Granny Peace Brigade Blog

Strawberry Fields in Central Park was filled with patriots reading The Constitution, including Amendments, with application to ongoing injustices in our world.

Norman Siegel, civil liberties attorney and founder of the event, introduced musicians who spoke and whose rights are being infringed upon by the Quiet Zones recently instituted in Central Park. There were a large number of people from the Republic of Guinea West Africa bringing news of atrocities in their native country.  Norman Siegel has been addressing all of these problems.

The singing, reading, discussion all were very appropriate in celebrating that which is called Independence Day in these United States of America.

- Phyllis Cunningham
for the Granny Peace Brigade

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On May 8, 2011 the Granny Peace Brigade and CodePink went for the 5th annual Mothers Day Peace stroll through Central Park. (Click on the photos for larger images.)

We started off at Columbus Circle with songs by the Raging Grannies.
See and hear them in action.

Who is always one of the first to arrive at a Peace action?  It’s Bud Korotzer with Fran.  There were a lot of press people around eventually as we gathered at Columbus Circle, but we doubt that anybody got better photos than Bud.  He’s been getting the picture as long as we’ve been around.

Joan P and Jenny read Julia Ward Howe’s Mothers Day Proclamation to remind ourselves and our neighbors about the true meaning of this special day. The Proclamation is as pertinent now as it was when it was written 141 years ago.*

And we stepped off accompanied by the Rude Mechanical Orchestra.

Nancy K and Bev managed traffic.

Corinne invited Emily, her granddaughter from Connecticut.  Emily’s going to college in the fall, to study environmental science.

One of the things we loved about this mothers’ Day action was meeting the new people who joined us.

In peace always
The Granny Peace Brigade
Photos 1,3,4,5 – Phyllis Cunningham
Photos 2,6,7,8 – Caroline Chinlund

*Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts,

Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: “Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

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This is the Union Square scene and the people who heard  Vinie Burroughs’ speech. (Click on the photos for larger images.)

Our Philadelphia Granny Peace Brigade friends joined us.  Here they are with Corinne listening to the speakers in Union Square.

Resting away from the high volume of the speakers, I found two of many people who had come from Maine.  They got up at 1:00 AM to get on the bus and travel to NYC.

My companions, shown here with Lillian, were parents of a soldier who tried to get work when he returned from his first tour in Iraq.  He failed to find a job; the army refused to give him the Spanish language training he wanted so that he could be in the Border Patrol, which was the work he wanted to do.  His Mom said he felt he had no choice but to go back for a second, and now a third, tour.  “He has a wife and kids to support, “ she said.

Marching down Broadway was the moment I felt how many we were.  You could see us going on forever, in front and behind.  We were diverse; we were young and old; it felt like we have all the challenges and thrills of Tahrir Square ahead of us if we can stay committed to staying together and making a better nation.

There were more speeches in Foley Square.  The drone in the foreground was the work of a peace activist from Westchester.  Meeting people was energizing.  Cindy Sheehan,  Bill Perkins, religious leaders from the Muslim communities, and many others gave 90 second speeches.  Steve took his turn, urging people to stay aware they are making a difference by being out and being seen.  We were startled to find that there was virtually no news coverage of the demonstration and march.  New York 1 covered a labor rally in Times’ Square which was going on at the same time as the Peace demonstration.  CBS radio on the evening news mentioned that “thousands gathered in lower Manhattan” but there wasn’t one word in the New York Times.  It leaves me thinking we’ve got to be our own messengers.

- Caroline Chinlund
for the Granny Peace Brigade

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WE ARE ONE, one with the people of Egypt, Yemen and Palestine.
WE ARE ONE in opposing the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan.
WE ARE ONE  with the 5 million people  of Libya  who, in the first days of the humanitarian military action, were attacked by 161 Tomahawk Cruise missiles. Each cruise missile costing  more than one  million dollars means this military assault on Libya cost US taxpayers a quarter of a billion dollars.   However, compared to the 2 billion a week  we spend in Afghanistan, that seems like chump change.

Let us remind ourselves that the bottom line in our capitalist society, in our imperialist society is money. But not  money as more wages for the laborer but instead greater profits for the employer. Oil is the bottom reason for our militaristic Libyan expedition.
So once again, we find the imperial conqueror lusting after Black gold, OIL. And this same lust for greed and profit kidnapped upwards of 20 millions of my ancestors from Africa. The Transatlantic Slave trade built up the great cities of England: Liverpool, London.  Slave labor, free labor enabled the young United States of America to enthrone  Cotton as King and thus laid the foundation for the giant we were to become.
BLACK GOLD from Africa as free labor and BLACK GOLD today with the control of the vast reserves of oil. The newly created unified military command AFRICOM is leading that latter mission with its  sinister machinations in Libya specifically and Africa generally.

