Saturday, March 28, 2009

BREAKING GRANNY'S HEART

I poured my hopes into you, Barack. I gave and gave from my limited fixed senior income to you. I hate calling strangers, but I did -- in Ohio and Pennsylvania, saying over and over that you would bring peace, that you would restore our good name throughout the world. I wrung my hands through the Hillary attacks, publishing satirical articles, songs and one-acts on the Internet to humiliate her. Oh, my God, the stress of those months as the polls undulated up and down. It's a wonder I didn't have a stroke.

And, then, Hallelujah, you did it. I rejoiced in your victory and thrilled at your inauguration. Your own grandmother couldn't have been more proud and joyful than I was.

I was sure you would be different than the other, and at last would end the war in Iraq. You said you would and I believed you. Although you did say that by going into Iraq we took our eye off Afghanistan, I was confident that you would manage that issue peacefully,so that we would extricate ourselves quickly from that potential quagmire as well. I was so happy to think that the world would respect us again and I wouldn't have to hang my head in shame any longer.

Then, you spoke of sending more troops to Afghanistan, but I assumed you were testing the waters, trying to accommodate the war heads, but would in short order change course, pull out and bring them home. How could you do otherwise? You were my beloved hero, a man of peace. I started petitions designed to urge you to re-think your policies in the Middle East, but in a respectful way, certain that you were just waiting for a ground swell so you could justifiably change direction.

One day recently, I read that you had ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan and were retaining 50,000 in Iraq even after the official withdrawal. That was possibly the biggest heartbreak I'd experienced since my first love dumped me unceremoniously. Reluctantly, I helped organize a Granny Peace Brigade protest at the Times Square recruiting center. Some of us old ladies got arrested. Still, I thought that in the end you would do the right thing.

Today, you ordered more troops to Afghanistan. Don't you realize what you've done? Don't you see the destruction, the horrors such an action will cause? How is it you, of all people, can't realize that only diplomacy and humanitarian aid, not weapons, can resolve the crisis of terrorism?

You have broken my heart, Barack. Disillusionment happens all through life, so I should be used to it by now. But, this one hurts so bad.

WHY DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO YOUR GRANNY?

Thursday, March 19, 2009

PEACE GRANNIES ARRESTED

Relax, everyone! The New York City police are solidly on the job these days. With rapists, murderers, bank robbers and dope peddlers, not to mention corporate thieves, rampant throughout the City, they made a significant dent in the crime statistics yesterday, March 18, when they arrested seven grandmothers aged 67 to 90 in Times Square.

The grannies, all members of the Granny Peace Brigade, were sent to jail while protesting at the Times Square recruiting station. Their arrest occurred during what is believed to be the first antiwar protest of the Obama Administration, in an attempt to urge the President to reconsider his decision to retain 50,000 troops in Iraq after the official withdrawal scheduled to be completed in the next 18 months and his order for 17,000 more troops sent to Afghanistan. The women feel strongly that these measures will only result in increased death and destruction for Americans, Iraqis and Afghanis and further solidify anti-American feeling throughout the world. Said 94-year-old Brigadier Marie Runyon, "Peace can only be achieved through diplomacy and humanitarian aid." The Granny Peace Brigade women are mostly strong supporters of Barack Obama but were responding to his request that his constituency pressure him to do the right thing when they feel he is on the wrong path.

The Brigade is not new to demonstrating at the Times Square recruiting station -- eighteen of the grannies were arrested and jailed on Oct. 17, 2005, when they attempted to enlist in the military to replace America's grandchildren in harm's way in Iraq. After a six-day trial in criminal court, they were acquitted.

The seven grannies were arrested at approximately 1:45 p.m. and taken to the Midtown South police precinct. They were not all released until early the next morning, a total of approximately 12 hours. Some of them became shaky and weak after many hours of not eating, but were given no food for another hour and a half.

Prior to the arrest, about 50 grannies and their supporters gathered on Military Island at which a press conference was held including speeches by mayoral candidate Rev. Billy, legendary Broadway actress and activist Vinie Burrows (one of the original 18 granny jailbirds), and a young member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Matthis Chiroux. A sister group, the Raging Grannies, performed some of their original anti-war songs.

During the press conference, grandmothers wrapped yellow police crime scene tape around the ramp near the recruiting center, after which a group, some in wheelchairs and hanging on to walkers, assembled on the ramp leading to the center.

