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On Monday, February 17th, Grannies for Peace turned out in force for our annual Valentine’s Vigil. The vigil was postponed from the 14th as over 20 inches of Capital Region snow that day underscored grannies’ message that current climate extremes signal a critical global threat – with the US Pentagon the world’s #1 fossil fuel user. There were 34 of us in all – grannies, grandchildren thanks to Dot Richards and Maureen Aumand, other Women Against War members and even a group proclaiming itself The Men’s Auxiliary of Grannies for Peace!
Theme of our demonstration
We vigiled at the corners of Wolf Road and Central Avenue past which thousands of cars pass each hour. Lots of drivers honked approval as they read our large banners and signs.
Thanks to Kim Kennedy for making multiple War Causes Climate Change signs and to Maureen Aumand for getting two new large weather-proof banners printed: Protect Mother Earth from Climate Destruction and Pentagon =s World’s Largest Fossil Fuel User.
And thanks to all the grannies who lettered additional signs at our props-making meeting. We are excited to have all these props to bring this message to the Tulip Festival on Mother’s Day weekend and to Earth Day and other environmental events this spring. It’s clear that most people are surprised to learn that the Pentagon is the world’s largest institutional source of greenhouse gases.
We got good media coverage. Nice photos in the front section of The Times Union and on-line , nice footage and good interview with Barb Cooley on Channel 6 and an article in Roshni, the bi-lingual news magazine from the Capital Region for the South Asian Community.
Thanks to our wonderful photographer, granny Mabel Leon , we have a treasure trove of photos of the event – all in this articlel are Mabel’s, and there are more on Women Against War’s Waging Peace blog on the Times Union website. Click on all these links to enjoy more reports on the event.
Barb Cooley as co-coordinator was magnificent in organizing all the props and sharing wisdom as we coped with the local climate crisis. We were happy to learn that it could work to reschedule our event when the weather was truly terrible. So, for the future we will be able to avoid “snow or no snow” advance announcements!