WE ARE ONE WITH workers everywhere…workers with jobs and workers needing jobs.
WE ARE ONE with unions seeking  better conditions for their members, seeking to protect gains won and recover gains lost.
WE ARE ONE with women and men wanting to have work that enables them to support and sustain their families.
WE ARE ONE with all who come to this country as immigrants recalling that when the first immigrants came to thses shores there were indigenous families, people, tribes, nations living here; and they fed the strangers, sheltered and helped them to survive.  The newly arrived accepted the  hospitality then expropriated their lands, drove them away to live on reservations. As the native American elder once said: white man made many promises to Indians, only one promise he kept, he promised to take our lands and he took them.

Brothers and Sisters
We are men, women, Indian, Hispanic, African, Asian, Jew, Christian, Muslim, immigrant WE
WE ARE ONE. Thank you.

- Vinie Burrows
for the Granny Peace Brigade

Photos of demonstration: Edith Cresmer

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The annual Toy Industry Association Fair is taking place inside the Javits Center as Edith, Susan, Bev, Joan P and I study song sheets and begin to sing on the sidewalk outside. Later we will be told the sidewalk we are standing on is private property. We will be told to go stand on the narrow strip behind us at the curb on 11th Avenue near 35th Street.

We are here to protest war toys and toys that celebrate violence — particularly the Toy-Of-The-Year winner in the boy toy category, Hasbro’s Stampede Blaster. The writing on the box speaks for the toy and for Hasbro.

Launch an all-out assault with the fully automatic Stampede ESCI. Unleash a storm of darts from the extended 18-dart clip, and reload in a hurry….

The people on the awards committee — what were they thinking?

Barbara engages two sympathetic toy fair attendees in conversation – is she standing on public or private space?

Calen hands out valentines – on public or private space? We sing, and sing and sing. With us is David  Walllace who captured our message in this powerful video. Many, many thanks David.

Security tells us we are on private property. We sing.

Security calls the police and when the officer arrives a discussion ensues about the sidewalk in front of the Javits Center in particular, and about public vs private space in general. There is a wide sidewalk in front of the Javits center…

Here’s a view of our spot from Google Maps. The Javits center roof is dark. The image was taken some time ago and does not show the scaffolding. The sidewalk is about as wide as two traffic lanes and we’re standing near the “C” in “Convention.”

The same view with the so-called private sidewalk in red and the public strip in green.

We’ve done what we came to do here and head north toward 41st Street where Hasbro has a separate exhibit. On the way we stop at the 37th Street entrance to the Javits Center where an even greater swath of sidewalk and roadway has been declared private.

We go in to a space where commercial connections are made. Some old time lyrics run through my head…

But the banks are made of marble
With a guard at every door…*

The public agora is closing down piece by piece. Every day more of the discourse, the exchange of ideas that makes a democracy vibrant and strong is taking place in spaces like this under corporate control.

We sing. People listen. The fair attendees seem to be divided into two camps; the people who dismiss us impatiently, and those that thank us enthusiastically.

On to Hasbro where…

A piece of 41st Street has been made into a private museum for Hasbro, velvet ropes and all. The truck is promoting transformer toys.

The security guy on the right tells us “just don’t block the door.” Bev who does not slow down in the presence of security hangs a pass to the exhibit around her neck (yes we have one) and marches in. Blink your eyes and they’re throwing her out.

Whose streets?  We have work to do.

- Eva-Lee Baird
for the Granny Peace Brigade
Photos 1 – 6: ©2011 David Wallace
Photos 7 & 8 Google Maps
Photos 9 – 11: Eva-Lee Baird

*Song by Les Rice ©Stormking Music 1950

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Snow flurries whirled at five as I met Eva-Lee and Nydia at the corner near Jazz at Lincoln Center.  The Granny Peace Brigade was in action!  We went inside and gathered a group of about 40 elders including three NYC Metro Raging Grannies in front of the escalators that lead to the Toy Awards in the Time Warner Center.

Bright yellow banners unfurled, we sang for No More War Toys inside the Mall as security hovered around, not knowing what to do with us, as we weren’t doing anything illegal. We just kept singing; “Give the kids a Stampede blaster, Hey lolly, lolly low” as Joan P hefted the huge gun as prop for our demo.

We sang for 40 – 50 minutes with cops and security chatting with Bev as Toy Awardees wandered by dressed like Barbie and Ken.

We handed out song sheets and beautiful Valentines calling for Peace, crafted by Ann!  There were several floors of balconies above us and we sang to appreciative shoppers as they passed, kids smiled, wonderful people told us about their grannies.
Eventually we were herded reluctantly outside – it was wintry winter windy! – and sang all the songs once more.  We made a presence!

- Yer Raging Reporter, Mercy Van Vlack
for the Granny Peace Brigade & NYC Metro Raging Grannies
Photos: Bud Korotzer

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