• • • • Granny Peace Brigade • • • •

On July 31 members of CodePink NYC, the Granny Peace Brigade and the American Friends Service Committee held a tripartite demonstration in Foley Square, NYC. The AFSC brought material on the cost of war. The Granny Peace Brigade brought the Phone-A-Thon kit with flyers about H. Con. Res. 362* - the resolution gearing up for war on Iran. (Does anyone know who wrote H. CON. RES. 362? Not who sponsored it, but who wrote it which might not be the same person.)

CodePink brought shoes. Children’s shoes. My grandchildren’s outgrown shoes are in this “Walk in Their Shoes” display. Although it was a grim donation to make, my daughter gave the shoes with an open heart.

I can’t find my grandson’s shoes in the display but my granddaughter’s stand out. They are pink and very beat up after many trips to the playground, but the sparkles woven into the cloth still shine. There is a paper tag tied to them. On the tag is the name of a three-year-old Iraqi girl who was killed in the war. There is a tag with the name and age of an Iraqi victim on every pair of shoes in the display.

Stepping away from the phone-a-thon table from time to time to look at the “Walk in Their Shoes” display I pointed out my granddaughter’s shoes to passersby. I wondered aloud if the grandmother survived the event that took the child. I don’t have to wonder very much about a surviving grandmother’s agony.

Foley Square is a hurried place, not the best for a phone-a-thon, but the shoes caused busy people to stop in their tracks.

People took the time talk about the issues and some also made calls to their Representatives right then and there.

Tapping into hidden reserves of compassion and inspiring people to act - “Walk in Their Shoes” does that.

- Eva-Lee Baird, text and photos

* On August 1, 2008 261 Representatives were co-sponsoring H. Con. Res. 362 “Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East…” Who wrote this dreadful piece of work? The four below have withdrawn.
Rep Davis, Danny K. [IL-7] - 6/3/2008(withdrawn - 7/30/2008)
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9] - 6/10/2008(withdrawn - 7/22/2008)
Rep Allen, Thomas H. [ME-1] - 6/11/2008(withdrawn - 7/22/2008)
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] - 6/17/2008(withdrawn - 7/9/2008)

On Wednesday, July 16, Vinie, Barbara Walker and Joan Wile shlepped 2-1/2 hours to Norwich CT on AMTRAK to do a TV show, “TALK with Ben and Gerry,” which broadcasts throughout eastern Connecticut. Attired in our WE WILL NOT BE SILENT t-shirts, we discoursed, acted and sang for a whole hour, and had ample opportunity to condemn the war in Iraq and any plans to attack Iran.

The show is produced by Bonnie Hong, who invited us after reading about Joan’s book in BUZZFLASH (a popular progressive publication), and who is a fiery progressive herself, fiercely anti-war and anti-Bush, holding all the correct political opinions (to OUR minds) in common with us grannies. She was mayor of Norwich for a term, is a registered nurse, and an all-around dynamo. She was on air with us, along with her husband, Dr. Ben Hong, who is co-host of the program. Ben is a nephrologist (kidneys) with a very successful practice in Norwich, and somehow finds time to do the weekly cable television show we participated in. We admire very much this couple’s courage in doing their vehemently peace-promoting program in the midst of a heavily military population.

Vinie gave a most remarkable reading of a letter from a nurse stationed in Vietnam, “Dear America,” which graphically describes the horrible wounds of war. Vinie’s performance of the powerful letter moved Bonnie Hong to tears, right on the air. We were all extremely moved, in fact.

During the program, on air, we officially inducted Bonnie, a new grandmother, into both the Granny Peace Brigade and Grandmothers Against the War. Vinie did the honors, and presented her with the buttons representing the two groups, which she immediately pinned to her dress for all of eastern Connecticut to see.

We enjoyed the Connecticut scenery — parts of the Atlantic Ocean visible from the train, and a glimpse of the naval station in New London on the way. Our hostess, Bonnie, treated us to a delicious dinner at a waterside restaurant — the kind of place you imagine the elite country club set patronizing on a regular basis, with boats serenely floating by as we leisurely dined in our white lounge chairs. Very John Updike!

