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Knitting grannies protest war
20/03/2008 13:56 - (SA)
Washington - They came, they saw, they knitted.
Sitting on fold-up chairs in windy weather just a block from the White House, about a dozen elderly women from the "Granny Peace Brigade" gathered on Wednesday to express their opposition to five years of war in Iraq - by knitting.
Needles in hand and balls of yarn in their laps, they cheerfully chatted to each other despite the blustery day, darning away as if it was a gathering of old friends in someone's living room.
"Is it OK if I crochet instead of knit?" asks one new arrival. Of course, says an organiser, sit down.
They had travelled from New York and as far as California to hold a "knit-in" across the street from the Department of Veteran Affairs, trying to call attention to the plight of wounded soldiers five years since the start of the Iraq war.
"They're not doing enough for these poor, wounded soldiers," said Carol Husten, 76, a grandmother of two from New York City's Brooklyn borough.
Residual limb covers
While anti-war protesters marched through Washington chanting, blocking traffic and banging drums, the grannies generated plenty of publicity by sitting politely as they darned "stump socks" for amputee veterans and baby blankets for Iraqi children.
"We're here making knitted socks, we call them stump socks. The euphemistic name is residual limb covers. They are covers for people who have had amputations," said Nydia Leaf, 75, also from New York.
"We want to call special attention to the veterans who are victimised through this war," she said.
The grannies' handiwork was to be delivered later in a box to Veteran Affairs officials.
Under a banner that read, "No Pre-emptive War," the knitters smiled for television cameras as they struggled to hear each other over the din of a mobile paper-shredding machine parked in front of an office building.
Husten, wearing a t-shirt under her coat saying "Arrest Cheney First," had an explanation for the grandmothers' role in the protest movement.
Several wars
"My country that I love is doing wrong. It's my job to let the world know that not all of us believe in what is happening.
"The grannies get good public relations because we're grannies. But we feel it's deserved because we have been through several wars," says Husten
The granny brigade boasted a great-grandmother in their ranks, Irene Lichtenstein, 83, who was patiently knitting a blue-and-white sleeve for an Iraqi child.
Gusts of wind made the knitting a little tricky. "I'm having trouble finding the stitches," said Lichtenstein, who has nine grandchildren and a six-month-old great-grandchild.
"I want to make sure there's a world left for my grandchildren and great-grandchild," she said.
She acknowledged the anti-war demonstrations tend not to draw big crowds, despite opinion polls that say a majority of Americans view the war as a mistake.
"I think the bad economy keeps people working. They don't have the time to demonstrate."
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