Just hours before the first missiles struck Baghdad on March 19, a large crowd gathered in Portland’s Monument Square to protest the attack. The plan was to walk to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe’s office and discuss the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The evening ended with a no-show on the part of Snowe, and 22 arrests were made for “civil disobedience.” Among those arrested were a handful of USM students and several professors, including Wendy Chapkis, associate professor and interim director of women’s studies; Richard Abrams, associate professor of English; and Lorrayne Carroll, assistant professor of English.
“It seemed pretty clear to me that they were going to use the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse to finish up the 1991 Gulf War,” Chapkis said. “I find it alarming that the United States as a sovereign country believes it is our duty and right to remove heads of state and governments that we do not approve of. As much as I find dictatorships despicable, it is an interesting claim that we have the right to invade sovereign countries to remove governments.”
Chapkis and the other professors expressed their dissent on the street outside of Snowe’s office.
“I felt despairing about my representation by our Senate on this issue, and no matter how many letters or phone calls I made to them, my concerns on this don’t matter in the terms of how they vote,” Chapkis said.
Chapkis saw the protest as a way to express her frustration with the issue and to make herself heard by Snowe’s staff.
Instead, police barred protestors from entering the premises of Snowe’s office.
“I was so outraged,” Chapkis said. “How dare they prevent us from meeting with the people who we have put into office, whose salaries we pay in the very building our taxes pay the rent on?”
After finding themselves barricaded, the crowd began chanting but to no avail. The protestors asked for one of Snowe’s staff members to explain their exclusion from the building. No explanation was given.
“They had left absolutely no other means for our voices to be heard aside from civil disobedience,” Chapkis said, claiming civil disobedience was a last resort. “I sat in the street and said, ‘No. No, you can’t silence me. No, you can’t send me away. No, you can’t barricade me and expect that to stop the expression of dissent.'”
The first to be arrested among the group was Abrams, who said civil disobedience was a necessary step. He explained his experience as a way to bear witness to what was going on in the world.
“I feel [being arrested] is a way to testify, to bear witness to your beliefs, that you’re willing to inconvenience yourself,” he said.
Abrams protested during the Vietnam War and for other causes, but he had never been arrested before.
“This time I knew what I had to do. It is kind of mysterious to me still, but I feel it would have been cowardly for me not be taken,” he said.
Abrams felt his disobedience and willingness to be taken into custody was not only good for the protest but also for other people.
“It was a way of getting my feelings on record and giving courage to other people,” he said. “It is a way of bearing witness.”
Abrams said that from the start of the protest, if given no other resort he would use civil disobedience. Abrams felt his feelings could be best summarized by quoting Abraham Lincoln: “‘To sin by silence when one should protest makes cowards out of men.'”
For both Chapkis and Abrams, the arrests went smoothly. Carroll could not be reached for comment. When asked about the treatment by the Portland Police Department, Chapkis said she found some police more professional than others.
“We were not abused,” Chapkis said. “Some were courteous and others seem to enjoy a little too much their power.”
Both professors also responded to the recent idea that those who protest the war are not patriots or do not care about the troops serving in Iraq.
“I am certainly somebody who loves this piece of the planet profoundly,” Chapkis said. She is proud of the political and cultural accomplishments of this country. “Democracy, the free press, attempts at social equality and writing that into our constitution are things I am proud of.”
Chapkis said she was proud of the times she insisted the country live up to its name. “I am not much of a nationalist. The idea that people will kill in defense of a nation state is terrifying to me, but I do consider myself a patriot, however.”
Abrams said he feels that everyone is entitled to their own view of things. “One man passed the square in a van yelling things like ‘Support your troops, what’s the matter with you people,’ and people started chanting at him.” Abrams said he regretted the chanting as it may have alienated people rather than encouraging discussion.