My guest today is Joan Wile, the founder of Grandmothers Against the War. She also wrote a book by the same name whose subtitle is: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace . Welcome to OpEdNews, Joan. Please tell our readers what got you up off your fanny in the first place.
Like everybody, I was opposed to our invading Iraq from the very first mention of the possibility. I signed petitions, went to rallies, all those things we all did, and was just horrified when we did the Shock and Awe monstrosity on those innocent people in Baghdad. Shortly after, I saw a photograph in TIME Magazine of a 12-year-old Iraqi boy, Ali, from that beleaguered city. He had lost his arms, he was horribly burned on a large area of his torso, and his entire nuclear family was killed -- how did this unspeakable tragedy occur? From our bombs!
It broke my heart, and I felt I had to do something! I conceived the idea of a grandmothers anti-war group and followed up my idea by contacting people, mostly by email (a wonderful tool for organizing things), to see if like-minded women would join with me.
In retrospect, this was a PR stroke of genius. But how did you first glom onto the idea of grandmothers? Also, you're in New York City. Did that make it easier or more difficult to gather other like-minded souls?
The idea hit me in the middle of the night, actually. I'm an insomniac and it came to me in a wakeful period. I have no idea how it happened, it just did. The thought sprang into my mind -- "Grandmothers Against the War. Now, there's a cool idea," I said to myself. "Grandmothers are perceived as wise, nurturing, stable. We won't be dismissed as a bunch of rebellious kids, we'll be taken more seriously."
I felt the fact I was in New York City was a definite advantage. It's the media capital of the world, and I figured for my granny group to be effective we'd need publicity. Where better than here in Manhattan, therefore,to try to make some noise? However, this is retrospective reflection -- I don't think I thought much about getting us publicized when I began. But, it was in my subconscious, certainly.
Did you come together quickly or did it take a while? And is it a diverse bunch?My grandmothers group came together rather quickly, thanks, again, to email. I would guess there was perhaps a one- to two-month interval between the idea and the first public action, a neighborhood rally by the beautiful Eleanor Roosevelt statue a block away from me at the entrance to Riverside Park. I emailed and telephoned my older friends and also visited one or two local Democratic clubs to recruit participants. I also invited speakers for the rally, scheduled for November 22, 2003. A friend put me in touch with the well-known actress, Barbara Barrie, who agreed to speak, and several local politicians accepted my invitation, also. Approximately 50 people showed up for the event, including a few people from the Staten Island Peace Action group (Staten Island is a bus, ferry, and subway ride away from where we rallied).
It is a fairly diverse group, although not as diverse as I would like. Most of the women are professionals -- social workers, therapists, teachers, a doctor, a lawyer (no Indian chiefs, though), a couple of artists, an actress or two, a singer/musician/songwriter (me), and so on. Ethnically, we only have a few African Americans, which troubles me. The group is split fairly evenly between Jews and Christians. We also have a number of men who participate regularly in our weekly vigil at Rockefeller Center (we've held it every Wednesday for six and a quarter years), among them several Veterans for Peace. In terms of sexual orientation, we have a tiny smattering of gays -- I wish they were represented more. Occasionally, young people join our vigil, but our core group has only one person under 50. The average age is probably around 75. The astonishing news, though, is that we have at least 4 women past 90!
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