Granny Peace Brigade Blog

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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