March 20, 2003
Do you know Granny D?
You know those syrupy “inspirational” daybooks your mom, or aunt, or Christian-camp counselor is so taken with? Don’t you wish there was some sort of truly inspirational reading matter for those of us who aren’t sleepwalking through life?
I’m much too cynical to write such a thing for you. And I’m afraid no one else has created such a thing — at least not on a daily basis — that will keep your hope alive in these darkening days. (I almost wrote “darkest of days,” but I am realistic; these are not the darkest of days yet. Not by far.)
I do have a little secret, however, for buoying my own sagging spirit as I watch my beloved country fall to the forces of aggression and fear. It’s not a secret I wish to keep — and if you find this offering as valuable and soul-lifting and life-affirming as I do, then I beg of you to pass the URL around.
Allow me to introduce you to Granny D.
Granny D (a.k.a. Doris Rollins Haddock) is 93 years old. She has been an activist for peace since long before you or I were born.
On January 1, 1999, she took a walk. A long walk. At 89 years old, she left Pasadena, California, on a solo demonstration on the issue of campaign finance reform.
She walked ten miles a day for the next 14 months, bearing down even through a blizzard in the Appalachian Range, until she reached Washington, D.C.
Granny D has made more speeches, more eloquently, than you or I could ever aspire to. Listening to or reading Granny D’s words is like sitting down with your grandmother (or great-grandmother) to be blessed by the keen knowledge and priceless wisdom gained only through nearly a century of living, straight from a heart whose matter is composed of nothing but pure love, peace, and respect for humanity.
But make no mistake — there’s nothing flowery or idealistic about Granny D. At 93, she is sharper than I was at 20, and more insightful, realistic, and pragmatic than the entire Democratic Leadership Council. (On second thought, my cat is more insightful, realistic, and pragmatic than the entire Democratic Leadership Council — but never mind, you get the point.)
Read her words. Bookmark her site. Tell your peace-loving friends about her.
Trust me: Granny D will breathe life into your flagging spirit, and inspire you to carry on the nonviolent quest for peace.*
A few of my special favorites:
Will We Represent Love in the World? Aren’t we privileged to live in a time when everything is at stake, and when our efforts make a difference in the eternal contest between the forces of light and shadow, between togetherness and division? Between justice and exploitation? Oh, be joyful that you are a warrior in this great time!
The Takeover Artists. If we Americans are split into two meaningful camps, it is not conservative versus liberal. The two camps are these: the politically awake and the hypnotized — hypnotized by television and other mass media, whose overpaid Svengalis dangle the swinging medallions of packaged candidates and oft-told lies.
Like a Tree Standing By the Water. [W]e must each in our own creative ways give testimony to who we are, that we have the courage of our Constitution to live free on our garden Earth as brothers and sisters — to live free or die; That we are members of the human community and that we stand for love; That for the dead we light candles, not fuses; That against death and exploitation and the lie of projected evil, we link our arms; That we shall not, we shall not be moved. Just like a tree that’s standing by the water, we shall not be moved.
The Monster at the Door (pre-911!). It is nothing for raw power to thumb its nose at the interests of world peace or the earth’s environment for the sake of corporate expansion and political power. It is nothing for raw power to mistake the flowering of political ideas and dissent in democracy’s garden as a dangerous tangle of garden plots and disloyalties. It can happen quickly. It can happen in America. Open your eyes.
* Isn’t it odd that I should feel compelled to qualify the phrase “quest for peace” with the word “nonviolent”? I suppose it is a safety mechanism so that there is no confusion between true peace, and the quest for psuedo-”peace” through the armed aggression we are witnessing on our televisions today.
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