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A granny's anti-war song

Posted by Tiglath (Guest) davidchibo@hotmail.com - Saturday, September 4 2004, 12:20:14 (CEST) from Australia - Windows XP - Internet Explorer Website: Website title:

A granny's anti-war song August 30, 2004, 10:35 PM EDT Joan Wile, actress, songwriter and activist, sits down at the keyboard in her apartment near Lincoln Center and plays her latest composition "The Grandma Anti-War Song." Grandmas, get off your tush We've got to get rid of Bush Let's go after that lying louse And kick him out of our White House. Wile is a 73-year-old granny. She has four grandchildren and is the founder of Grandmothers Against the War, which held its first vigil outside Rockefeller Center in January. I met up with her and her longtime companion and former clarinetist, Herb Hecsh, 78, at their condo on West End Avenue yesterday. She was adjusting the body count of American soldiers killed in Iraq to 973. She doesn't look forward to writing down 1,000. She bears no resemblance to the anarchists or bomb throwers we have been warned about in the run-up to the Republican National Convention. For weeks the city was bombarded with disaster scenarios from the police and the press. It was nothing more than pre-emptive crowd control and the peaceful march past Madison Square Garden Sunday was considered a win for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Leslie Cagan, a leader of United for Peace and Justice. Joan Wile and her grannies marched up Seventh Avenue to the Garden Sunday under a broiling sun, marveling at the "clever" and mostly homemade signs carried by the protesters. For the rest of this week, for an hour each night starting at 4:30 p.m., she will be at Rockefeller Center with the rest of her grannies, holding up an anti-war banner. It's where she has been every week since January because she is a long-distance runner and she is convinced to her bone that the re-election of President George W. Bush will be a disaster for the country. She is consumed with her peace vigils. A few months ago she mailed a photo taken from a newspaper showing a young Iraqi boy whose entire family had been killed and who was himself missing his arms. "I sent it to Sen. Hillary Clinton's office here," Wile said yesterday, "but I never got an answer from her." She doesn't mind the razzing she gets from passersby at Rockefeller Center. "Most people give us a thumbs up or a V-sign or even clap their hands," she said. Once in a while it gets rough when the argument gets heated. Hecsh says he is more worried this week "because there are a lot more Republicans here." Wile's group includes a retired judge, lawyers and a former newspaper editor. Her grannies number about two dozen and they are augmented at times by visitors from other groups opposed to the war. She said the idea of organizing grandmothers came to her one night. "The word grandmother popped into my mind," she said, "and it is such a magical word. I mean no one fights with their grandmothers." It got my attention during a bus ride down Fifth Avenue last week. The word grandmother on one of the cardboard placards galvanized me. I got off the bus and found Wile and her old friend Betsey Wade, who was a big talent at The New York Times, and Dick Starkey, who once worked for Gov. Mario Cuomo. Yesterday, she was back in her West Side condo, sitting at the keyboard. Grandmas, let's unite While we are still upright Let's remove that parasite Watch out, we've just begun to fight! --------------------- - BACK TO INDEX - REPLY - QUOTE - EDIT - DELETE -

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