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– photo © StarTribune. Kyndell Harkness |
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Army Capt. Valent Bernat tries to convince eleven anti-war activists who are grandmothers not to enlist at the Army recruiting station on Washington Ave. near the University of Minnesota. After police arrived and spoke with the protesters, recruiters agreed to allow the grandmothers to fill out enlistment forms. |
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Grandmothers volunteer to enlist in military at U recruiting center
by Dane Smith
Star Tribune Staff Writer
Published December 6, 2005
Eleven anti-war activists who are the grandmothers of 48 grandchildren marched into an army recruiting station near the University of Minnesota campus Tuesday morning and volunteered to enlist.
The protesters described themeselves as long-time peace activists.
"The idea is to make a statement about the futility of war," said Sue Ann Martinson of Minneapolis, a spokesperson for the event.
After recruiters at the facility refused to allow the women to fill out enlistment forms, the protesters sat on the floor and were prepared to be arrested, Martinson said.
"I respectfully asked them to leave and they have refused and I've asked the police to help us resolve this, said Capt. Valent Bernat, a recruiter.
"There's incredibly aggressive recruiting going on," Martinson said. "They're telling these young people all sorts of things."
"Our children are not cannon fodder," read one of the protesters' signs.
One of the eleven protesters was Erica Bouza, wife of former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza and a long-time peace activist.
"We grandmothers cannot sit quietly by and watch our youth being cajoled into the army to die or be maimed in a senseless war," Bouza said in a press release.
Asked what the protesters would have done had the recruiters agreed to let them enlist, Martinson said, "We figure we wouldn't pass the medical exam, but we were prepared to fill out the applications." |
