Category: Joanna Broder
Kennebunk Mailman Wins Hero of the Year Award
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 — The grisly collision between a motorcycle and an automobile in Sanford left the motorcyclist’s leg severed about three inches below his hip. The 26-year-old man screamed in pain, shock and perhaps disbelief. No one was yet there to help.
But David Heald, an off-duty Kennebunk mailman, witnessed the accident at the busy intersection and, without missing a beat, veered his truck to the side of the road, whipped off his shirt to cover the man’s wound and wrapped a bungee cord around the severed limb. With a crowd gathering, Heald held the make-shift tourniquet – telling the young man to “hold on” – and waited an excruciating seven minutes for rescue workers to arrive.
“It was extremely gory,” recalled Heald, who ran past the victim’s leg 25 or 30 feet before reaching him.
“It’s the military thing,” said Heald, a 42-year old Navy veteran. “They teach you to act and not react.”
His quick reaction was recognized Wednesday, just over a year later, as Heald came to Washington to receive his Hero of the Year Award from the National Association of Letter Carriers. A broad smile crept across his previously expressionless face when Sen. Susan Collins stopped by the luncheon to deliver his award.
“Yes, he used the life-savings skills that he had learned in the Navy, but he also used the compassion that he had in his heart,” she said.
Heald said that while he was excited to receive the honor in Washington he was more pleased that the injured motorcyclist survived.
Soon after Heald arrived on the scene of the accident, a nurse advised him not to apply the tourniquet because that was no longer standard medical practice. Heald debated with others at the scene over what to do, but in the end followed his gut instinct and the advice of two other nurses also there: He left on the tourniquet. After the rescue workers left, Heald agonized overnight, questioning whether he had done the right thing with the tourniquet. But he had never learned the man’s name and couldn’t learn his condition.
The police called him at work the next day to tell him that Shane Pero, now of Shapleigh , had survived. “I was flabbergasted that he lived,” Heald said, “And that sort of validated what I did.”
Heald “definitely played a major role in the guy surviving,” said Gary Utgard, one of the first paramedics on the scene, adding that because Pero did not lose enough blood to go into shock, “it certainly made his recovery much quicker.”
An independent panel of judges selected Heald for the postal union’s highest honor. Postmaster General Jack Potter and President of the AFL-CIO John Sweeney also attended the award’s ceremony.
Heald occasionally sees Pero around town. “He seems to be doing wonderful considering he lost a limb,” Heald said. Multiple attempts to reach Pero were unsuccessful.
“I would just hope that if somebody I love . were in the same predicament where they needed somebody to step up, somebody would be not only willing but able to do the same thing,” he said.
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Mainers March in Washington Against the War
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 - In an energetic environment punctuated by cheers and the beat of homemade drums, several hundred people from Maine - fathers and daughters, college students, political leaders and first-time peace demonstrators - marched in Washington Saturday peacefully expressing their dissent to the war in Iraq.
The 240 Mainers traveled in five buses to Washington Friday night arriving early Saturday morning to join an estimated 100,000 people from around the country. The group, which left Washington late Saturday for the return trip, marched alongside the Ellipse south of the White House and later down Pennsylvania Avenue chanting, "Bush's war has got to go."
The group ranged from college students to veteran activists to first-time war protesters. Their reasons were varied while the cause was common.
Dominick Rizzo, 47, of Bucksport wore a cap with a brown stuffed moose on top. Everything we were told about the war turned out to be inaccurate, he said.
"We have a lot more business to take care of in our own country," Rizzo said.
Ian Brauner, 30, grew up in New Orleans and is now living in North Yarmouth, Maine, with his wife who is seven months pregnant. He traveled to the protest march with his mother-in-law.
Brauner was months shy of his Ph.D. in molecular biology at Louisiana State University Health Science Center when Hurricane Katrina struck. He stayed in New Orleans through the hurricane he said because he had four dogs.
The same lack of planning that led to the debacle in Iraq led to the same kind of lawlessness that you had in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, he said. In the days after the hurricane Brauner said he saw people driving cars into drug stores.
"I'm really haunted by what I've heard about New Orleans since I left," he said. "I've gotten to see first hand the level of incompetence the Bush administration is capable of."
Chris Wright, 55, traveled by bus from Portland with his daughter Lyla, 20. He saw it as an educational opportunity for the two. Wright said he was so unhappy with the Bush administration that he needed to be "another body on the scene."
