[WCUSP] [Wisewomen] Fwd: Annapolis from Phyllis Yingling/Baltimore

[yvonne simmons]

Dear Phyllis, We are so glad you were there, did you
take any pictures Thankyou Odile for inspiring them.
It makes everything we are doing on the WCUSP campaign
real when action follows the letter to MS Rice.
WILPF's presence is so important. In Peace Yvonne.
--- Odile Hugonot Haber <odilehh at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------- 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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