The team of Norman Siegel and Earl Ward, who successfully defended the grannies in 2005, will represent them in their current case, for which the grandmothers are profoundly grateful. Siegel, currently a candidate for New York City Public Advocate, is a favorite of the ladies for his continuous support of them.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

GRANNY PROTEST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Joan Wile, 917-441-0651
GRANNIES TO RAISE CANE(S) AND CONCERNS 3-18
ABOUT OBAMA'S IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN POLICIES
Their Theme: Pack up Iraq, and Afghanistan Not Againistan

The indefatigable GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE is again in the forefront of the peace movement. They will hold the FIRST public anti-war protest of the Obama Administration on Wednesday, March 18, 12 o'clock p.m. at the Times Square recruiting center, 44th St. and Broadway. Their mission is to urge President Obama to re-think his policies toward Iraq and Afghanistan. Supporters of the President, they nevertheless feel he is making a mistake by proposing to leave 50,000 troops in Iraq after the official withdrawal and his order to deploy 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. "He has requested that we let him know when we think he's on the wrong track, and we are taking him at his word," said 94-year-old former NYS Assemblywoman Marie Runyon, the oldest of the peace grannies.

To express their concerns, the grannies plan to symbolically wrap up the wars by wrapping police CRIME SCENE tape around the recruitment station. Prior to doing so, they will hold a press conference, beginning at noon, to which many actors and local officials have been invited. Among those who have agreed to speak are mayoral candidate Rev. Billy; actress Kim Weston-Moran, a star of the new off-Broadway hit, The Lonely Soldier Monologues (Women at War in Iraq); civil liberties attorney Norman Siegel; Broadway and off-Broadway legendary actress Vinie Burrows, and chaplain and Vietnam vet Hugh Bruce, a leader of the local Veterans for Peace chapter.

The GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE has chosen the Times Square location because of its historical importance to them. Eighteen of them were arrested there on Oct. 17, 2005, when they tried to enlist to replace America's grandchildren in harm's way and later were on trial for six days in criminal court at the end of which they were acquitted of all charges. Since then, they have acted as missionaries of peace, traveling in the United States and abroad speaking, performing, protesting and writing of their desire to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The grandmothers will be joined by other granny peace groups -- Grandmothers Against the War, who have held a weekly vigil at Rockefeller Center for over five years, and the Raging Grannies, who will sing a couple of their original anti-war songs. Members of Veterans for Peace will serve as a color guard for the event.

GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE jailbird Eva-Lee Baird explained, "The merchants of war are putting tremendous pressure on President Obama to lead the country down a path of destruction. We the people must pressure him to choose the path of peace."

DATE: Wed., March 18, RAIN OR SHINE
TIME: 12 o'clock noon
PLACE: Times Square recruiting center, 44th St. and Broadway

Friday, March 6, 2009

A PROGRESSIVE GRANDMOTHER SPEAKS HER MIND

by Joan Wile, founder/director, Grandmothers Against the War
and author, "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace" (Citadel Press, May 2008 --available at amazon.com and in book stores)

At 77, I'm supposed to have gained a measure of wisdom. But, funny thing
-- I don't feel a bit wiser than I did at, say, 40. I am absolutely certain about maybe a few things -- I know absolutely, for instance, that it is wrong to discriminate against persons because of their color, ethnicity, sexual preference, or religious affiliations. But, it doesn't take wisdom to recognize this -- only humanity.

I should add Republicans to that list, but I can't quite bring myself to do so, because the Republicans (at least the ones who were in power) caused so much harm not only to our nation but to all people across the globe. Of course, they had a lot of help from the Democrats, I can't deny. I could do without some of the religious fundamentalists, too, if truth be told, but that is discriminatory and really not in keeping with my anti-prejudice beliefs. Still, I'd like to see them vanish from our politics. OK, I'm far from being pure in my ethics. Part of old age is, or should be, the ability to see one's failings, always easier to do in retrospect.

I have a few other certainties, but they have not been formulated from wisdom so much as recognizing the obvious. I try to be kind to children, animals, the poor, the sick and disabled, but it didn't require advancing years to assume these attitudes. I've always had them. Of course, the passing of time has given me a greater sense of responsibility so that I can implement these impulses more effectively.

For the last five plus years I have added a new certainty -- I've learned beyond the shadow of a doubt that our invasion of Iraq was wrong, wrong, wrong, and I have devoted a good part of my time and energy to trying to reverse it. I know now that any preemptive war we launch is wrong. This includes Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and all the countries we have threatened, or, in the case of Afghanistan, actually deployed troops and bombers to. Again, I can't claim wisdom in this regard. Any half-way intelligent person of any age can see the futility and the wrong-headedness of our military ventures.

