Andrea began the
show by getting Granny Ruth and Granny Gail to say a bit about the
raging Grannies. They explained that the original gaggle of Raging
Grannies was a Canadian Group, but the name had spread by word of
mouth. The Peninsula Raging Grannies had been founded after the
Afghanistan War started as a project of the local WILPF (Womens
International League for Peace and Freedom) Chapter. They have kept
going because the need for what they are doing is so great.
Granny Gail
explained that being grannies gives them a bit of freedom to "push the
envelope" that most demographics don't have. After all, what cop wants
to drag a grannie off to jail? What Police Department wants pictures of
their cops doing that kind of thing circulating? The grannies also work
to make their points through humor and music, so at the very least
people smile and enjoy listening.
Grannie Ruth explained that Raging
Grannies like to have fun with their costumes. Usually they start with
stuff they buy at thrift stores, because they don't want to be
responsible for any more slave labor. Then they decorate them up with
buttons, flowers, ribbons, and whatever else catches their eyes. The
general idea is to be outrageously noticable, another way they work to
get more attention to their causes.
Andrea showed off a couple of the
signs the Raging Grannies use. They explained that their anti war toy
campaign involved liberating as many post retail war toys as possible
to give them to artists as the raw material for making "peace
sculptures". After a bit of prodding from the host, Ruth explained that
the peace sculptures were big enough to absorb LOTS of war toys, and
that they are open to having parents abscond with their childrens war
toys for the cause.
In this spread
from The Progressive showing the world opposing war in the days leading
up to GW II, our Raging Grannies were the picture representing San
Francisco. Both Grannies were very proud to have been picked as "our
image on the world stage."
Then they
explained that Raging Grannies care about all the things Grannies
always care about, they just do it in a public way so everybody gets
the point. Then they sang Yankee Doodle, except with lyrics about how
bad the schools are now that the politicians have taken all of the
money to fight wars with.
How can anyone amount to anything without a decent education?
Then they sang the Marine Corps Anthem, only with words that made it clear they are fighting a stupid oil war.
