After 460 Weeks of Protests, the Grannies Call It a Day

cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com ^ | 11-29-12 | Clyde Haberman

[smokingfrog]

Sometimes the news is what didn’t happen. It is worth noting, then, that Joan Wile and her cadre of graying activists did not stand curbside on Fifth Avenue late Wednesday afternoon in protest against America’s wars.

In mid-November, after an almost-unbroken run of Wednesday vigils going back nearly nine years, this group, known as Grandmothers Against the War, decided to call it a day.

What had gotten them started, the war in Iraq, was over. While the other war, in Afghanistan, does go on, it draws ever scanter attention. That was the case even in the presidential campaign. (Headline in The Onion two weeks ago: “Nation Horrified to Learn About War in Afghanistan While Reading Up on Petraeus Sex Scandal.”) By now, Ms. Wile said, President Obama “doesn’t need us to urge him” to speed up the withdrawal of American forces.

Besides, interests changed within her ranks. Some of her fellow grannies, as these women in their 70s, 80s and even 90s call themselves, turned to the Occupy movement. Others have focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[pepsionice]

Grannies without lives.

[kristinn]

Thanks for posting. More evidence the ‘antiwar’ protests were all about leftist politics and not ‘war.’

[dangerdoc]

Peacnics don't enjoy protesting communist leaders.

[JZoback]

I wonder how many are actual grannies and not really just spinsters relics from the 60’s who never had kids because of the feminist movement....or just killed their spawn...by abortion...