Candidate: Time to ‘reinvest in America’

The Times Record

Seth_Koenig@TimesRecord.Com
10/24/2006
Decision 2006 / Candidate Profile

BRUNSWICK — Dexter Kamilewicz is against the war in Iraq, and he’s been vocal about that opposition since even before he decided to run as an independent for Maine’s 1st District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As a peace activist whose son, Ben, has fought in Ramadhi, Iraq, with the National Guard, it may be easy to pigeonhole Kamilewicz as campaigning solely on an anti-war platform — but the Harpswell resident is quick to point out that he’s got opinions on much more than the military.

It’s just that the military’s chunk of the national budget, he says, is a big part of the rest of the country’s other problems.

Issues surrounding fair taxation, affordable housing, education, the environment and national health care, for instance, should take center stage instead of the back seat, according to Kamilewicz.

“If you can pay half of a trillion (dollars) a year for war, there’s money available,” said Kamilewicz, 61. “It is past time to leave Iraq to the Iraqis and to reinvest in America and Americans.”

The real estate management consultant is calling for the impeachment of President Bush and “the prosecution of those who misled America into allowing the invasion and occupation of Iraq.” He calls the war there “illegal, immoral and cruel.”

According to Kamilewicz, Congress — including current District 1 Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine — has some explaining to do about the situation in Iraq.

“I lay at their feet not only the deaths of our soldiers, but the deaths of Iraqis,” said Kamilewicz, who says his relationship with his son allows him a perspective on the war that many politicians don’t have.

“Those veterans get so much rhetoric wrapped up in a flag in deployment,” he said, “and when they get home, nobody cares. They say, ‘Here’s your medal, now go find something to do.’”

Kamilewicz noted that his feelings about the war, and the “fictions” about weapons of mass destruction and terrorist cells, are personal, but insisted that there’s sound business thinking behind his opposition of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

“There doesn’t seem to be any plan or destination for these (national) budgets, and one of the places that’s striking is in the military (budget),” he said. “This whole lack of a plan has left us in a morass we can’t get out of, and I think that’s been done on purpose, unfortunately.”

The lack of what Kamilewicz called a national “road map” has caused the U.S. government to lose its way in planning for the 21st century.

Kamilewicz said there’s “no question” health care can be affordable and that “nothing has come out of our leadership to focus on something as straight-forward as the energy crisis.”

“We’re the richest country in the world and we can afford to take care of ordinary people,” is how he characterized his approach to government.

The independent, who in the past had worked on Allen’s campaign, knows that serious cuts to the military budget may not be popular in a state that still leans heavily on a defense contractor — Bath Iron Works — and is bracing for the business impacts of the Navy’s departure from the Brunswick Naval Air Station in 2011.

That doesn’t sway him from his conviction that the federal money could be better spent — perhaps even to Maine’s benefit.

“How do you keep decent jobs? Why do you keep going down to Washington to the trough to perpetuate an industry that could change overnight?” he asked about shipbuilding.

Making a shift away from the military at the national level work in Maine, he said, is a matter of dedication, pointing to America’s historical commitments to the railroad system in the 19th Century and atomic bomb in the 20th Century as proof that the country can fulfill difficult work orders if inspired to do so.

Kamilewicz suggested a focus on inter-urban trolleys connecting towns, or light rails, to soften the building traffic problems on what have in some places become overworked Maine roadways.

He also called for the exploration of photovoltaic cells, wind power and other renewable energy sources as a way to “create an investment in our own country to provide ways to get away from fossil fuels.”

All of that would potentially allow Bath Iron Works to shift from a military industrial base rather than simply closing if Congress followed his advice and stopped funding warships.

National focuses on such ambitious initiatives are going to take a lot of work, and Kamilewicz thinks it could supply Mainers jobs in lieu of more defense spending.

But first, he said, the United States must get its soldiers out of Iraq.

“We must start by converting war industries into peace industries,” wrote Kamilewicz in a statement, “and by working toward a future with real jobs; by cutting taxes for the middle class and the poor and redistributing taxes more equitably; by making affordable health care available to all Americans; by making education better and more affordable and by holding politicians accountable for not acting in the interests of ordinary citizens.”

Darlene Curley, a Republican from Scarborough, and Rep. Tom Allen, the Democratic incumbent, also are running for the 1st District seat.