[WCUSP] Fwd: Annapolis from Phyllis Yingling/Baltimore

Wed Nov 28 12:03:31 CST 2007

That is great, Phyllis.  Thanks.

Libby

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Odile Hugonot Haber" <odilehh at gmail.com>
To: "WCUSP" <wisewomen at wilpf.org>; "National Middle East" <wcusp at wilpf.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:17 AM
Subject: [WCUSP] Fwd: Annapolis from Phyllis Yingling/Baltimore

> ---------- 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> Check out AOL Money & Finance's list of the hottest products and top
> money wasters of 2007.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Wcusp mailing list
> Wcusp at wilpf.org
> http://wilpf.org/mailman/listinfo/wcusp_wilpf.org
> To post a message to all the list members, send email to Wcusp at wilpf.org.
> To unsubscribe send a message to Wcusp-leave at wilpf.org