100+ GRANNIES TO VISIT 100 SENATORS;
CONG. DENNIS KUCINICH TO HOST GRANNY PRESS CONFERENCE
Plans are proceeding for the GRANNY
PEACE
BRIGADE
Descent on the Senate January 18, at which time at least 150 grandmothers
will visit all 100 United States Senators in their Washington offices to
demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. It is anticipated that
as many as 200 people will ultimately comprise the group on the18th. To
date, grandmothers from 19 states across the country all the way to
California have committed to the action, and many more are expected
to join in as the days lead up to the event. So far in addition,
approximately 10 states are arranging to visit their Senators' offices
within their states on the same day.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio) will host the Grannies' press
conference in the Rayburn Building at 9 A.M. on Jannuary 18. The
grandmothers endorse his plan for getting out of Iraq and have included it
in their list of demands for peace.
The action was initiated by the New York GRANNY
PEACE
BRIGADE,
the group of 18 grandmothers arrested and jailed on October 17, 2005, when
they tried to enlist in the armed services at Times Square to replace
America's grandchildren. They are being joined by their sister group, the
GRANNY
PEACE
BRIGADE
Philadelphia, who were arrested on June 28, 2006, when they also attempted
to enlist.
The grandmothers, many of them in their 80s and 90s, are undertaking this
arduous lobbying expedition out of urgent concern that the new Congress
not back off, as they seem to be doing, from the demand of the public who
elected them to end the war immediately. As one of the oldest of the
grannies, Molly Klopot, 87, puts it: "We're the elders and our
responsibility as elders is to leave this world for our grandchildren a
better place than we found it. If we allow this catastrophic war to
continue, we will certainly be leaving it a far
worse place."
The Grandmothers have very specific suggestions they will present, to
wit:
 |
Bring troops home
starting now and all home by June 2007. |
|
Stop funds for
the war -- there is enough money in the pipeline to bring the troops home
safely. Congress has the power of the purse and must use it.
|
|
No permanent
bases in Iraq. |
|
People of Iraq
must control all of Iraq's resources -- no U.S. pressure to privatize
Iraq's oil company. |
|
Assist in the
restoration of civil society in Iraq for all sectors: housing, education,
medical care, legal and administrative infrastructure, and the arts.
|
|
Investigate the
lies that launched the war and the conduct of the war. |
|
Repeal the
Military Commissions Act. Restore the writ of habeas corpus.
|
|
Adhere to the
Geneva Conventions and the conventions of international law.
|
|
Close Guantánamo.
|
|
Repeal the civil
rights violations of the Patriot Act. |
|
End the practice
of extraordinary rendition. |
|
No preemptive
war. |
|
Call for
impeachment proceedings. |
The January 18
Descent on the Senate comes almost immediately on the heels of the
Grandmothers Vigil held on New Year's Day at Rockefeller Center on the
occasion of the 3,000 GI fatalities milestone having been reached the day
before. One hundred people stood for an hour in a silent vigil while some
read the names of the dead from the tri-state area who succumbed in 2006.
They then walked with lit candles to the Times Square Recruiting Center
where they continued to read names. There was extensive television and
radio coverage of the solemn event.
The
GRANNY
PEACE
BRIGADE
press conference in Washington will be held at 9:00 AM on Thursday,
January 18, in the Rayburn Building, under the auspices of Cong. Kucinich,
room number to be announced shortly, after which the grandmothers will
begin their lobbying.
