[WCUSP] Fwd: Annapolis from Phyllis Yingling/Baltimore

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Psyingling at aol.com <Psyingling at aol.com>
Date: Nov 28, 2007 11:00 AM
Subject: Annapolis
To: executivedir at wilpf.org, funforlife1 at mac.com, kzaidan at wilpf.org,
odilehh at gmail.com



Hi, All,
I just want to let you know that WILPF was seen among the "protestors"
at the Annapolis peace talks.  Odile, you inspired me.  Since the time
and info about the conference was so up in the air and we were away
over the Thanksgiving weekend, we here in Baltimore had not organized
anything.  But after speaking with Odile and she asked were we going
to be there....I thought, Sure.  We are only 25 miles away.  We should
be.  So I made some phone calls and a few WIB, Baltimore were
interested, so we altogether had five of us.  We vigiled for awhile as
WIB (got hassled a bit by local police because we weren't standing in
the place designated for demonstrators) but two of us Catonsville
WILPF ,Ellen Tharp, and I went to the designated place....just outside
the main gate of the US Naval Academy and mingled with the other
demonstrators.....maybe 200 altogether.  I was "wearing" our new
banner that spells out Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom, Catonsville,MD with our logo.  I had it rigged with a ribbon
so it fit over my head.....so it was very easy for all to see.  Ellen
was carrying a sign that said "Work for Peace and Justice for ALL).
We had lots of opportunity to dialogue and tell about WILPF's work in
Israel/Palestine (though most of the other demonstrators insisted
there was NO such nation as Palestine.)   And they kept referring to
all those ARABs, as if their blood brothers and sisters on the other
side of the wall were not also direct descendants of Abraham through
Ishmael.
I tried not to get into the geography and history too much but
emphasized WILPF's long standing insistence that negotiation and peace
talks were better than fighting and violence....not a popular idea
among most of the other demonstrators.   I didn't see any
pro-Palestinians there....though some other folks said they did see a
small group of about five young men representing the Palestinian point
of view.  There were a number of Jewish groups there, Hasidim in their
long black coats and curls with Anti-Zionist banners, Jews for Jesus,
and Zionist Christians (they scare me with their longing for the end
of the world) and a number of pro-Israel groups with huge banners.
They carried Israeli flags and danced the Ho rah and one young man
blowing the Shofar (sp?)  As the county, state, and federal police
looked on everyone was pretty friendly.  A number of people asked
about my banner and I was happy to talk with them.  Most felt...and
some argued vociferously...that peace could never work and that if
these talks succeeded the ARABS would take over the whole territory.
We had very satisfying discussions with some women (Americans) who
never heard of the Coalition of Women for Peace or Rabbis for Justice.
 Maybe they will check them out.  Maybe not.  Two young college aged
boys who'd spent a year in Israel hated the wall and much of what was
happening there, but felt it was all necessary for "Security". I have
hopes for them. Two men who engaged us in conversation were pretty
nasty and wouldn't stop spouting their anti-arab garbage....and one
later, when a Baltimore SUN reporter was talking with us....yelled,"
Don't listen to her, she's mentally ill".   Otherwise, it was a
pleasant day.  I think no one was converted one way or the other, but
WILPF was there and a lot of people who had never heard of us at least
saw the banner.  We did get interviewed by a polite young woman
reporter from the SUN who took brochures we had from WILPF as well as
WIB.  She asked for our ages (76 and 87) and I quipped that I thought
that was illegal, but we gave them anyway.  Unfortunately, she didn't
include anything we said in her article that I read in today's SUN,
and our WIB friends who had told the reporters about their run-in with
the police and had their pictures taken, didn't get in either.   There
were two women form Code Pink (one wearing a big Condi mask) who got
mentioned.  They came up to us, by the way, and said they were glad to
see us there and we made happy talk with our peace colleagues.

There had been an interfaith (all three represented) service in a
church the night before and there was another gathering of peace
people in a church from 3 -5 that afternoon....but we had to leave.
But, except for the five of us and two Code Pink women and two men who
were with them....the "peace community" was pretty much absent.
Thanks, Odile, for spurring me on.

It wasn't much, but we do what we can.     Peace, Phyllis





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