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Happy Anniversary
Author: BobR    Date: 03/19/2008 12:15:07

Today is our anniversary. It's been 5 years! It started out with a real bang, but lately, things have been difficult. I guess that's to be expected. I wonder though, how much longer we can keep this going.

Personal relationship? No, I'm talking of course about the war in Iraq. It was 5 years ago today that Shock & Awe™ began. Five long years of blood and carnage and waste, based on trumped up evidence, cherry-picked intelligence and outright lies. Five long long years of human rights abuses, and Consitutional liberties being trampled, and accusations of treason against those who dared speak out against it.

I had wanted to write about hope for the future. Obama gave an amazing speech yesterday about moving beyond the racial divides that separate us, and moving towards understanding and economic justice. I was a little nervous doing so because SensiScholar (one of our friends at UNN) wrote this amazing blog in response. I really didn't think I could add anything to that, neither factually nor spiritually.

This morning, however, I got an email that described how the Atlanta Grandmothers For Peace got arrested for protesting at a military recruitment station that is about a mile and a half from our house. The story in the AJC notes:
Not many criminals want their names spelled right when booked into jail.

But then Ann Mauney, 65, of Lake Claire and her nine partners in crime aren't most criminals.

First, they are older women; mostly grandmothers, who normally would never have their mugshots taken.

And, second they wanted to be arrested.

The Atlanta Police arrested the women, ages 57 to 80, for criminal trespass on Monday after they converged on the Army recruiting office off of Ponce de Leon in Midtown. The women said they were there to enlist and refused to leave when they were rejected.

They called themselves "Grandmothers for Peace," a play off "Veterans for Peace," whose members will lead a larger protest Wednesday back to the Army recruiting station at the Midtown Place Shopping Center to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

There is a link to the pictures there, and as I looked at them I realized I had met most of them at other anti-war demonstrations and functions. It made me feel a little ashamed. While I sit her pontificating from the comfort of my chair, there are women almost the age of my mother willfully putting themselves on the line. There are still soldiers in Iraq putting their lives on the line.

Today is the 5th anniversary of our invasion and occupation of a soverign nation. There will be protests all over the country. Find a protest or vigil near you. Step out of your comfort zone and make your voice be heard.

See you in the streets.

 

106 comments (Latest Comment: 03/20/2008 02:56:24 by livingonli)
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