Having been a child during World War 2, I must exclude that from my list of bad wars. Let the historians hash out whether we were justified in entering it -- I will always think we had to fight to eliminate the Nazis from our planet. And, speaking of WW2, I'd like to state how fortunate I've been to be an American. Despite all its flaws and mistakes, the fact is that we civilians here have never suffered as the people of other lands have. I never had to confront bombs destroying my home, my family or myself. Haven't we Americans been lucky, though? True, my beloved stepfather went off to Europe and didn't return -- not because he was killed but because the war did something to his head which prompted him to, well, not come back to my mother and me. A heartbreak, but not anywhere near the pain experienced by the children outside North America whose lives were destroyed by both sides of the conflict. Certainly, I can't erase Hiroshima and Nagasaki from my mind.

My belief that our invasion of Iraq was a horrendous misdeed led me to one of the most gratifying segments of my long life. Since 2003, I have devoted myself to organizing anti-war grandmothers to protest the war. Eventually, I put together Grandmothers Against the War, which began a vigil at Rockefeller Center on January 14, 2004, There were just two of us at first, but gradually we blossomed into a group of anywhere from 20 to 50 people standing on Fifth Avenue every Wednesday afternoon. We are by now something of a tourist attraction, which we don't mind a bit. People from all over the world see us and thereby learn that there is valid opposition to the war. Who can doubt grandmothers, after all? This was particularly important in the earlier years of the occupation when people from abroad often had the misconception that ALL Americans supported Bush's ill-advised attack.

We grannies then took more daring action. Eighteen of us, named the Granny Peace Brigade, decided to try and enlist in the military at the Times Square recruiting station. We were denied entrance, so exercised our constitutional right to non-violent dissent and refused to budge from the site. We were arrested and jailed and then put on trial for six days in criminal court for the ridiculous charge of blocking entrance to the recruitment center, something video footage of the event disproved.

Because of the notoriety we achieved through that incident, we began years of spectacular actions and travels in the U.S. and abroad to spread our message. This made for a fulfilling and adventurous old age for all us grannies, some in their late 80's and 90's. True, we've certainly had much excitement and gratification, but we feel great frustration and sadness, too, in that all our efforts as well as those of so many others have not yet brought America's grandchildren home from the war zones. We earnestly hope that President-elect Obama will rectify this. In that regard, please consider signing my Peace Grandmothers Petition to him requesting that we leave Iraq and Afghanistan now. All are invited to sign, not just grannies.
Peace Grandmothers Out of Iraq and Afghanistan

So, being a progressive grandmother has reaped many rewards in terms of allowing me to lead a productive and interesting life at an age when old women are stereotypically depicted as sitting in their rocking chairs knitting baby blankets and watching continuous soap operas. I tried to get this across in one of the many songs I've written about the grannies (hear it on YouTube -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXVAsHtitW0).

GRANNIES, LET'S UNITE
words and music by Joan Wile, ASCAP

I WAS SITTING AROUND WATCHING SOAPSJUST A USELESS OLD SAD SACKBUT THEN I HEARD THOSE REPUBLICAN DOPESSAY WE HAD TO BOMB IRAQ

WELL, I JUMPED UP RIGHT OUT OF MY SEATGOT MY BANNERS AND PEACE SIGNS OUT THEN I HURRIED DOWN TO THE STREET AND STARTED TO YELL AND SHOUT
GRANDMAS, GET OFFA YOUR TUSH
WE'VE GOT TO GO AFTER BUSHLET'S TORMENT THAT LYING JERKWIPE AWAY THAT REPULSIVE SMIRKOH, THEY GAVE US THE PATRIOT ACTWATCH OUR RIGHTS DRIBBLE DOWN THE TUBES SEE OUR CONSTITUTION ATTACKEDLET'S KEEP PESTERING THOSE ARROGANT BOOBS

GRANDMAS, GET OFFA YOUR BUTTS
FIGHT AGAINST THOSE MEDICARE CUTS
DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE WAR
MAKE A STINK THEY CAN'T IGNORE

JUST FORGET YOUR RETIREMENT PURSUITS
AND GET OUT YOUR OLD MARCHING BOOTS
LET’S TELL CONDI, BUSH AND CHENEY
(speak) “YOUR POLICIES REALLY PAIN ME!”

GRANDMAS, GET OFFA YOUR FANNIES
WE NEED MORE FIGHTIN’ GRANNIES
LET’S SHOW ‘EM OUR GREAT GREY POWER
MAKE THOSE EVIL MONSTERS COWER

GRANDMAS, LET’S UNITE
WHILE WE ARE STILL UPRIGHT
LET’S PROTEST THAT PARASITE
WATCH OUT! WE’VE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!