And, then the long trip back to New York, time passing quickly in the flow of non-stop conversation among us three young women.

A long day, but one well spent, we believe, as we hammered home to all of eastern Connecticut the granny anti-war message.

- Joan Wile

For 40 years civil liberties attorney and champion advocate for the public, Norman Siegel has observed the Fourth of July by reading the Declaration of Independence and selections from the US Constitution with an emphasis on the Bill of Rights.

Last year for the first time he was joined by members of the Granny Peace Brigade in Strawberry Fields, Central Park to read sections of these documents aloud. We were back again this year joined by Grandmothers Against the War, CodePink and Reverend Billy to honor the good principles in these founding documents: free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, equal protection under the law, and due process of the law.

Norman Siegel reading the Declaration of Independence
Photo - Richard Leigh

Joan Wile assisted by Jonathan Tasini reading a poem by Yoko Ono
Photo - Richard Leigh

Jenny Heinz reading the Bill of Rights
Photo - Richard Leigh

State Senator Bill Perkins reading the Bill of Rights
Photo - Richard Leigh

Molly Klopot reading the Bill of Rights
Photo - Richard Leigh

Listening to Molly
Photo - Richard Leigh

Laura Newman a member of Reverend Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping Choir belting out the 1st Amendment
Photo - Richard Leigh

Thank you, Norman Siegel
Photo - Richard Leigh

We’ve got a lot of work to do to move this country in a better direction. Hope to see you in the streets.

- Eva-Lee Baird

Nine of us here today. It’s hot in the sun, but the terrible heat of earlier in the week has lifted. We set up a table in the shade of a tree. We’re ready to meet people as they come along, up from the subway or across the square during a lunch break. We have our quarter-sheets to hand out, giving people the facts and the numbers to call.

photo - Caroline Chinlund

Beautifully lettered on his sidewalk billboard Owen has chalked:
4096 U.S. Soldiers Dead.
Call Congress: 800-828-0498
A note of tragedy
A note of hope

This is the week of the vote on the supplemental military funding bill. Our messages: No more $ for war. Diplomacy, not war with Iran. Impeach Bush There’s also our campaign to get the NYC City Council to hold hearings on the use of tax $ to fund JROTC classes in high schools.

Calls to representatives are our focus. We have encounters! We win a few and lose a few.

Caroline’s favorite: Amy, resting in the shade after a job interview. She’s new in town. Lives in Brooklyn. We look up her Congressional Rep in The League of Women Voters of NYC (lwvnyc.org) Directory “They Represent You.” It’s Jerrold Nadler. She calls the Congressional switchboard, asks for Nadler’s office and uses the cue card Caroline wears around her neck to pace her conversation with Nadler’s staffer. Amy’s used to relating to her representatives. She’s moved from Cleveland and Dennis Kucinich was her Congressman! She lived near his office and used to drop in. We agree, he’s our hero. Check out his latest heroic act, of defending the U.S. Constitution, 35 Articles of Impeachment for President Bush,and Vice-President Cheney. (Did you know? He wasn’t covered by any major news media) Read the scoop in Gore Vidal’s article at truthdig.

Here’s Eva-Lee’s review of the day:
I got off to a good start with two phone calls right away and then didn’t get any more. Both callers said “Don’t fund the war” and “Impeach both Bush and Cheney.” They had taken the time to use the League of Women Voters NYC book to look up their representatives. A lot of people walked by with their noses in the air, but there were others who thanked us for being there, even though they didn’t stop and make the call. One man took flyers promising to call later. He walked about 20 yards away, turned and came back with tears in his eyes. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you are out here doing this,” he said. “My son is in the navy.” He turned and walked away slowly.

photo - Caroline Chinlund

Barbara W had several intense conversations, and some were painful. Here’s how she sums it up: I believe that it is important to let those we encounter who say our military are killing only “the bad guys” (this was said!) or who see only a stereotyped Iraqi, know that there is, for example, the old head of a family who is scared out of his wits by the soldiers busting into his home in the middle of the night, the school principal who goes into his school to open the door for our soldiers and appears at the door – Middle East hospitality style – with the tray of tea. I sometimes hear myself quoting (to a person who approves of our entry into Iraq) the veteran Mejia who said at the Winter Soldier session earlier this year “We went across the ocean to brutalize a country that had done nothing to us.”

