol Police; Senator continues to support war funding
Washington, D.C. - At 6:05 p.m. [Tuesday], Sen. Barbara Mikulski had Capitol Police arrest four of her own constituents when they refused to leave her office. The four were part of a group of 20 that nonviolently occupied Sen. Mikulski's office for three hours that afternoon, reading the names of Iraqi and American dead in a memorial to those killed, and in a plea to Sen. Mikulski to stop voting for continued war funding.
Sen. Mikulski has refused repeated requests to meet with the Maryland groups opposing the war, and has said that she will continue to vote for funding for the Iraq war even while she claims to oppose it. She has also called President Bush, whose war plan the Senator is fully funding, a "reckless and dangerous" man.
The ceremony was a moving one for the participants, and started with a reading of the names of the 55 Marylanders who have been killed in the Iraq War. A gong was rung softly after each name, and their picture taped to the walls of the Senate office, where they stayed for three hours. Capitol Police and Sen. Mikulski's staffers also joined the protesters in a moment of silence for those who had died in the war, before clearing the office and arresting those who refused to go.
-- David Eldridge, managing editor, washingtontimes.com
Comments (4)
The hypocisy of many of these "progressive" Democrats is astounding. Barbara Mikulski should do the right thing and stop feeding money into the bloody ("dangerous and reckless") hands of Bush for continued immoral quagmire. Enough is enough!
Posted by PeteMaryland | February 28, 2007 1:05 PM
Thanks very much for posting the notice about the arrests in Sen. Barbara Mikulski's office. As a Baltimore peace activist who has sought a meeting with Sen. Mikulski, I understand the protesters' frustration with her refusal to meet with constituents. Why does the senator refuse to listen to the majority of Marylanders who want the troops brought home?
How can such an intelligent senator continue to support an illegal and immoral war and occupation of Iraq? More money for the morass in Iraq means more dead Marylanders and Iraqis. What does the senator say to Maryland families whose loved ones have died or been injured in an imperial war for the oil of Iraq?
I urge Sen. Mikulski to listen to the protesters and to vote against the supplemental funding. While some may say a vote against funding is an act of courage, I say it would mean, more importantly, that she wants the soldiers to come home and be re-united with their families and communities. Sen. Mikulski, please do the right thing.
Posted by Max Obuszewski | February 28, 2007 2:08 PM
Barbara Mikulski has been a Maryland Senator who has been TRUSTED by her constituents, but she is quickly losing that trust because she refuses to cut off funding for this illegal war. Could it be because this is a private war, with corporations from food service to personal protection making immense profits from it? Corporations don't want us to pull out.
Posted by Gail Owens | March 3, 2007 10:41 PM
Shows what kind of people we elect into power. Goverment not for the people, but for themselves.
Posted by Hershel Rainer | March 5, 2007 10:28 AM