NEW GLOUCESTER – Townspeople overwhelmingly rejected a resolution calling for legislation to stop repeated deployment of National Guard soldiers overseas and demanding proper training and gear for them, and sufficient funding for military families and veterans.
The secret ballot vote at the annual town meeting Monday night was 87-23.
The sponsor of the measure, Penny Hilton, said after the vote she felt “beat up.”
Hilton’s petition, if approved, would have directed selectmen to send a letter to the town’s state representative, state senator, U.S. senators and U.S. representative to pass legislation prohibiting deployment of National Guard soldiers for active combat without sufficient training and appropriate personal and vehicle armor. It also called for legislation prohibiting long-term or repeated deployment of the Guard outside the United States.
The letter would request that all federal tax cuts since Jan. 1, 2000, be repealed until military personnel are fully funded and until benefits to military families and veterans are sufficiently funded.
Ed Mitchell spoke against supporting it.
“This is the wrong approach,” he said. “It’s a mistake. You don’t try to bring the entire town to your viewpoint. That is disingenuous. You rally, you make a difference.”
Selectwoman Lenora Conger, a veteran nurse in the Vietnam War, said her First Amendment rights would be violated if she were required to sign a letter that conflicts with her beliefs.
Mark Ray, a member of the 133rd Engineer Battalion of the Maine National Guard, told the audience he recently returned from Iraq.
“The best support you can get is to make sure the families are taken care of at home,” he said. “We do train to go to war. I feel we are trained, and we take our training seriously.”
Resident Nancy Wilcox suggested supporting military families by mowing their lawns and taking care of their children. “Each one of us can individually write letters. It’s not up to the town to do it,” she said.
Christopher Rowe told townspeople, “This is an issue of support. To say this is not a town issue, we can make it a town issue. As we can do that, we can come together and say we want these things for our troops.”
Hilton explained, “My intention was only about supporting people called by our government in our behalf, fighting in other countries that places duress on some families from repeated deployment. This didn’t seem fair.”
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