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The Granny
Peace Brigade Philadelphia is:
a
group of activists, including grandmothers and others, who are
dedicated to ending war. On June 28, 2006, 11 of us went to the
Military Recruitment Center in Philadelphia to "enlist" in the United
States military, so that our grandchildren would not kill or be
killed in Iraq. When we refused to leave without enlisting, we
were arrested and charged with "Defiant Trespass". On December 1, 2006,
Judge Deborah Griffin dismissed the charges against us, affirming
the legality of our non-violent protest. We continue to meet together
and resist war-making in Iraq and elsewhere.
The
Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia meets:
WHEN:
Alternate
Thursdays
NEXT
MEETING:
Thursday March 19 10 AM
to noon
RUTH BALTER'S HOME 250 S. 13TH STREET, APARTMENT 8 D PHILADELPHIA, PA (215) 545-4486 ALL ARE WELCOME! Click here to Contact Us or Make a
Contribution.
Contribution in honor of Sybil S. Cohen Call your Senator and Representative in Congress. Use the FREE phone number:
1-800-828-0498
Earlier we urged you to contact Congress people asking them not to back HR 362 and SR 580. However, we have learned that Brady, Murphy, Sestak, and Schwartz are pushing for these resolutions to pass. The resolutions call for an air, sea, and land blockade of Iran. Many feel this is a virtual declaration of war. Excellent site for polling results and election commentary. http://www.electoral-vote.com/ Click here for information about Philadelphia City Council. Obama's voting record for the 110th Congress You can find his voting record for the 110th Congress here: http://www.peace-action.org/PV08/documents/2007PeaceActionScorecard.pdf Cluster Bomb Ban: Obama Will Review U.S. Decision Not to Sign Treaty FCNL and the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs have been urging Obama to make such a statement. Add your voice. http://action.fcnl.org/r/23762/71436/ Keep Taking Action: The rest of the government needs to start supporting the cluster bomb treaty. Sign a petition to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urging the United States to renounce cluster bombs http://action.fcnl.org/r/23763/71436/ UPCOMING EVENTS SAVE THE DATES FOLLOWING: March 19th (marking the 6th year of the Iraq War), April 4th (the anniversary of MKL's speech at Riverside Church in NYC and his death a year later), and May 9th (the day before Mother's day). Various peace events being planned. April: Stay tuned. There will be a peace event at Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, and Haverford College. Contact: Zonnie Price at zonnie2@yahoo.com and please note that this is a NEW email address. April 26, 2009: Legs Against Arms yearly event will take place at La Salle. Save the date. Contact: Jean Haskell at jeanhaskell@comcast.net or call her at (215) 977-9382 (W), (215) 870-3886 (H). RECENT
AND CURRENT
ACTIVITIES
Knit to Thank a Vet Contact Lois Durso at: ldurso@mtholyoke.edu or call her at (215) 546-7467. The Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia is joining the Grannies of New York and Denver, Colorado (and others) in knitting "Stump Socks" for our Iraq war veterans. Three yarn shops in Granny areas have been contacted and have agreed to support the project: Rosie's Yarn Cellar at 2017 Locust Street here in Center City, The Tangled Web at 7900 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill, and The Ewe and I at 221 Haverford Ave. in Narbeth. All three have received a copy of the patterns and the information below and are looking forward to helping you when you come in. (Thanks to Granny Gloria Hoffman for speaking with The Tangled Web.) After hearing about the New York Grannies working on this project, samples were made and sent to the Head of the Prosthetics Division at the Philadelphia Veterans Medical Center to get their input on whether these would be useful and, if so, which sizes and colors would be most appreciated. The samples were given to amputees at the Center who were asked to use them and then share their comments with staff. We knew from both the New York and the Denver Grannies that the socks had to be able to be machine washed and dried; after a careful check of available yarns, the samples were made in knitting worsted weight (Plymouth) Encore and (Berroco) Comfort yarns. Response from people at the Prosthetics Department at the Veterans Medical Center indicated that these yarns were very comfortable and that the preferred colors would be brown, khaki, black, medium or dark blue, dark red, medium or dark green: basic sock colors. It was suggested that it would be best if knitters avoided using flamboyant colors. Subtle stripes are fine - if you feel up to it! We are asking those of you who knit - and/or have friends who knit - to visit the yarn shops mentioned. You can bring the pattern and information below with you however the shops have received copies of the patterns. Make your stump sock(s) and get them to me - I will collect them and get them to our contact at the Medical Center. They can be brought to a Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia meeting or sent to Lois Durso, 1326 Spruce Street #1803, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Patterns below are for three sizes - small, medium and large. A. Small Size* Yarn: Plymouth "Encore" and Berroco "Comfort" knitting worsted weight Needles: 16" round needles in sizes 6 and 8 and you will need size 8 double pointed needles for the decrease rows. With a 16" size 6 round (or double pointed needles), cast on 72 stitches and work in K2 P2 ribbing for 3 or 4". Switch to size 8 needle(s) and work in stockinette until piece measures 9" long, including ribbing. Decreases: 1. K6, K2 tog, K6, K2 tog around the row. 2. Knit one round. 