Granny power takes on the Iraq war - The Boston Globe

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[GranniesAgainstGeorge] Granny power takes on the Iraq war -

The Boston Globe

 

 

The Boston Globe

 

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/05/gran\

ny_power_takes_on_the_iraq_war?mode=PF

 

 

 

ELLEN GOODMAN

Granny power takes on the Iraq war

 

May 5, 2006

 

NEW YORK

I WENT TO the grannies for a booster shot of optimism. It's been that

kind of week. We just passed the third anniversary of the

flight-jacket photo op and its mission unaccomplished. The plunge in

the president's approval ratings, down to 33 percent, hasn't

translated into a howl of protest but a low-level depression. And the

Official Bush Countdown Clock is barely a tick below 1,000 days.

 

But in Manhattan, 18 women of granny age, full of wit and wisdom, have

just won a court case and sent their protest story around the world.

I'll take my optimism where I can.

 

Last fall, these women descended by foot, cane, and walker onto an

armed forces recruitment center in Times Square. Inspired by groups

such as the Tucson Raging Grannies, they demanded -- ''we insist/ we

enlist " -- that the Army take them rather than their grandchildren.

 

When the soldiers locked them out, 91-year-old Lillian Runyon banged

on the door, singing: ''If I had a hammer . . . " The women of the

Granny Peace Brigade then staged a sit-down until the police, rather

more gently than is their wont, took them to jail in handcuffs.

 

Their cry against the war's dishonorable conduct came up against the

government's claim of their disorderly conduct. But on April 27, a

mere whippersnapper of a judge -- 46 years old -- declared them not

guilty. Whereupon Joan Wile, lyricist and grandmother of five,

promptly then told the courthouse crowd, ''Listen to your granny; she

knows best. "

 

Now four of those grannies were sitting around the conference table in

their lawyer's office still wearing buttons and the glow of notoriety.

Wile was even brushing up the lyrics of her call-to-elder-arms:

''Grandmas get offa your tush/ We've got to go after Bush. "

 

Something about the granniness of the event -- though some were

younger than the average senator -- made the coverage read more like a

lifestyle story than a gathering political storm. But then again,

these protesters have a lightness of spirit that brings a message

home: ''Just forget your retirement pursuits/ And get out your old

marching boots. "

 

Wile, 74, and Molly Klopot, 87, and Carol Husten, 74, and Vinie

Burrows Harrison, ''don't ask, " are not amateurs in the action

department. Molly's first protest as a child was for Sacco and

Vanzetti. Vinie remembers the Depression Era civil rights protest in

Harlem: ''Don't shop where you can't work. "

 

They didn't know each other before they got together over a shared

antiwar sentiment. But now they finish each other's sentences. What do

grannies have that won the attention? ''Novelty. " ''Respect. "

''Authority. " ''Mom and apple pie. "

 

Why are they protesting while their children and grandchildren aren't?

''They're busy; we're retired, " says Joan. Molly adds, ''We helped the

world get in the shape it's in. We have some responsibility here. " And

all shake heads in agreement with Vinie and Carol on the notion that

they have reached a wonderful stage of life called: nothing left to lose.

 

You can argue that these women have an unsophisticated political

solution to the war: Get out. But first read that same unsophisticated

view in the journal Foreign Policy by retired Lieutenant General

William Odom under the title: ''Cut and Run? You Bet. "

 

You can argue too that protest is futile against an administration

that has left the reality-based community. But first consider what the

granny movement with its loose connections across 38 groups offers

those of us who turn from disapproval and confusion to passivity.

 

With her button reading ''love the troops/ hate the war, " Carol says

simply, ''If you're not hopeful, you're helpless. " Vinie adds, ''You

have to stand up for something or you mean nothing. " As Norman Siegel,

their longtime civil rights lawyer, says with respect, they represent

a generation that still believes they can make change. ''They have in

their experience the belief that you can challenge the government.

They believe they can stop the war. "

 

We are now in the run-up to Mother's Day, a holiday that evolved from

Julia Ward Howe's antiwar crusade to Hallmark Cards' breakfast-in-bed

day. The grannies are cooking up something that won't fit on a bed tray.

 

Before I leave, Joan rifles through the folder on her lap, stops for a

moment to hand me another set of lyrics, ''Grandmas, let's unite/

While we are still upright. " But then she pauses to quote something

from a man who never got beyond 38, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.:

''Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that

matter. "

 

She looks around the table at grannies against the war who are shaking

their heads and adds: ''I think that's our theme. " A booster shot of

optimism? Mission accomplished.

 

Ellen Goodman's e-mail address is ellengoodman.

© Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company