Peace Grannies Invade Brooklyn's Target Store with Song and Protest Regarding War Toys

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/12/19

Peace Grannies Invade Brooklyn's Target Store with Song and Protest Regarding War Toys

by Joan Wile


Weary Brooklyn Christmas shoppers were unexpectedly entertained on Friday afternoon, Dec. 18, when a troupe of approximately 20 Granny Peace Brigade members and Raging Grannies sang revised Christmas carols condemning war toys at the TARGET Store in Flatbush's Atlantic Shopping Center simultaneously with a serious demonstration against the toxic playthings. This was the second protest in the grannies' recently-launched campaign called "NO MORE WAR TOYS, NO MORE WARS." The first action took place on December 4 at the Times Square Toys "R" Us store,


Although warned by the police earlier in the day to not attempt to conduct any mischief inside TARGET, the grannies nevertheless "invaded" the store at approximately 4 p.m. and quickly went to the toy department where they filled up four carts and some baskets with the most violent toys ever conceived.

The grannies then rode them down the escalator while unfurling many bright yellow banners imprinted with the black letters, "WAR IS NOT A GAME" and "NO MORE WAR TOYS." As they rode down to the next floor, they sang the famous John Lennon refrain, "Give Peace a Chance."



snip//

Once outside, on Flatbush Avenue, the grandmothers opened their special songbooks and sang a number of Christmas carols which the women have revised with lyrics pleading that people not buy war toys. For, instance:

HARK, THE HERALD ANGELS SING
HARK, THE HERALD ANGELS SING
NOW, AT LAST, LET FREEDOM RING.
PEACE ON EARTH AND MERCY MILD,
NATIONS MUST BE RECONCILED.
LET US PUT THE BOMBS AWA-A-Y!
BRING OUR TROOPS HOME, NOW, TODA-A-Y
WARS ARE NOT FOR TOYS, OR A GAME.
DON'T TEACH OUR KIDS TO KILL AND MAIM!
GIVE THE CHILDREN TOYS OF PEACE,
HELP THEM TO LEARN THAT WARS MUST CEASE.

Passersby stopped to enjoy the concert, and many told the grandmothers that they agreed with them. The protesters gave out hundreds of leaflets listing appropriate toys for parents to buy rather than the horrendous ones glorifying lethal battle.

Other members of the grannies' audience included the eight or so cops assigned to protect Brooklyn from the dangerous aged terrorists. The officers stood across from the women throughout their entire songfest trying without success to hide their delight at the grandmas' vocal offerings.

Said the oldest singer, Lillian Pollak, hale and active at 94, "We won't be here forever, and if we can't stop these deplorable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in our lifetime, we must at least do all within our power to convince our grandchildren that they must end the cycle of killing and waste we have been engaging in for far too long. We're determined to continue this struggle to bring back appropriate and healthy toys."

Peace Granny Joan Wile is the author of, "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies And Standing Up For Peace" (Citadel Press '08)

[gratuitous]

1. Good for them!

War isn't a game, and it's time we quit saturating our society with the notion that it is. Maybe if we visited on bomb on a U.S. population center for every 100 we drop on other countries we'd start to get the picture.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[MadBadger]

2. This is a joke right?

[babylonsister]

4. Nope. You've never heard of the peace grannies? They've been

around for awhile.

[MadBadger]

6. She's protesting those "vile" Star Wars toys???

To me that's just a tad bit ridiculous.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Damn bleeding heart liberals... PLUS 1000 n/t

[Maat]

5. Yahoo, Peace Grannies!

Let's live in peace.

[alp227]

7. that's frickin radical...I never thought I'd see liberal activism against violence in entertainment

making headlines. It's usually been the right-wing "traditional values" lobby behind that.

I don't favor real-life war, but I'd rather not allow interference in my hunger for action movies and TV.

[pleah]

8. I love Peace Grannies!

:yourock:

[Warren DeMontague]

9. Oh, Jesus fucking Christ.

I loved "Star Wars" as a kid, and I played with Army toys.

Grew up to be a pacifist hippie- who still enjoys 'violent' videogames like HALO on his XBOX.

Somehow I managed to distinguish between pixels & plastic, and real live human beings.

These people need to get a life. Like PETA, they're only alienating the folks they fantasize they are "converting".

[Odin2005]

16. They are no different from the anti-video game freaks.

[WildEyedLiberal]

10. Sorry, I'm not reccing a thread that implies Star Wars toys are "vile" and "warmongering"

This is the kind of ridiculous PC garbage that allows everyone to point and laugh at the left.

[malaise]

11. Love you Grannies

:yourock:

[proteus_lives]

12. Fuck that. Star Wars? Is she serious or just out of touch?

This kind of crap makes me want puke.

[FourScore]

13. LOVE THIS! n/t

[Odin2005]

14. What a load of BS! these people are no different than the anti-video game nuts.

The number of poster supporting this crap is disturbing. Do you nitwits think the strategy games I like should be banned because they have war in them?

[Cid_B]

17. The answer seems to be yes..

The hope would be to raise several successive generations that have all repressed their aggressive side and never learned to fight. The hope is that if you "breed out" the violent bits then war will stop forever. Of course the logic is that at that point no one else did the same thing and you promptly get your ass handed to you.

At this point I would think the same thing I would think if I saw Madonna "Oops, someone call the home. There's been a jailbreak and they forgot their meds."

(Madonna has no relevance to this post other than she is on my TV right now and disgusts me.)

[Odin2005]

18. They are nanny-statist blank-slaters that think they can supress agressive behavior.

That doesn't work, you can't get rid of it, only re-channel it into non-destructive behavior like competitive sports, martial arts, games, etc.

[Cid_B]

19. Also...

What the hell? So they just fill up some carts with random stuff and then leave it on the other side of the store so the 17 year old stocker just has to put it back on the shelves? Way to waste someone else's time.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

20. Idiots.

Not for protesting the war but for protesting the toys.

[Danger Mouse]

21. I like violent video games.

Love them in fact.
I played with plastic army men as a child.
I see nothing wrong with it.
Toys and video games are not the cause of violence in our society...not by a long shot.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

22. Good for the Grannies n/t

[woo me with science]

23. Dementia is so sad. nt

[vadawg]

24. +10000 especially protesting star wars WTF

as someone else said upthread this crazy notion that aggression can be curtailed by the toys we play with is nuts, even if you turned everyone in the US into a total pacifist then what you going to do about the billions of other people on the planet who would look at the new unarmed, unable and unwilling to fight US and laugh their asses off...