Date Posted:Wednesday, February 15, 10:17:08am Author: BJ Subject: Grandmothers try to enlist in military as statement against carnage in Iraq ...
What I think is funny about the whole thing is the recruiters hid from the grandmothers behind security guards and police, so much for "The Few and the Brave'.
COLONIE A small group of grandmothers protested at the U.S. military recruitment office in Colonie Center Tuesday afternoon after they were barred from entering the office to enlist as a statement against the Iraq War.
The dozen women, along with about 40 supporters, walked into the mall a few at a time and met in front of the second-floor recruitment office. When they arrived, they found the door locked and several mall security guards and Colonie police officers waiting for them. A few recruiting officers stared from behind the glass office door, but refused to come out.
Each of the women had brought typed statements explaining that they wanted to enlist to take the place of young people to keep them from being killed or maimed.
When a security guard repeatedly asked the women and their supporters to leave, Ann Kistler, 56, of Albany, repeated that the women were just there to enlist. After a few minutes, the crowd started chanting and singing John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Give Peace a Chance" as Colonie police officers argued with organizer Pat Beetle.
Officials refused to take the women's statements.
About five minutes later, the protestors left the mall.
The Valentine's Day protest coincided with several others around the country. They're being organized in the spirit of the Raging Grannies protest in Tucson, Ariz., last summer and the Grannies for Peace protest in New York City in October, during which several women were arrested.
