Raging Grannies of San Jose

In Willow Glen, L to R. (behind pole), Essie Baradar, Jane Emory, Joan Wildermann, Amy Samelson, unidentified vigiler holding flag, Shirley Kinoshita, and April Carlson.

New grannies have been joining the San Jose Raging at actions for a busy year. We hooked up with and got to know other peace and social justice activists.

In August we joined the Willow Glen Peace Action weekly vigil with our anti-nuke anti-war songs and signs to mark Hiroshima Day.

We were honored to receive this year's Excellence Award from the County Commission on the Status of Women at their Women's Equality Day breakfast. We were invited to sing environmental clean car songs and celebrate at their 40th Silicon Valley Electric Vehicle Rally in Palo Alto. The San Jose Quilt and Textiles Museum asked us to sing our anti-war repertoire at the opening reception of their fascinating exhibit on "Weavings of War/Patriot Art." Photo at Quilt Museum with us in front of magnificent multi-paneled 9/11 mural. (lower photo at left). L to R: Evelynne Maston, Amy Samelson, Lois Fiedler, Shirley Kinoshita, Joan Wildermann and Essie Baradar. Kneeling in front, Joanne Peyton.

Several times this year we've serenaded and held up signs with Lockheed anti-military defense industry, anti-nuke vigilers in Sunnyvale and with the pro-immigrant anti-Minutemen rallies in Campbell. We managed to get on TV Channel 2 when we sang for the crowd at the San Jose Rally to End Homelessness and Poverty which ended at the downtown First Christan Church. Twice this year we've been the cover feature of local weekly papers. In the spring, our "Disarming Tea Party" was featured and also a wonderful biopic about our own Granny Goose (Joan Wildermann), long-time peace and anti-nuke activist. We meet and rehearse every First Friday of the month at Joan's home in Campbell.
Shirley Lin Kinoshita San Jose Raging Grannies

Join us at upcoming events

Fri. 3/7, 7:00-8:30 pm, SJRG Rehearsal/Meeting in Campbell. Call Granny Shirley (408-255-6559) for directions.
Sat, 3/8, 2-7 p.m. International Women's Day -Conference: "Women's Human Rights, Moving Beyond Barriers."
Location CET (Center for Employment Training), 701 Vine St., San Jose. Sponsored by Amnesty International, CARDEA,
and Kavosh Women's Organization. $25 adults; $15 students. Grannies sing 2-2:30 pm and 5-5:30 pm. Meet 15 minutes before singing at WILPF/Raging Granny table.

7-9 pm WILPF Branch Meeting @ San Jose Peace & Justice Center, 48 S. 7th St. S Jose

Wed. 3/19, 4-6 pm. "People Speak Out Against the War," Front of SJ Public Library, 150 E. S. Fernando (& 4th St). San Jose. Grannies sing Anti-War songs.
More Calendar listings

Granny Goose resists Bush

Tax Day 2006 at San Jose's Lundy Post Office drew a crew of characters -- Raging Granny Joan Wildermann protected her purse from the war president, saying, "My tax money is for schools and social services!" Granny JB photo

Grannies stroller derby joins in demonstration against Bush veto of Child Health Bill S-CHIP in Palo Alto on IndyBay
Oct. 3, 2007

Disarming Tea followup

Over tea and scones, we and our guests discussed our priorities for spending federal tax dollars. Betsy Wolf-Graves got us started with suggestions from the Congressional Progressive Caucus -- which includes Bay Area Reps. Mike Honda, Pete Stark, Lynn Woolsey among others. See tea party for photos and coverage.

Cards signed by the partygoers requesting that Sen. Dianne Feinstein reject a proposed "missile defense" test that would take millions of dollars better spent for human needs were delivered to her San Francisco office by a delegation on Thursday (5/25/06). Roz Dean (left) presented the cards to a staff member.

We followed up on the strong push for health care by attending a Santa Clara City Council meeting Tuesday (5/23) to promote a request for endorsement of SB 840, State Sen. Sheila Kuehl's bill for health care for all Californians. The council declined to take action, but the mayor said she'd keep track of the bill.

Grannies protest monitoring of peace groups

Eight Raging Grannies from San Jose and Palo  Alto met with U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren at her San Jose office Aug. 15 to discuss the recent incident of National Guard monitoring of local peace groups, including the Raging Grannies, at a Mother’s Day rally in Sacramento and other events. 
The National Guard have admitted to members of the Peninsula Raging Grannies, including Ruth Robertson and Gail Sredanovic, that they indeed were monitoring such activities. The computer records related to these incidents were mysteriously deleted from the hard drive in the National Guard office.  Congresswoman Lofgren is considering investigating these and other allegations of inappropriate conduct on the part of the National Guard in relation to monitoring peace groups. 
 In a press release 8/15/05 to the San Jose Mercury News, the U.S. Army’s Inspector General officially stated that his office has independently investigated these incidents and found no fault in National Guard actions and absolved them of all wrong. He has also refused to release the investigative report on which he based his decision.
 After listening to our Raging Grannies’ concerns, Rep. Lofgren has promised to check into the National Guard e-mails related to these incidents which were voluntarily given to the Grannies at recent meetings. 
 A related concern voiced by Granny Gail Sredanovic was a recent visit to the local National Guard chapter where a anti-Muslim poster was prominently displayed. Photos were taken by an alert Code Pink visitor of that poster which describes General Pershing humiliating Muslim prisoners of war.           Rep. Lofgren (left) will check on these incidents.
                    Union Square anti-torture rally
San Jose Raging Grannies participated with Grannies from nine other branches in an anti-torture rally at Union Square, San Francisco, on Aug. 13. For coverage of the event, see Peninsula Raging Grannies.