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Maine is getting attention lately. Report of 50501 Veteran's Rally March 14th. [1]

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Date: 2025-03-15

I attended the veteran’s raĺly in Augusta Maine friday march 14th and here is what it was like. I bring my trumpet to these events and it’s sort of like busking with a patriotic theme (mostly).

I decided not to bring the base drum because there were too many unknowns. On the drive i gamed out different scenarios involving how to fit in with whatever the organizer(s) had planned. Different organizer each bring with them their own pre-exising concept of control, and some may be more anxious than others. I got there early. Weather was the nicest yet. One youngish policeman was chatting with the dozen or so people now sitting on the stone benches on the upper plaza. Mostly retirees. Lots of Vietnam Vet regalia. Signs about VA healthcare. Pleasant small talk. My goal was to figure out who the organizer/planner/convener/permit holder was. Nobody knew. They’d all decided to come after hearing about it on facebook.

x YouTube Video

Yes, we made the tee vee news for the evening. I had trouble with the YouTube audio, here is the same thing as i appeared on the station’s web site:

https://wgme.com/news/local/i-want-to-be-heard-veterans-march-at-capitol-protesting-federal-cuts-maine-augusta-state-house-president-donald-trump-republicans-democrats-doge-elon-musk

Short tangent

this was a busy news day. the bookbanning anti-trans crowd (turning Point USA) brought in an anti-trans speaker to University of Maine a Orono yesterday in the run up to their own protest march being held today the 15th, and the Orono appearance did not go well.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18hqgdnEaq

the speaker in Orono cut her time short. the picture above shows the UMO reception Commitee for the anti-trans speaker. I think the kids are alright.

the MAGA crowd is having two events in Augusta today the 15th. One was originally billed as “March AGainst Mills”, but then I notice they retitled it “the Father-Daughter rally for girls’ sports.” Re-branding at it’s finest.

Call me a cynic, but I guess I just want to see how many teenaged girls think their MAGA dad is cool enough to spend the day with at a hate rally.

Prelude

Back to the rally! I pulled out the trumpet and started to play. Mainly to see if anybody would object. Surely if the permit holder was present they would come over and check in.

Showtime

As the time approached the crowd grew and everyone meandered down to the paved area near the door of the Cross Office Building. The fox news crew and one other tee vee station set up tripod cameras. I used my booming-est voice, starting with ” I am not the planner but….” and I directed the crowd where to stand so the news could see the signs. I bantered with the reporter, got the crowd chanting and got out of the way while the camera guy got a nice shot of chanting and waving.

Noon arrived. Oh-what-the-helĺ sez I, so i told the assembled multitudes “uncover!” And played the national anthem. And other patriotic songs we all learned in third grade. So far so good. Others stepped up and led chants, took turns claiming the center of the space to use their loudest voice, and created energy. We were off to the races.

I was at the foot of the stairs and a very petite softspoken person came up to to say she was the permit holder. Turns out she was part of Bangor Indivisible, and a leader of that group asked her to get the permit. It was her first ever, she did not have a team, there was no sound system or pre-arranged orators, and the media had not been invited (turns out the media present were there to cover other issues and covered our event serendipitously).

Lots of reminders to keep up with phone calls to DC to keep up the pressure on our congresspersons. Outright anger toward Collins and Golden.

People from Naples Maine were there with stacks of pre-addressed letters, an announcement was made, and they all got swooped up.

Overall, the event had a nice organic feel to it. Somebody played a ukulele as we sang along.

At 12:25 the group set off on a perambulatory circumnavigation of the Capitol – Maine’s closest equivalent to a proper Tibetan Buddhist “kora.” Sure enough they came back. More chanting and speaking. I did one short video to document crowd size, then one more time around the block.

x YouTube Video

The media did some individual interviews. I watched part of Salty’s interview. Later he said he was nervous but i thought he was very composed at the time.

I will add more links to media if I can find them.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/15/2310378/-Maine-is-getting-attention-lately-Report-of-50501-Veteran-s-Rally-March-14th?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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