How long have we been doing this? When did we first start protesting?
(Click on photos for larger images.)
Our young brothers and sisters in the struggle are curious to know what is bringing these old, grey heads to the Zuccatti encampment.
How can we explain that one of our members can remember helping to bang the pots and pans in celebration of the end of World War I? Another can vividly recall holding her father’s hand at a rally supporting Sacco and Vanzetti. Joan was a guest of the state in Mississippi, jailed as a Freedom Rider at the infamous Parchman Prison. Some of our mothers and dads took us to protest the murder of Emmett Till.
“Emmett Till,” one young reporter puzzles. “Is he here today?”
It would be too easy to laugh, instead we are caught short and reflect. Most definitely Emmett is here with us — along with Troy Davis, Viola Liuzzo, Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, and James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner and so many others we could name. We don’t just march in their memory — they all are still very much with us.
One woman appears in a green dress and a big smile. She saw us on Facebook and she had to “get her butt down here.” A few blocks along on our march to the Post Office, she tells us her husband tried to dissuade her. “That just sealed the deal,” she tells us with a twinkle.
Amy Goodman and her crew marching with us and a big thumbs up to Congressman Jerry Nadler for doing the right thing – stepping up to support the postal workers. It seems we now live a world where good behavior on the part of an elected official is the exception, not the rule. But even in this dark season, there are some true points of hopeful light. C’mon down to Zuccotti and see what we mean.
(More photos on Facebook.)
In peace always.
- Fran Sears
for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photos: Eva-Lee Baird
