Archive for October, 2009

Thursday October 22, A Beautiful Day For A Phone-A-Thon

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

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Grannies and CodePink set up the peace table and dynamite new signs by the fountain in Borough Hall Park.

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The Greenmarket is on; school kids are learning about vegetables; smart, powerful voters show up to call representatives and let them know they want an end to spending tax money for wars.

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Read the signs, or read our cue sheets (we call them breastplates), take home our flier with home office numbers for senators in case their DC lines are busy!

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It feels good, as you can see.

- Caroline Chinlund
Photos from the top:
first – Eva-Lee Baird, second through fifth – Caroline Chinlund
for the Granny Peace Brigade

Posted in Grass Roots Action, Legislative | No Comments »

The GPB at the Social Justice Society of Stern College for Women

Monday, October 26th, 2009

On Tuesday October 20, a group of Granny Peace Brigade members gave a presentation to the Social Justice Society of Stern College for Women  organized by Tamara Freieden a board member of the Social Justice Society.

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The students were a very lively group of about 14 women and one man. Many of them were from other states and we told them how to reach their Congressional Representatives and Senators; one had already visited a congressional office in person.

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Carol Huston described the beginnings of the Granny Peace Brigade including the Times Square enlistment attempt, the trial and the gradual development of committees devoted to No Bases, Counter Recruitment and Legislation.

Representatives of the committees spoke:

  • Vinie Burroughs spoke about No-Bases and its origin in an Women’s International Democratic Federation meeting in Caracas, also mentioning the up-coming Teach-In on Pacific bases.

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  • Barbara Harris spoke [with display and hand-outs] about Counter Recruitment and some of the students said they’d been subjected to attempts to recruit them — but obviously they took another path.

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  • Eva-Lee Baird spoke about the approach of the Legislative Committee, researching legislation and holding phone-a-thons.
  • Edith Cresmer demonstrated a call to Senator Schumer, using a cell phone set on speakerphone provided by one of the students. The students listened carefully as Edith left a “stop funding the wars” message on the answering machine in Schumer’s Buffalo office.

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As we were wrapping up we were asked to sing, and we sang “Voters [God] Help America.” That got a big applause.

At the end of the presentation theater lovers came over to Vinie asking what she is appearing in, and she told them she was in a play now and also in rehearsals. One student gave Vinie her email so Vinie could send her the information about her current activities. Students were interested in Counter Recruitment, and they want to follow up – helping high school students to fill out basic forms, and use the internet to find financial aid programs. They also asked about more information on the two Israeli refuseniks that recently visited NYC.

- Edith Cresmer
for the Granny Peace Brigade

Posted in Counter Recruitment, Legislative, No Bases, Teachings | 1 Comment »

Make Food Not War & Not Cannon Fodder

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

On October 3rd Peace Action Staten Island at a festive event made reference to four of its members, mentioning their activities in promotion of peace – Hesham El-Meligy (Community Activist), Thomas Good (Editor of ‘Next Left Notes’ and photojournalist), Sylvia Zaage (Peace Action Membership Coordinator), and me, Barbara Walker (Granny Peace Brigade). I had an opportunity to say the following about the problem of our high schools as a focus for military recruitment:

We are extremely concerned about the military recruitment activities in our high schools — especially knowing the horror of the on-going unwarranted wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. There is of course warfare, with heroics, of the Hollywood movies (two exceptions being the realism of “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Hurt Locker”). But the military mother of a marine serving in Afghanistan wrote this — “The most dangerous enemy in the form of roadside bombs can neither be engaged nor defeated.” In these wars our young military are mainly cannon fodder. Young people usually look at me blankly when I say this and so I explain — earlier definition: soldiers subject to the risk of being wounded or killed by artillery; now there are so many more means of being wounded or killed. These days non-military, well paid contractors often hold down the less deadly categories of jobs. As of May 2009, 54 per cent of our military killed were younger than 25 years old. A very fit looking army veteran said to me one day when we were protesting Junior ROTC – he said “I agree.” I thought he agreed with the JROTC Prgram but he did not. He said high schoolers should not be a focus for military recruitment.

I am certainly aware of the current shrinkage in job opportunities and so are the recruiters. But there are options other than military enlistment for life after high school, such as community service, for example, AMERICORPS; there are scholarships for training.

Please be certain that “Opt-Out Forms” are turned in each year to the principal’s office to block the school’s provision of the student’s contact information to military recruitment offices, as is otherwise required under the “No Child Left Behind Act.”

Of course the military spends billions of dollars and has many means of achieving its recruitment goals — so your savvy is required.