Phyllis reports:
I spoke with a woman from France, and then another, and a woman from Russia, all of them supporting us. Then a young man who was hawking coupons for discount membership at an Equinox exercise place. I asked if we could exchange flyers and he exclaimed, “You ladies are giving out more important things than I am. It’s really good.” He did take our flyer. In talking, I found out that he was not registered to vote, although he had been in the city for more than 6 months. I encouraged him to get registered and vote in the coming elections, and gave him a registration form.

Barbara H:
Maybe people should know about the opposition messages, i.e. “I like the war, we are winning, we’re safer, not many deaths now”, to let people know why we must be out there to speak to those who only get the Rush Limbaugh message.

Well, we’re not quitting. Check the calendar on the Granny Peace Brigade home page for the date and location of our next Phone-a-thon. Join us if you can. No cellphone, no problem.

- Caroline Chinlund with Eva-Lee, Owen, Edith, Barbara H, Phyllis, Fran, Barbara W, Caroline, Kathy

When not that many folks were there for us, you stepped up to the plate — literally and figuratively. You helped us put together our trek to Washington, not only by throwing us a fundraiser, but by telling us “Yes, you can!” — and this was before Senator Obama was even a twinkle in the voters’ collective eye. You and your wonderful colleagues welcomed us into your ‘home’ and we love you all for it. As a true communitarian, you have set the bar high for whomever dares trod in your wake at 69 Gansevoort. Along with our tireless and brilliant attorney, Norman Siegel, and our faithful supporters like State Senator Bill Perkins, New Yorker Extraordinaire, Malachy McCourt, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, you are definitely in the pantheon of all-time favorite Granny pin-ups — in or out of drag.

Photo - Richard Leigh

To say it was a pleasure to join you on Monday, considering the circumstances, may sound a bit strange. We booked in with heavy hearts, knowing this was the last time we’d be able to bask in the pink glow of your establishment. (And at our age, lighting is EVERYTHING! ) However, once we got there, your enormous good cheer and hospitality enveloped us and we had a blast. Hopefully, the other folks in the restaurant enjoyed our shenanigans — we couldn’t help notice that our performance of WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE had more than a few of your patrons singing along, but it was Granny Joan Wile’s debut performance of her original song, FAREWELL FLORENT that really brought down the house.

Photo - Richard Leigh

In THE 25th HOUR OF FLORENT MORELLET, David Amsden’s truly swell article in New York Magazine, he reports that you have the opening line of Diana Vreeland’s autobiography, “I loathe nostalgia!” writ large on your calendar. So we will take that as our cue and instead of bidding you a fond but sad farewell, we shall look forward to what you and your remarkable crew will cook up for the next chapter.

Rock on, dear Florent — we sure plan to!

- Fran Sears for The Granny Peace Brigade

Oh, how were we challenged Thursday, June 5 in Brooklyn! The park surrounding Brooklyn Borough Hall and the Court Building was saturated with folks attending Brooklyn Day, a pro-Atlantic Yards rally, sponsored by the Forest City Ratner Corporation, a NYC real estate developer with a taste for using eminent domain for their own gain. A reported 3500 were in attendance with many bussed-in (union members and senior citizens), although the crowd was far more interested in a free lunch than Frank Gehrey’s ‘vision’. (Note to Forest City Ratner Corp: the next time you stage one of these extravaganzas, try to order enough food. Hungry people are cranky people.)

When we finally found each other, we relegated ourselves to a place somewhat away from the crowd, and set up our “information table” at the foot of the statue of another dubious achiever, the ‘great discoverer of our country,” Christopher Columbus. The noise, constant cacophony of many decibels was unnerving and almost unbearable — the unanimous winner for truly ear-shattering rhetoric most certainly had to be awarded to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

In spite of all, we were determined to apprise folks about NYC taxes supporting military curriculum in our high schools. Some people found it “shocking” that, just as school budgets were being cut, tax money was supporting JROTC. One gentleman questioned whether the New York City Council had any power to effect change, was encouraged to ask his council person’s representative, did so, and reported that City Council can effect change. Connie, our colleague from Brooklyn for Peace, brought along material for distribution including “Some Objections to JROTC” from California’s Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities, which provided effective “talking points” and was well received.

