Joan Wile is a regular BuzzFlash reader and occasional writer for the Buzz.

She is also the founder of Grandmothers Against the War, which she began in 2003.

Joan has true grit. This is her story about how citizen action begans from the bottom up.

"Grandmothers Against the War, founded in November 2003, holds a peace vigil every Wednesday in front of Rockefeller Center from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM. The highly publicized group has been demanding an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Grandmothers Against the War also participates regularly in other anti-war activities, including the arrest and jailing at the Times Square Recruiting Center when they tried to enlist; a trek from New York to Washington over a 10-day period; a trip to Berlin to speak and sing to peace groups, and performances of Joan’s original song material, their Granny Chorus line dance, a comedy monologue as Barbara Bush, and dramatic monologues by famed actress granny, Vinie Burrows."

Hey, you can't beat that, can you? Joan knows that we need to speak with actions, not just words.

In a review of the book, one Benjamin Shepard writes:

Grandmothers against the War is many things – a self deprecating memoir, a telling unwritten history, a confirmation of Margaret Mead’s adage that small groups such as the grannies really are the most likely ones to change the world, these things yet there is more to the volume. On a number of occasions I found myself breaking down as I read the stories of women who have lived for most of a bloody century, who chose to use some of their last years and breaths to speak out for the only thing still important to them: a peaceful future for their children and grandchildren. At the beginning of chapter three, “Seventeen Remarkable Women and Me” Wile quotes from “Tomorrow, When I’m Young Again” from the musical Seven Ages of Women. The lyrics speak to the spirit of regeneration which pulses through Wile’s movement memoir:

I may be over the hill
But I’ve got mountains left to climb
Take away your clocks, I still
Have lots of time, I’m in my prime
tomorrow when I’m young again
Tomorrow when spring has sprung again
Tomorrow when I begin again
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, when I win again! (p. 18).

Here, the movement against the war is not only a struggle for life and love, but an effort to embrace life instead of descend into a long dark night.