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Grandmothers Stand for Peace
Sharon Mehdi's fictional story has inspired a global movement
Paul J. Lamb (plamb)     Email Article  Print Article 
Published 2007-05-02 14:54 (KST)   
Something BIG is happening ...

A silent revolution that you probably have never heard of. A group of well connected subversives is organizing quietly to change everything. Ironically, we see them in public everywhere and every day, yet they fly completely under the radar of Homeland Security and other security agencies around the globe.

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But when their sleeper cells are activated, you will surely know about it. The good news is that they are generally opposed to violence, but the bad news is that they wield immense power, and that when they decide to act there is not much any of us will be able to do to stop them -- regardless of their beliefs or the rightness of their cause.

So who are these subversives, what regime do they seek to topple, and what foreign ideology do they espouse?

I'll say it with a whisper, because I myself could be in jeopardy just by spilling the beans. OK, it's ... grandmothers. Yes, GRANDMOTHERS!

On this Sunday, May 13 -- Mothers Day in America -- at precisely 1 p.m. grandmothers and their friends around the world will be going to parks and public spaces in their local neighborhoods and standing in silence for five minutes. Their purpose? To take a stand, literally, for a safe, humane, and peaceful world for their children and their children's children. Inspired by Sharon Mehdi's fictional story The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering, grandmothers are organizing spontaneously, by word of mouth, to draw a line in the sand and say "enough" to poverty, injustice and war.

The movement began when a group of women in Ohio were inspired by Ms. Mehdi's book. It is not being centrally organized but is catching on virally on the Internet just the same. In cooking circles and book clubs the world over, the word has been spread. Nobody knows exactly how many people will turn out to take a stand next Sunday, but it is expected that they will be there in full force.

What do they hope to ultimately gain from all of this sinister standing? Well it doesn't really matter, does it, because we all know that we have to do what our grandmothers tell us to do.

In fact we will be powerless to say no to their future demands, once decided. If grandma decides it's gonna be a certain way, there is nothing grandpa, Uncle Bob, George Bush, or anyone else can do to stop it.

Resistance is futile, unless you are fully prepared to take a frying pan to the side of the head. I for one, am not, and my grandmother (and yours) know it.

Knitting needles be damned, we are in a new century and a time when grandmas are organizing, realizing their collective strength and will possibly decide our fate. The Grandma Party, grandmothers for prime minister and president, who knows what is next ...

So this Mothers Day, and the next time you see that old lady getting ready to cross the street, stop everything and go and offer a hand. She may be on her way to change the world, and you know the last place you want to find yourself is on the wrong side of grandma and the grandmother revolution.
For more information visit www.standingwomen.org.
©2007 OhmyNews
Other articles by reporter Paul J. Lamb

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