People often engaged us in lengthy conversation, occasionally preventing us from reaching more people.* A group of teenagers found it to be unbelievable that they could call an elected representative’s office and, even with our encouragement and peer daring, didn’t engage in doing so. A young woman with three children, who works for the New York City Board of Education, took flyers and printed materials saying that she was going to bring them to a teacher’s meeting in her school. She requested additional information to be sent and left her contact information. When a caller to City Councilperson Robert Jackson (Chair, Education Committee) requested a public hearing, she was informed that the office had received 46 calls requesting a public hearing on NYC taxes for JROTC and 6, from students, against a hearing (time frame was not stipulated but we are assuming that it was recent).

Owen and Maxie chalked messages on the sidewalk concerning our Phone-a-thon focus and the number of U.S. troop deaths in Iraq, 4091 to date. A counter-chalker wrote that we were liers however, it did not deter us. The Phone-a-thon was considered by all, worthwhile and a success.

*The Granny Peace Brigade & CodePink NYC need more volunteers to talk with folks who are interested in learning about “what’s going on” concerning U.S. militarism at home and abroad. The tax levy funds for JROTC seems to be a really “hot issue” and we need to spread the word with other peace groups, encouraging a City Council Public Hearing for full disclosure and hopefully, a change in policy. So…

…JOIN US AT THE PHONE-A-THONS!

Phyllis Cunningham & Fran Sears with Caroline, Ann, Joan P., Carol, Maxie (Carol’s grandson), Owen, and Connie (Brooklyn for Peace)

Want to jump-start your next peace action? Invite your local Raging Grannies and draw a crowd! Here the NYC chapter joins the Granny Peace Brigade and Code Pink for a “STOP THE WAR, IMPEACH BUSH” Phone-A-Thon.

If you don’t see the video click here.

WE ARE A GAGGLE OF GRANNIESWords: Esther Farnsworth & the Vermont Raging Grannies, with Corinne Willinger of the NYC Metro Raging Grannies and the Granny Peace Brigade

Tune: “Side by Side”Oh, we are a gaggle of grannies
Urging you off of your fannies;
We’re telling you now
We’re ANGRY and how!
NO MORE WAR!

With all that government spending
To fight a war that’s unending
We’re going for broke,
This isn’t a joke
NO MORE WAR!

(refrain)
The Bush gang keeps on lying,
They want to ’stay the course,’
But boys and girls are dying,
And they show no remorse.

Sooo, we may be a gaggle of grannies,
But we’ve gotten off of our fannies,
We’ll only rejoice for
We sing in one voice for, NO MORE WAR!
We really mean it - NO MORE WAR!
And we mean busines
NO MORE WAR!

“Everyone loves a parade”…onlookers and people near-by were drawn like magnets by the music. Merchants, shoppers, and many folks along the way gave the peace sign, thumbs-up, and thanked us. At times we stopped and sang along with the Raging Grannies - our message on this day in the words of Julia Ward Howe: “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of Justice!”

Photo - Bud

Under sunny skies, about two hundred people met at the Merchants Gate at Columbus Circle for this year’s Mother’s Day Peace stroll. Led by Charlie Keil’s mobile horn section with the Raging Grannies bringing up the rear, we stepped off for a festive walk up the West Side of Manhattan, through the Craft Fair outside the Natural History Museum. Along the route, we handed out 1,000 pink flyers about Mother’s Day for Peace with information on the Collateral Repair Project. We stopped several times to read Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Peace Proclamation, and paused for two minutes of silence for the casualties of the Iraq War and Occupation, before heading across Central Park. We ended with a final reading of the proclamation on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum. We thank all the mothers, grandmothers, daughters, granddaughters, musicians, percussionists, partners, friends and spouses who joined us to make Mother’s Day a meaningful day for peace.

