Day 3 with the "GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE" on July 4, 2006, Independence Day, and the last day of their DC trip at Lincoln Memorial.
There was a big parade going on one of DC's most prominent streets, Constitution Avenue, to celebrate Independence Day. The street was lined with thousands of people.
The reason why grannies chose to come to DC on Independence Day was to make a statement here at the Capitol by getting people to realize what the USA is doing in Iraq under the name of assisting the independence of that country, while the military is killing civiliansf freedom.
In the meantime, we gathered at Lincoln Memorial, and the grannies found a shady spot under the hot sun, to comfort the lost souls by reading aloud the names of people who died in the Iraq War.
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When the grannies left the Lincoln Memorial, which is next to the Vietnam Memorial, they encountered many Vietnam war veterans who were on their way to their own buses after the parade had finished. It was like a hair-trigger explosion, and once they realized who these ladies were, lots of veterans verbally attacked the grannies. This was a confrontation of two types of people in this world: war industry people vs. peace industry people. Fortunately, no one got hurt, and each group parted their own ways.
Before the grannies left DC, I took snapshots of them in front of their tour bus. On the bus windows, I noticed that there were many "IMAGINE PEACE" posters. Was their demonstration worth conducting? Definitely, yes. We may not see the effects of their work now; however, like Yoko has written, "when a star blinks, we only conceive it 2,000 years after it's actually blinked. And that they say that love we feel now is the love that's been conceived by somebody 2,000 years ago, or that somebody in the corner of the world is sending love vibrations just to keep us in love, etc." (Film Script No. 9 "Don't Worry Love" by Yoko Ono) Let's cover this world with more love. So when we come back to this earth 2,000 years later by being born again, we can enjoy the peace we were now trying to create for the world.
"IMAGINE PEACE!
You may think, 'well, how we are going to
get one billion people to think peace?'
Because if one billion people in the world
think peace, we will get peace.
Remember each one of us has
the power to change the world.
Power works in mysterious ways.
You don't have to do much.
Visualize the domino effect.
Just start thinking peace.
The message will circulate
faster than you think.
It's time for action.
And the action is peace.
Spread the word.
Spread peace.
As my husband and partner
John Lennon said,
'Imagine all the people living life in peace.'"
by Yoko Ono
At the 2006 Olympics Opening Ceremony
Turin, Italy
(c) Text and photographs: Mikihiko Hori