Go, Grannies, Go!

Two great news items for peace activists came from the Pacific Northwest this past weekend, just as I was preparing to attend a Veteran's Day event organized by the Granny Peace Brigade. One story, shared around our peace community, was that a judge in Washington State had struck a major blow against the U.S. military's effort to re-try courageous Lt. Ehren Watada. Several months after a victory that came through a mis-trial in Watada's initial court martial case, this judge stated that a military judge had acted "irrationally, irresponsibly, and precipitately," and abused his "discretion." It was a powerful blow against the government's efforts!

Our good friends at the Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice joined in the nationwide celebration of this legal victory by dedicating their weekly peace vigil to Lt. Watada. A photo of their November 10th vigil in Nanuet, NY currently appears atop the home page of the "Thank You Lt. Watada" website.

The second piece of news, far lesser known, was that a group of peace activists had managed to prevent a shipment of military material from leaving the Port of Olympia. An email written Evergreen State College Professor Zoltan Grossman, a geographer and leader in the international movement to identify U.S. foreign military base locations (including "cooperative security locations" and secret sites), described this exciting story. Grossman said that 50 members of Olympia Port Militarization Resistance sat down at the Port's gate and prevented two tractor trailer trucks, one of which carried two Stryker combat vehicles and the other was filled with military cargo. Through this nonviolent action, the trucks were forced to return inside their gate, and 37 individuals were arrested for their civil disobedience. Significantly, Grossman's story describes a positive response from soldiers, both vocally and visually.

Grossman's work and research played a major role in the development of a world map of military bases across the world, a version of which was developed by Vassar College Professor Brian McAdoo and staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, as part of the Winter 2007 "Closing Bases: Supporting Communities" issue of Fellowship magazine. The magazine was published in support of the development of an international network of activists working to close these bases -- which was the purpose for the event organized by the Granny Peace Brigade in downtown Manhattan this past Sunday afternoon.

These magnificent "raging grannies" held a teach-in on the growing international campaign to close U.S. military bases around the world -- read a blog entry about it by FOR's NYC local group convenor Kate Anne Brennan by clicking here.