Old School

I have to say that I admire the courage of these women. Not only is this group of US Grandmothers vocalizing their desire to bring their family members home, but they're expressing the choice of going to take their place in the war. These women are testaments to the strong-willed, old-school protest faction which really has changed the world in extraordinary ways, and which also, right now, is under threat. It is an astonishing statement: if a 74-year old woman is willing to go to war in Iraq because she hates the war, and wants her friends and family to have a future; then we might consider listening.

Five members of the group -- which is associated with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom -- are due in court Monday to face trespassing charges after trying to enlist at a military recruitment center last week.

The group has protested every week for the last three years outside the recruitment center.

"We went in asking to be sent to Iraq so our kids and grandchildren can be sent home, but rather than listening to us, they called the police," said 74-year-old Betty Schroeder. "It was their place to tell us the qualifications, but they wouldn't even speak to us. They should've said, `You're too old."'

These women have also stood in a bold position, protesting the war with great consistency and awareness, since the war began in Iraq.

The history of the Women's League for Peace and Freedom has never been properly appreciated, though they have contributed the direction of American thought and perception. The US branch was founded in 1915 and has worked as an anti-fascist organization, suffrage advocacy group, and political struggles for universal equality and recognition of human rights.

It was the wisdom of our founding foremothers in 1915 that peace is not rooted only in treaties between great powers or a turning away of weapons alone, but can only flourish when it is also planted in the soil of justice, freedom, non-violence, opportunity and equality for all. They understood, and WILPF still organizes in the understanding, that all the problems that lead countries to domestic and international violence are all connected and all need to be solved in order to achieve sustainable peace.

This remarkable vision still guides us today as we face the challenges of the twenty-first century.

[Learn more about founder Jane Addams and the history of WILPF at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection archives.]

We've talked about the Crisis of American Masculinity before on this Internets Magazine [the ACQJREDC for short], and, let's be honest- a lot of this psychological damage to the American Male comes from highly intelligent, highly capable, effective, dynamic, wonderful women like these.

We, for one, support these women; we heel to those who have more understanding on the trials, difficulties, and experiences of Great War and the Great Costs of war, and why it's not worth it; and why it hasn't worked.