MORE ON MICHELE AND GLADYS:

MORE ON MICHELE AND GLADYS: So I wrote here Thursday night about the civil disobedience action that some Quakers and others here in Charlottesville undertook that afternoon. What I failed to put in was any part of the lovely statement that Michele Mattioli had prepared, that explained what they were doing. Here are some extracts:
We are citizens who oppose war. Killing people is never the way to solve a problem…
We love our country, which is full of generous and kind people. We support our troops by doing whatever we can to stop the war and bring them home. Killing and risking death damages these men and women, and we demand an end to the war so we can receive them back into our communities to get on with their lives…
Violence only begets more violence, and there are non-violent ways to deal effectively with tyrants.
The old world order in which power resided in guns and money is crimbling. Millions of people are standing up to say that true power comes from justice, love and compassion. This new power is welling up and will prevail.
During the action Thursday, shortly before the police came, Michele came out of Congressman Goode’s office and told the antiwar protesters arrayed outside that she had been a Montessori teacher for more than 20 years. “And I always used to tell my children, over and over and over, ‘Don’t hit! Don’t hit! Use words!‘” She got a huge cheer for that.
Also, in my earlier post I mistakenly described Gladys Swift as a late-70-something. She is in fact 80.
And later, she told me she was really upset that the police refused to arrest her. They put her with the one 16-year-old taking part and only gave the two of them some kind of summons to appear later for a scolding.
What kind of ageism is that??
Anyway, I also didn’t quite get the end of my earlier post written well. What I should have written was, that if Mr. Goode can’t be persuaded to represent his constituents more effectively, why, then maybe at the next election we’ll just have to look for Mr. or Ms. Very Much Better!