- Barbara Walker
for the Granny Peace Brigade

Posted in Counter Recruitment | No Comments »

Call Your Senators to Stop Funding the Wars

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Friday October 9th: Raindrops did not stop a small parade of us Grannies & Code-Pinkers, nor the people, from encountering one another outside City Hall Park. The message of the day, Call-Your-Senators-to Stop- Funding- the-Wars went out by cell-phone and in the hands of the people who received our flyers.

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The rain had some people hurrying, but promising to call from home or the office. Others stopped to talk and make their call on the spot.  It always feels right to be out there. We get thumbs up or thanks for the info (this time it’s tips on how to get through to Senators’ offices), more rarely someone lectures us on the dangers out there since 9/11.People said they’re glad President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize; now they’d like some Peace. Many agreed that now it’s up to Congress to stop funding war in order to realize a change in policy. Katelyn was documenting us with her fine camera, creating a stir; that helps our cause.  Thanks, Katelyn.

- Caroline Chinlund, with Eva-Lee, Edith, Phyllis, Fran and Barbara H
Photos, Eva-Lee Baird
for the Granny Peace Brigade

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Joan And Nydia’s Subway Encounter

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Nydia and I had an interesting encounter last night on the No. 1 subway.  We were returning from Staten Island where we attended the Staten Island Peace Action dinner honoring our own Barbara Walker  It was around 9:45 p.m.  A group of strapping young men sat across from us.  One spotted Nydia’s pins — the Granny Peace Brigade pin and the “Afghan War End Now” one.  in a polite way, they asked us why we wore those pins. There then ensued a spirited but completely civilized debate between them and us.  Although they were wearing civilian clothes, they informed us they were in the Coast Guard and were in a special unit which would be sent to battle.  One said he had already been on duty in Iraq.  They espoused the military line — if we didn’t fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, the terrorists would attack us again.  If they didn’t crush the Al Quaida, we wouldn’t be able to protest and wear our anti-war buttons.  And, so on.  Despite our best efforts, Nydia, in particular, who is a much better debater than I am, we of course were unable to convince them.  They shook our hands as they got off the train before us.

This is the mind set we are up against.  As an older man witnessing our argument said after the boys got off, “You’ll never persuade them.  They haven’t the knowledge.”  Inasmuch as they are going to probably go off to fight in the deadly wars, they most likely are better off believing that the cause is just. It’s kind of a conundrum — we want them to see the futility of the wars, but don’t want them to feel their service is worthless. If they could be persuaded to rebel and refuse to go, that would be one thing.  But, of course, that wouldn’t happen.

Despite our sadness that the young men are so misinformed and are so convinced they are saving the country, undoubtedly to their eventual peril, we were impressed with their interest in hearing our views and their ability to disagree politely and respectfully.

As for the honors event, we had a most cheerful and happy evening.  The S.I. Peace people are a remarkably warm bunch, and the evening was planned to perfection.  They had a good musician-singer, a raffle and a silent auction, and food like you wouldn’t believe.  There were approximately four long, long tables filled, and I mean, FILLED, with delicious goodies.  Plus, the piece de resistance — tada:  the awards presentations.  Our Barbara looked lovely in an emerald green silk top, and made a strong speech urging counter-recruitment action in the schools. Nydia and I felt a big swarm of pride in her,

But as our subway encounter showed us, the road to our goal of bringing the troops home is a long and difficult one.  We have to keep on keeping on!

-Joan Wile
for the Granny Peace Brigade

Posted in Poems & Songs & Stories | No Comments »

In Praise of Charlene…

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Baby, its cold outside! Especially on the mall at Borough Hall, with the wind whipping off the river. The crowd was thin and in a hurry.  However, just when the Collective Granny Reserves were beginning to fade, a woman walks up and asks what’s happening.

Meet Charlene — a Staten Island resident and nurse who clocked in hundreds of hours in the rescue efforts at Ground Zero. Her reward? A terribly compromised respiratory system, a diseased thyroid, blood pressure issues and skin problems. Unable to work and fighting the bureaucracy for disability, she is still full of beans and smarts. She calls Shumer’s office and gives a chilling, eloquent testimony against further killing, destruction and wars — and reminds the aide at the end of the phone that she works as a nurse for the soccer league that has one of the Schumer girls on a team.

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Thanks for reminding us about a lot of things, Charlene — and we are proud that you’re now wearing one of our buttons.

- Fran Sears
Photo: Eva-Lee Baird
for the Granny Peace Brigade

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