Day 1 with "GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE" on July 1, 2006 , Baltimore
In late June I receive information about this anti-war group named "GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE." People of this group mainly consisted of relatively old ladies who, as so many might think, would probably prefer to spend their daily lives sitting in rocking chairs, watching their grandchildren play. However, instead of enjoying their so-called twilight years, shall we say, they stood up from these chairs and decided to travel all over the USA to promote peace and stop the war. As participants of society, they could no longer keep closing their eyes to the terrible status quo in the world, and wanted to speak out for what they could still do for the world.
"Is this what we do to our woman?
Is this what we do to our own?
She gives us life, she gives us love
In return we hurt her."
"Is This What We Do" from "BLUEPRINT FOR A SUNRISE"
by Yoko Ono
So impressed by their acts to protest war, I joined these courageous ladies when they arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 1, 2006. As soon as they got out of the Granny Tour bus, they started singing their hymns, and many of them were holding Yoko Ono's "IMAGINE PEACE" posters and wearing the same name buttons on their shirts.
According to the grannies I talked to there, when Yoko noticed their mission in NY, she could not help but make her own contribution to this group by giving away her "IMAGINE PEACE" posters and buttons for free. These items donated by Yoko were then distributed to pedestrians on the streets by grannies to spread peace.
These ladies reminded me of what Yoko had written before, "There is a wish man in the corner of the world whose daily task is to send good-will waves to the world to clear the air." (from "QUESTIONNAIRE 1966 spring" in Grapefruit '71 by Yoko Ono) These ladies are definitely it!
(c) Text and photographs: Mikihiko Hori