http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=735By Joan Wile, Founder/Director Grandmothers Against the War and Member, Granny Peace Brigade
We grannies can't seem to stay out of jail! We're re-defining the concept of grandmothers from apple-cheeked, gingham-clad rocking chair occupants to feisty kick-ass jailbirds fighting the unspeakably bad powers that be.
When Bush came to shove -- shove away more human rights -- at the United Nations on September 19, a contingent of the Granny Peace Brigade marched along with about 3,000 other people approximately a mile from midtown to as near the U.N. as we could get. There had been a struggle to get permission to march at all, but finally the New York City Police Department relented and allowed us to walk in a bike lane up Sixth Avenue from 37th Street and then across 49th Street to First Avenue. A rally was held, and included among the notables speaking there the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Four of the Granny Peace Brigade members were arrested when they and twelve other protesters drew close to the barricades leading to the U.N. We don't know why, as they were not obstructing anything or anybody. But, this time, unlike the gentle treatment accorded the grannies when we were arrested on October 17 for sitting down when denied entrance to the Times Square Recruiting Station, the cops were on the rough side (one grandmother still has large angry bruises and a sore arm three days after the incident). Something is definitely rotten in the United States when patriotic grandmothers get arrested and jailed for exercising their Constitutional right to engage in peaceful, non-violent protest.
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