We have been following the recent story in both the Portland Press Herald and now the Daily Bulldog about the new collaboration between the University of Maine System and the US Pentagon. We are saddened and disheartened by the news that the system is establishing both a research and development and training arrangement with the Pentagon.
As graduates of UMO (80 & 81) we value Maine’s public colleges and universities. We view the announced Maine Defense alliance as an inroad and a setback into the important work of Maine’s Public University System.
President Eisenhower stated in his farewell address to the nation, words to the effect of, ‘beware the military industrial complex.’
President John F. Kennedy, spoke about the obstacles to peace in his famous June 10, 1963 speech to the graduating class of American University.
The initiative being announced, the Maine Defense Industry Alliance, runs counter to the sentiments expressed by both Eisenhower and Kennedy. The more our economy is bound to the industries of weapons manufacturing, the less our state’s capacity to solve disagreements non-violently and to resist and oppose war. A recent book entitled, ‘The Trillion Dollar Silencer: Why There Is So Little Anti-War Protest in the United States,’ by Joan Roelofs, describes how defense plants in many, perhaps all congressional districts, are intentionally positioned to embed in the local economies and to lessen and quiet opposition to war for economic reasons. The CEO of Raytheon was recorded telling shareholders that the current wars were good for their bottom line. Wars are profitable for a small group, and very costly for most others.
The arrangement with weapons manufactures, noted above is not good for the people of Maine, the US. It is bad for the ecology and environment of Maine and our planet. It makes wars a more preferred way of solving disagreements.
Brown University, Watson Institute, has a program called the, ‘Costs of War’. It details the huge known and unknown costs of war, both in terms of human suffering and the economic costs to US taxpayers. The human race needs to learn to resolve disagreements and differences without wars. Putting more resources into weapons manufacturing, and aligning our public colleges and universities with this, is the wrong direction to go.
Sincerely,
Ed Ferreira
New Sharon, Maine
Opinion pieces reflect the views of the individual author, and do not reflect the views of the Daily Bulldog, Mt. Blue TV, or Central Maine Media Alliance. Publication of an opinion piece does not equate to endorsement of the content of the piece.