"The American sentiment after 9/11, the heartbreak, the fear and the anger, all of that was used to get us into Iraq and I think that's incredibly cynical for them to have done that," Wright said.
Three Maine state representatives, who were in town to attend the Women's Action for New Directions conference, said they paid their own way to come down early to attend the peace march.
Lillian O'Brien, who represents parts of Lewiston, wore a pink top to lend her support for Code Pink, a women's organization for Peace that got its name from the color coded terror alert system. O'Brien attended the rally alongside Marilyn Canavan, a representative from Waterville, and Elaine Makas, a representative of Lewiston.
"I can't think of a better way to support our troops than to support taking them out of harm's way from a war that never should have happened," said Canavan. "We need our National Guard at home."
The state legislators said they planned to meet with members of Congress from Maine next week before returning home.
Virginia Andrew, 70, from Buckston, said that war is no way to solve differences and that she was attending the march for her male grandchildren ages 16, 8 and 3 because she believes there will be a draft coming. Andrew, who protested against the Vietnam war said that this was an "immoral war" and that she hoped for a revolution.
"I want to scare the living daylights out of these guys," Andrew said.
Larry Sementini, 60, who came down on the bus, said he had never been an activist before. It's only this administration that "lit my fire," he said. He said he never believed that Iraqis were involved in the terrorist actions of September 11.
Sementini, from Spruce Head, said that people his age were starting to see that "the emperor is not wearing any clothes. There's another agenda going on here."
"This is honestly a real and present danger to everyone here," said Patrick Brown, a Bowdoin College sophomore from New Orleans who said his family's house was badly damaged in Katrina and his family lost most of their possessions. A year ago we asked the government for more money for the levees "and all that money has been funneled into the war on terror," he said.
"It's a gross mismanagement and a gross lack of priorities," said Brown.
"If we can collectively demonstrate our opposition to what's going on than maybe we can work toward some kind of a positive solution, said Bowdoin College freshman Miranda Yaver.
The grey skies and cooler weather did not dampen the spirits of the thousands of protestors, some of whom painted blue peace signs on their faces, draped themselves in rainbow peace flags and snickered comments about Cheney's ailing heart.
They waved signs saying "Liberate our Gulf not Theirs," "Peace is Pro-life, Moral and Patriotic" and "Make Levees not War." Others dressed in black and white striped jailbird outfits carrying signs with the faces of Bush and Condoleezza Rice in a jailbird cap.
President Bush was out of town in Colorado and Texas, focused on hurricane recovery attempts, according to the Associated Press.
This administration has been good at sending other people's children off to fight an unnecessary war with little protections, said Miranda Yaver, a freshman at Bowdoin College who is originally from San Francisco.
" I think it's really offensive that Bush has gone on television and talked about how the sacrifice has been worth it," said Yaver. "I don't think he would have said that the sacrifice was worth it if his daughters were part of the sacrifice."
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Mainers to Join Anti-War Protest
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - About 250 people from Maine, traveling on five buses, are expected to join thousands of others this weekend in Washington to protest the war in Iraq.
After a Friday afternoon send-off at Cascade Park, those traveling from Bangor will join others making the 12-hour trek down to Washington in Rockland. The group plans to return to Maine early Sunday morning.
Merry Segal, a Bowdoin College student who helped found Bowdoin Students for Peace, is helping organize the trip. "I think it's a great tragedy that we've had many thousands of Americans die, many of whom did not want to be in Iraq but were just there because they felt as though the military was their only option," Segal said.
Alex Grab, 59, a history professor at the University of Maine, who will attend the march, said the war exacerbates tensions between the Islamic world and the United States. "There was no terrorism in Iraq beforehand, and now there is an insurgency," he said.
"I think it's a dangerous war. I don't think it's winnable," he said.
The weekend kicks off Saturday with a rally at the south end of the White House grounds, followed by a march and a concert.
More than 100,000 people from all parts of the country are expected Saturday, said Bill Dobbs, media coordinator for the protest co-sponsor, United for Peace & Justice, a coalition of more than 1,300 local and national groups that oppose the war in Iraq.
On Sunday there will be grassroots lobbying training to prepare participants for Monday, when there will be 75 to100 pre-arranged meetings with congressional representatives, Dobbs said.
"It is a war based on lies and it is making us here at home in the United States less safe rather than more safe," Dobbs said.
