Grannies' Stories

Day Five, Granny Peace Brigade Still Trekking

We waved farewell to Philadelphia, our new friends – and commenced a-trekking to Wilmington.

Sally, the President of Delaware Pacem in Terris met us with a motorpool, so we could fan out in many directions to activate senior centers. We carried along our song books, buttons including some form Yoko Ono’s IMAGINE PEACE exhibit and “We will not be silent” shirts into the meeting room and found ten or twelve people quitely waiting for their regular bingo game to begin.

At first, they were uncertain of who we were and did not seem to be connected, but as we listened, they told us that the tuition was too high for their grandkids to go to college – that recruiters were on campus and that they wished that there were more people offing jobs.

Later, in the hot of afternoon, we vigiled in front of a strip mall with a recruiting station that operates “by appointment only"; so, it was closed. On the vigil line was Freida, who came from Austria. She recalled that people would always ask her how could the Germans could have done what they did being so intelligent. There were honks for Peace and fingers for War.

Then, Michael Berg, the father of Nicholas Berg (who was beheaded on National TV) came to talk with us. He is the Green Party Candidate candidate for Congress, whose campaign vehicle is his 13-year-old car plastered with Peace stickers.

I finally put it together that the Green Party was not formed recently by environmentalists but rather by a peace activist and organizer of the IWW. He was jailed for taking a stand against WWI and said as he went to prison, “Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” Mr. Berg absolutely stands in that tradition and is, also, an environmentalist.

Our base, the Westminster Presbytarian Church, put on a country pot luck that was sweetly attended by local Unitarians and Quakers. After supper, the Granny Dancers featuring Betty with her walker and other with canes performed and, finally, Joan sang two of her anti-war songs.

I am writing this overlooking the foothills of the Appalachians. My host Daniel is sitting next to me putting out a report to his peace list and his love, Marie, is making Pennslyvania Dutch baked oatmeal.

We will return here on Saturday to go to Dover AFB.

Diane Dreyfus, M.S. Arch.