3. K5, K2 tog, K5, K 2 tog across row. 4. K one round. Continue to decrease in like manner until 9 stitches remain. Weave stitches together. Weave in ends. B. Medium Size Same as for small but use size 8 needle(s) for the ribbing and size 10 needle (s) for the stockinette rows and decreases. C. Large Size Same as "Medium" above but start by casting on 80 stitches. Note: You will end up with 10 stitches to be woven together. N.B. Please note that the important thing is to work in multiples of 8 stitches. You can make a Small size by starting with 64 stitches and following the instructions for the B. Medium Size (using sizes 8 and 10 needles) above. You will end up with 8 stitches to weave together. Similarly, you can make an extra large by starting with 88 stitches. You will end up with 11 stitches to weave together. I was told that they would need twice as many in Medium, Large, and Extra large sizes than in the small size. If you can, please do wash and dry the sock(s) before mailing. *****It would be wonderful if you would enclose a note with each sock saying something like - "In thanks for the service you have given our country" or "Made with Love (or Made with Thanks) by Granny (your name) of the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia" or something brief so the recipient will understand that you appreciate the sacrifice he or she made.  Knitting
Grannies
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ongoing: Grannies work to ensure OPT OUT information reaches all parents of juniors and seniors in our public high schools : keep our students safe from military recruiters, Click here for more information. Saturday,
October 25, 2008: Grannies at Posters for the People Gala Expo
(marking the 75th Anniversary of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal)  Selling cookies "like your Granny used to make" above and singing in the "cabaret" below.   Saturday,
March 29, 2008: New Jerusalem and Granny Peace Brigade Anti-War
Rally and BBQ
  AMERICAN GRANNIES
EXPRESS OUTRAGE AFTER 5 YEARS OF WAR;
With knitting needles, with dirty linen
clotheslines, many with songs, and some with acts of civil
disobedience, grandmother groups across the United States in at least
20 cities expressed their frustration, their deep rage at the continued
occupation of Iraq. This was the granny way of commemorating the
end of five years since the bombing of Iraq on March 19, 2003.Grandmothers in 20 Cities Protest Occupation; Some Get Arrested The coordinated granny actions, initiated by the Granny Peace Brigade in New York City, were the latest ones demonstrating once again that the grandmothers of America have been in the forefront of the peace movement since Day One of the U.S. catastrophic invasion of a sovereign nation. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the protests was that carried out in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 17, where 10 members of the Atlanta Grandmothers for Peace were arrested and jailed for 10 hours when they attempted to enlist in the military at a recruiting center. Said Doris Benit, 80, one of the arrestees: "We believe our young people were sent to Iraq on a web of lies and deceit. We believe they are being used as cannon fodder in an illegal and unjustified war against a nation which posed no threat to us." Very whimsical Knit-Ins for Peace were held in New York City, Washington DC, Pittsburgh PA, and other cities. They were outdoor events which involved grandmothers knitting stump socks for amputee veterans. The New York Granny Peace Brigade valiantly knit in the rain for about two hours outside the Times Square recruiting center where they had been arrested and carted off to jail in 2005 for attempting to enlist, while calling out the numbers of dead and wounded from each state. The oldest granny, and perhaps the most vociferously protesting one there, was 93-year-old Marie Runyon. Part of the New York group, along with some members of the Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia and Maryland women, went to Washington, where they knit in rocking chairs outside the Veterans Administration, and when they had completed knitting a number of the stump covers, had a Veteran for Peace color guard hand them over to a VA official. Fifteen Pittsburgh grannies, the oldest of whom is 84, participated in their Knit-In at a recruiting station, as pictured below.  Another creative demonstration was that in Philadelphia, where the grannies hung a laundry line at City Hall and hung the dirty linen of the Bush administration on it -- each item of clothing inscribed with a plea to correct the many wrongs of the Government. The Philly grannies, like most of the other granny groups, sang anti-war songs during their protests.  Some of the dirty linen
hung at City Hall in Philadelphia PA March
19, 2008.