Dr. Peter Millard, 52, a family practice physician from Orono, plans to go to the march. Millard's family befriended a young man who joined the military because he did not have a lot of options after graduating from high school in June 2002, Millard said.
"The military in itself can be a good thing," he said, but "I don't think he really thought it out very carefully with regard to the whole situation in Iraq.. Now that he's there he feels like he's basically a sitting duck.driving around in convoy waiting to get attacked."
A recent poll found that an increasing number of Americans say they believe that the war in Iraq has thwarted the U.S. fight against terrorism. About half of the public supports keeping U.S. forces in Iraq until the country is stabilized, according to the poll.
"America [is] really questioning the war," Millard said.
Not everyone agrees. A coalition of conservative groups has planned a counter-demonstration. On Saturday they will line portions of Pennsylvania Avenue as a sort of "patriotic counterpoint," said Bill Taylor, spokesman for the conservative website FreeRepublic.com, one of the sponsoring organizations.
"Saddam Hussein was a sponsor of international terrorism. He financed it, he trained terrorists., he was a menace to the world," Taylor said. The leaders of the antiwar movement "have chosen sides in the war against America, and they stand with terrorists," he added.
President Bush was not honest about weapons of mass destruction being the cause of the war, Professor Grab said. "I personally believe they invaded for oil."
"It's just so wrong that 100,000 Iraqi citizens have died for no reason," Segal said.
The Bush administration previously was on the offensive, Millard said, but is now on the defensive and is paying attention to dissent. "I really think it makes a difference," he said about the rally.
For more information on the Bangor send-off, call 207-942-9343; for bus information or to donate to help with the cost of buses contact stevbee@midcoast.maine.com
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Special Hearing Gives Insight Into How to Meet Hurricane Victims’ Needs
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, Wednesday criticized the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina in the first Senate hearing on the subject.
"At this point, we would have expected a sharp, crisp response to this terrible tragedy," said Collins, who chairs the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"I'm very troubled by the hesitant and halting initial response at all levels of government particularly in Louisiana," she added in a telephone interview.
The hearing was the first in a series investigating what went wrong in the preparation and response to Hurricane Katrina, though it focused on the future, not past mistakes.
"We want to learn from what went wrong," she said, adding, "We are still so ill-prepared to cope with a catastrophe."
She said that she doubts the post-9/11 focus on terrorism weakened the response and that she believes FEMA should remain a part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Congress is considering whether to form a joint, bipartisan committee to investigate the response to the hurricane or establish an outside panel to do so. Collins said in a telephone interview that a decision is likely to come this week.
Collins said that her committee would in future hearings consider the questions of what went wrong, but Wednesday's panel focused on how to help the victims going forward. "We will ask the hard questions about the adequacy of planning efforts for this long-predicted natural disaster" in future hearings, she said.
Nevertheless, some witnesses also looked backward.
"I come here shocked and angry," said former Mayor of New Orleans Marc Morial who is also the president and CEO of the National Urban League. Morial encouraged the need for a victims' compensation fund much like what was offered to victims after September 11. He also supported the idea of a rebuilding czar who would have access to both Congress and the President.
Iain Logan, operations liaison for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the chief coordination officer on the ground after the December tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia, addressed the psychological aspects of handling a disaster.
"The most critical thing is people need to get up and feel like they have hope," Logan said. After a disaster, he said, some people are resilient while others become overwhelmed.
Disaster relief workers need to be prepared to help both types, he said.
Logan said disaster relief needs to occur quickly but also requires careful planning.
Some people will return to the disaster-struck city and others will stay away. "How do you plan to meet both of those eventualities?" Logan asked. "Forced resettlement is not acceptable in any country in the world."
Former California Gov. Pete Wilson said that to hasten the recovery, governmental officials should cut red tape wherever possible by setting aside unnecessary rules imposing delays and waiving waiting periods for unemployment benefits. State organizations also can issue bridge loans to close the gap before federal aid arrives.
Patricia Owens, former mayor of Grand Forks, N.D., a city that flooded in 1997 after an unusually snowy winter left 100 inches to thaw, advised evacuees to take their "pets, pills and pillows," knowing they would be gone for a long time. The majority of people left her city and Owens learned two lessons about evacuation: the importance of providing the public with a constant stream of emergency information and the necessity of having strong communication between community, city, town and state institutions.
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