• • • • Granny Peace Brigade • • • •

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

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

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!

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

On the day that the 4,000th soldier was killed in Iraq, a roiling of activists took to the streets all over the country.
It struck me that the “No Blood for Oil” has been valid since WWI but no one has ever calculated this way:
If a barrel of oil holds 42 Gallons and
If the average soldier weighs 170 pounds and has six quarts of blood
And, if, there are 4,000 dead
Then, we have filled 143 barrels with American blood.

- Diane Dreyfus
Granny Peace Brigade

To the tune of “God Help America” this song was originally reworded by Kay Sather, of the Raging Grannies of Tucson, AZ for the time they got arrested at the recruiting office in Arizona. Mercy Van Vlack of the NYC Raging Grannies adapted it for Granny Peace Brigade. She sings it at Phone-A-Thons where we ask passersby to call Congress and tell their senators and representatives to stop funding the war in Iraq.

- Eva-Lee Baird & Mercy Van Vlack

i wake myself to recollect and reflect with others
this time of endless war
is it 4 years we endured aground in their Baghdad -
Waterloo - Gallipoli - Dunkirk -
emptying too many boots; filling so many coffins

War’s bloated and sour hourglass counts the finite and the endless
i wake myself against the comforts of home
leaving my old granny bed
because we agreed to recollect and reflect
and read the names of the dead who filled the coffins and left their empty boots and raw souls keening behind

The day of wrath has come and gone
No song No innocence.
and, now, we stand, mourners together behind our white roses
amid the traffic
naming grief and it’s outrage

So sorry to say your name, but, we are here, friend and
we say your name in Times Square

We call out names in the loud bright
to remember how dull war is

- Diane Dreyfus