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P4PEACE II

Women Run Anti-War Ads in Iraq
    t r u t h o u t | Press Release

    Wednesday 17 May 2006

    Venice, California - May 15 - CODEPINK: Women for Peace took out full-page ads in 8 Iraqi newspapers today calling on Americans and Iraqi to come together to end the occupation of Iraq. The newspapers are As-sabah Al-Jadid, At-Taakhi, Al-Manar, Al-Haqaeq, Al-Iraq Al-Yaom, As-Syadah, Al-Adalah and Ash-Shahed. They are printed on line at:

Two major newspapers, Azzaman and the U.S.-supported As-Sabah, refused to run the ad.

    The ad calls on Americans and Iraqis to work together to stop the bloodshed and bring the US troops home. "We have seen in poll after poll that the majority of Americans and Iraqis want the US troops to return home. Even the majority of US troops (72%) think they should return by the end of this year. It is time for the politicians in both countries to listen to us, the people," the ad says. The ad is linked to a website, in Arabic, where Iraqis can sign a petition and communicate directly with Americans, either by internet or through the mail. To view the website, go to www.esteklal.org.

    "We are thrilled by the feedback we are getting," says Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CODEPINK, a women's peace group that sponsored the ads. "The newspapers are reporting that they are swamped with calls from readers saying that this ad gives them hope and makes them realize there are Americans who support their desires to be free from foreign occupation. We must find ways to work together to end the bloodshed."
read origional add pdfs here:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051706P.shtml

    The ads are paid for by hundreds of CODEPINK supporters from around the country, including Annie Nelson, wife of renowned singer/songwriter Willie Nelson. "I have been heartbroken by all the death and destruction from this war in Iraq, and I am delighted to have a way to extend my hand in friendship to Iraqi mothers and their families," says Mrs. Nelson.

    The ads follow a weekend 24-hour peace vigil at the White House organized by CODEPINK to commemorate Mothers Day, May 14. The vigil included peace mom Cindy Sheehan, actress Susan Sarandon, comedian Dick Gregory, doctor/clown Patch Adams, and women from Iraq and Iran. It featured a concert, strategy workshops on grassroots organizing and national campaigns, an interfaith gathering, and writing and reading letters to Laura Bush urging her to pressure her husband to end the war. For more information, see www.codepinkalert.org.

BLESSINGS + SWEET PRAYERS OF PEACELOVE LADIES

Tuesday, May 16th, 2006
The Granny Trek for Peace

REPORT #4 FROM GRANDMA JOAN

By Joan Wile, Founder/Director, Grandmothers Against the War, and proud Granny Jailbird

We old dames are at it again. The Granny Peace Brigade, the coalition of grandmothers who got arrested and jailed when trying to enlist at the Times Square Recruiting Center last October 17, is beginning to make plans to walk from New York City to Washington DC early this summer beginning around June 24. Now that we have been acquitted of the crime of disorderly conduct after a six-day trial, we are ready and able to continue our urgent struggle to stop this horror in Iraq.

The plan is to arrive in the capitol city on July 4th, where we want to create fireworks to out-dazzle the traditional ones. Thus far, we have earmarked stops in Newark NJ; Princeton (where we are to be honored with the PATRIOTS FOR PEACE AWARD); Trenton; Philadelphia; Wilmington; Baltimore; Chevy Chase, MD and then on to DC. We will begin at the scene of our crime (that wasn't) at the Recruiting Station in Times Square, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, then the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island where we hope to give Congressman Guy Fossella a hard time about his continued gung-ho support of the Iraq occupation.

Although we are still in the embryo stage of planning, we have decided that our main focus will be Congressmen and women. We'll endeavor to see those en route who we feel need a little grandmotherly scolding for being so willing to send our kids and grandkids to die and be grievously wounded in an unwarranted, unjustified and illegal war.

We also hope to have a growing trail of supporters to walk with us and good people to rally with us and give us accommodations at our destinations. Our beloved attorney, Norman Siegel, the great civil liberties lawyer, will walk with us throughout the trip, and we will produce some other surprise notables to join us, as well.

If you're looking for a Norman Rockwell group of apple-cheeked, apron-clad, cookie-baking grannies sitting around in their rockers, forget it. Yes, we rock, but not the way you're thinking! We are New York City career women, for the most part, an interesting and eclectic bunch if I do say so myself.

We range in age from almost 60 to 91. Our eldest, Marie Runyon, is as feisty as they come, having rankled the New York State Assembly when she served a term there. But, she's also famous for having held off Columbia University for about 40 years from tearing down the Columbia-owned building she lives in to make way for faculty housing. She outlasted and outsmarted them, even though they let the building crumble apart around her, and all other tenants had fled, until they finally gave up three years ago and renovated the whole place, giving Marie some extra space in the bargain at no increase in rent. The final symbol of Marie's victory is the fact the building has a plaque on its newly refurbished exterior inscribed with the words, MARIE RUNYON COURT. Marie, though nearly blind and deaf, has no intention of sitting out the walk or anything else the Granny Peace Brigade undertakes. "That Texas village idiot has got to start listening to his elders," says Marie in explaining her unstoppable resolve.

Another one of our accomplished and exceptional Brigade members is well-known actress and playwright Vinie Burrows, with a distinguished career On and Off Broadway beginning with her appearance as a child on stage with Helen Hayes. Vinie, described by Clive Barnes as "one of the reigning divas of the Black theatre," though a great-grandmother is still a busy working actress. She just closed in a Manhattan production of "HECUBA" and is currently in Minneapolis rehearsing an avant garde play entitled "PHOENIX FABRIK." Vinie is known famously for the many one-woman shows she wrote for herself produced on Broadway. In addition, Vinie is a United Nations Permanent Representative for the Women's International Democratic Federation.

Others among us are a pediatrician, a psychotherapist, a singer-lyricist-composer-musician (me), an architect, an artist, a nurse, social workers, a professor and other educators.

We are many things, we grannies, but none of us is rich. We hope to get funding from Progressive groups to help defray the expenses of the trip. We also are looking for volunteers to provide transportation for the highway stretches when some of the older ladies will need to take a break from the hike. A bus would be nice, and maybe a couple of vans. We also welcome offers of housing in the aforementioned cities and, above all, want people to come out to see us when we arrive. [To get in touch with the Granny Peace Brigade, drop the Must Read a line.]

We intend to show that Granny Power is a force to be reckoned with. We intend to demonstrate that the people are rising up to defeat the catastrophic policies of the Bush administration. We intend to prove that older people have a vital role to play in life, and that they must. We intend to bring our young people home from Iraq in one piece. We intend to take back our country.

To quote partly from my song, "I'VE GOT TO TAKE BACK MY COUNTRY":

THE KIDS ARE DYING FAR AWAY IN FOREIGN LANDS I MUST KEEP ON TRYING, THEIR LIVES ARE IN MY HANDS

IN THE TIME THAT'S LEFT TO ME I'LL CONTINUE TO STRIVE TO TAKE BACK MY COUNTRY AS LONG AS I'M ALIVE