Grannies en route to the slammer in October 2005. (grandmothersforpeace.org)

Civil disobedience isn’t just for the young–it’s also for the young at heart.

Last June, eleven angry grannies were taken into custody by Philadelphia police after the women asked army recruiters to let them enlist in the Iraq War in place of the soldiers. When asked to leave, the women refused and were charged with trespassing.

And just last month, the grannies appeared in court and got those charges repealed–to the delight of geriatric comrades and encouraging anti-war onlookers who bore hand painted banners shouting “Let my grannies go!” and shirts with “We will not be silent” splashed across the front.

All eleven women are part of the Philadelphia chapter of the Grandmothers for Peace Brigade , an organization first launched by New York grannies on behalf of children and grandchildren serving in the Iraq War.

After storming army recruiting offices in Philadelphia, these women knew the consequences they might face. In fact, three of the eleven had already been jailed in 2004 after protesting the Iraq War in front of the Philadelphia federal courthouse.

In particular, Lillian Willoughby — the 91 year-old matriarch of the bunch — has been jailed multiple times for translating her Quaker ideals into peaceful activism. And neither her wheelchair nor her age has stopped her. Willoughby has been instrumental in bringing a spirit of protest to the City of Brotherly Love — ever since 1957 while speaking out against American nuclear might.

Not only have these grannies challenged the age barriers in military service. They’ve also suggested the implicit inequality in a military draft that spares mothers and daughters but takes fathers and sons. And often, it’s the duty of those who stay behind to protest.

At Penn, it’s good to know that we’ve joined the rest of the nation in the push for peace. On campus, faculty and student mobilization against the war has been visually prominent with the memorial markers formerly strewn over College Green. And perhaps, like Lillian Willoughby, who began her activist career half a century ago, we can later become grannies (or grandpas) who rise to the challenge even after our youths.

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