After stumbling onto an international peace movement in October, Burke resident Suzanne Doherty experienced the peace movement firsthand by starting a local chapter of "Grandmothers for Peace."
Doherty initially found out about Grandmothers for Peace while at an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C. She made a "Grandmothers for Peace" sign on her own without even knowing about the international group of the same name. At the rally in October, some people came up and asked, and another woman from Maryland talked to Doherty about starting a group, as well. They planned on meeting at the National March on Washington, on Saturday, Jan. 18, to protest against a potential war with Iraq.
"In October, I went to the rally with that sign," Doherty said, pointing to her "Grandmothers for Peace," sign. "Lots of people stopped me and asked, 'Where can I join?'"
That got the ball rolling.
Doherty kicked off the Northern Virginia Chapter of Grandmothers for Peace at Pohick Library on Saturday, Jan. 11, and felt she gained ground, even though only one other person showed up.
Armed with her T-shirts and picket signs, Doherty watched the library crowd shuffle in and out of the library doors until there was someone she recognized, Judith Pratt, a friend from the City of Fairfax.
"There's a grandmother for peace," she pointed. "I had hoped to get a group of people for the rally next week."
"She called me," Pratt said, as the two filed into the meeting room at the library, signs and shirts in hand.
"THERE'S a woman in Maryland, she's starting a chapter too, she'll be meeting us," Doherty said.
Doherty is a veteran of anti-war marches that began when she graduated from college in Indiana, relocated to Northern Virginia, and took part in a couple of marches protesting the Vietnam War. She felt her voice was heard then and will be heard now as well.
"I don't think there's been a very good case made for going to war in Iraq," Doherty said. In fact, she had a hard time justifying any war.
"I don't know, I have some real ambivalence," she said.
Another occasion, while holding her week-old grandson, fueled her anti-war sentiments as well.
"Scared me to death that this child one day would be sacrificed to violence," Doherty said. "I don't trust people in our government to make decisions that are in the best interests of our country."
"I think they're dangerous," said Pratt, about the military and political leaders of the country.
The Middle East and need for oil in this country were also on the minds of Pratt and Doherty. Doherty drives a Mazda and Pratt drives a Volvo, but not gas guzzlers like minivans or SUVs.
"Our dependence and need for oil outweighs everything else. We do have to drive cars, but the trend toward SUVs," Doherty said, rolling her eyes.
The grandmothers recalled television commercials that are brainwashing people with SUVs four-wheeling in some remote location with waterfalls and snow-capped peaks.
"And here they sit in traffic jams," Doherty said.
AFTER CONTACTING the international Grandmothers for Peace through its Web site, Doherty got shirts and pamphlets, including the group's newsletter, for the local chapter. She noticed there were chapters all over the world, but not in Northern Virginia.
According to a brochure, Grandmothers for Peace started in May 1982 as a movement against nuclear weapons. Barbara Wiedner was the founder, and Lorraine Krofchok is the current director. Wiedner passed away in 2001.
"In April of 1982, I was arrested for an act of nonviolent civil disobedience," Wiedner wrote. That event inspired her to start the group.
Annual dues are $25, and $15 for senior citizens, which amused Pratt and Doherty. The group added a men's auxiliary in 1990. Grandmothers for Peace International is based in Elk Grove, Calif. Members "need not be a grandmother" to join, the pamphlet stated.
DOHERTY is setting her sights for the march on Jan. 18, making organizational decisions and plans for the coming week. The official rally starts at 11 a.m. on the south lawn of the United States Capitol.
"I need to think of a meeting place," she said, while swapping ideas with Pratt before deciding on the Starbucks in the City of Fairfax. "That's a straight shot to the Metro."
Doherty will be armed with handmade signs and possibly a banner, and have T-shirts available for $15.
After an hour of swapping ideas and gaining momentum, the first official meeting of the Grandmothers for Peace Northern Virginia Chapter was over. Doherty was optimistic.
"It's going to grow from this point on," she said. "We got started."