Political Perspectives on 03/20/13

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Produced by: 
KBOO
Air date: 
Wed, 03/20/2013 - 9:30am to 10:00am
"Seniors for Peace: Happy Tenth Anniversary!"

From the series TUC Radio we hear "Seniors for Peace: Happy Tenth Anniversary!" on the origin of the longest continuous peace rally in the Bay Area. We remember the huge demonstrations against the war on Iraq in 2003.

Of those hundreds of thousands who came out for peace across the world mostly films, photos and very fond memories survive. But one group, maybe the most unlikely of all, the Seniors for Peace in Mill Valley, CA, just kept going. For ten years now this year, 2013, every Friday at 4 pm rain or shine, they spend an hour at the intersection of Miller and Camino Alto with hand drums, guitar, harmonica, fiddle and banners for peace. That in spite of the need of some to use a wheelchair or walker since their average age is now 86 and many are in their nineties.

And that’s not all. They have 144 dues paying members. They expanded their peace work into campaigns for Afghanistan, Haiti, and tsunami relief, and they address local wage and housing issues as well as global warming. Most recently they voted to donate $100 to the Marin County district attorney's gun buy-back program. This is the recording of their second ever rally in 2003. Many of those original members have found their personal peace during the last ten years and only their eloquent voices survive. But as Freda Engel, now 93, told host Mariah Gilardin: “We have a wonderful crop of youngsters in their 80s who are taking our places”.

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