(photo by Cathy Clemens) In Orange County, NY, a group of grandmas met with State University students on campus in Middletown, and urged them to participate in the anti-war movement. In spite of pouring rain, there was a good turnout and the students were surprisingly receptive. The older women had a sense that young people are beginning to take more action in the struggle to end the war. 150 people stood on four corners in Sarasota, Florida. Eight stalwart grandmothers in Boston held a vigil on Boston Common in a drenching downpour. Other groups that participated were in Spokane; Minneapolis; Detroit; Albany NY; Monkato MN; San Francisco; Montpelier VT; San Jose CA; Bloomington IND; Portland, Maine; St. Augustine FL, and Denver.  (Raging Grannies in Tucson AZ
hold Knit-In for Peace on March 19, 2008)
Amazingly, a lot of the granny protests got wide media coverage in
their areas. This represents a kind of breakthrough, as it has
been difficult to get publicity for the many grandmother anti-war
activities conducted over the last five years since the war was
launched..At least two grandmothers got arrested when a group of protesters prevented entrance to the IRS in Washington DC -- Beverly Rice of the New York Granny Peace Brigade and Sue Gracey of the Boston Raging Grannies. When grandmothers are willing to risk arrest and jail, as so many of us old ladies do on a regular basis these days, you know this war is despised and must be ended. We grannies are not getting any younger and our energy is not what it was in our earlier days -- but we keep on keeping on knowing we will not be here forever and earnestly hoping that we are inspiring other and younger people to carry on our urgent quest when we no longer can. January 1 2008 Grannies Take Part in Philadelphia Mummers Parade  ________________________________________________________________________________
 Grannies Participate in October 27 National Mobilization to End the War in Iraq
 ____________________________________________________________________________ The New York Granny Chicks,
singing "Grannies, Let's Unite".
Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXVAsHtitW0 LOVE, GRANDMA: ACTIVISTS WRITE Grandmothers Against the War
announce the publication of LOVE GRANDMA: ACTIVISTS WRITE, a collection
of letters and poetry for grandchildren of all ages by women and men
committed to a better, peaceful world.
By david swanson NY Granny, Joan Wile has published a book called "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace." It is very much an account of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. ... Democrats.com blogs - http://www.democrats.com/blog In Phila, call for info: Marlena Santoyo 515 Glen Echo Road Philadelphia, PA 19119 Tel. (215)-247-4385 marlsan@cavtel.net _________________________________________________________________________________ A Message from James Zogby, an Arab American The Lie That Keeps the Occupation of Iraq Going: www.afterdowningstreet.org/liegoing From
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: Congressional
Leaders Continue To Play The War Funding Game While Americans In Iraq
Continue To Die
Veterans Break Silence on US War
Crimes: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/29/7368/
Price Tag for Iraq, Afghan Wars: Three Trillion Dollars: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/28/7342/ Find out more about counter-recruitment actions, click here: http://codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=48 April 2, 1917- First elected woman takes seat in U.S. Congress Making sense of $700 billion, By James Carroll OLD FAT NAKED WOMEN FOR PEACE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINStsPwgQ4 |