- Phyllis Cunningham & Nancy Kricorian

Who is this woman and why was this mug shot taken?

Joan spent her first two years of college at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. It was 1957 and it happened to be the first year that the state of North Carolina integrated its public universities, in response to federal law, of course. A group of seven Black women was selected by the NAACP to fill the slots at WCUNC (the Women’s College.) One of these women became a close friend and Joan became aware of the courage that these women needed to study at the University and live on campus. In all fairness, the young white women at WCUNC were not overtly hostile to these young women and often seemed to just not know how to relate. After transferring to the to the University of California in Berkeley, Joan decided to return to the South as a Freedom Rider, riding an integrated train and demanding integrated facilities. Was she scared? “I think I was too determined (read dumb??) and too young to be really scared. And by the time we got to Mississippi, I was just stunned (see mugshot).”

Although the freedom riders spent weeks in jail before bailing out, it was necessary for them to return to Jackson, Mississippi for a trial date later that year. The Greyhound Bus Company had difficulty finding a driver for the bus to transport the riders out of Mississippi. No one wanted to drive them out of Jackson - the Greyhound drivers were afraid of mob violence and with good reason. Many buses had been attacked and the riders beaten. There were snipers on the roads. One mob had set fire to a bus in Alabama and tried to burn to death the Freedom Riders inside.

Finally, Joan’s group found a driver and they set off in the middle of the night. As stones started to hit the bus Joan and her compatriots asked the driver not to stop - to just keep going. He thought that a good plan.

- Joan Pleune,
Granny Peace Brigade

May 5, 2008 - What better way to cap off a sparkling Cinco de Mayo than to do it Granny-style, by celebrating Joan’s new book, GRANDMOTHERS AGAINST THE WAR: Getting Off Our Fannies & Standing Up For Peace, Citadel Press.

photo - Masahiro Hosoda

Shape up time was set for 7PM at the Barnes & Noble at 82nd and Broadway and by 6:45 there was a solid line of folks filing into the store. Raging Grannies, Granny Peace Brigadiers, Grandmothers Against the War, Veterans for Peace, life-long peaceniks and aspiring activist packed the second floor reading area to hear Joan read from her book and to celebrate her accomplishments. In short order, all the chairs were filled and it was a SRO event.

photo - Masahiro Hosoda

Long-time Granny Peace Brigade ally and best-selling author, Malachy McCourt opened the proceeding with a poem (Yeats, of course), spoke movingly about the peace movement and the need for citizen engagement, then led us all in a rousing version of “Will You Go Laddy Go”.

Norman Siegel, the legendary civil rights attorney and lead defense attorney for the 18 Granny Brigadiers arrested on Oct. 17, 2005, read selected sections from the trial transcript — some of it funny, much of it moving, and it helped us all remember the day the Granny Peace Brigade was born. New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer - a fierce opponent of the Iraq war and someone who is never afraid to use her bully pulpit to address injustice - was on hand, making a lot of us wonder if this woman ever sleeps!

Rumor had it that Joan was a nervous wreck before the event, but when the lights came up, our Joan stepped up and gave us all a splendid evening — she read from the book, reminisced about the last three years, urged us all, in the words of Granny Marie Runyon, ‘To keep on keeping on!”. To quote New York’s own Jimmy Breslin, “Read this book!” As the evening drew to a close, Joan introduced her family, including her two children and three of her wonderful grandkids and then sang - acapella - her signature anthem, “GRANNIES, LET’S UNITE!”. By the second verse, everyone in the room was singing along.

photo - Masahiro Hosoda

A long line formed for Joan to autograph books while a small group of grannies (who shall remain nameless) disbursed around the store to hand out some Granny Peace Brigade literature packets until one of the young clerks informed them this was not allowed. Even though these aging hooligans were standing just a few feet from their lawyer, the Grannies very graciously left the store — and continued distributing our literature on the street until they ran out.

Thanks Joan. For getting us going and reminding us that we’ve only just begun — and like that woman in the audience asked, “When are you going to be on Oprah?”

- Fran Sears