Last fall, when the WRL 100th Anniversary committee asked me to write a letter about WRL’s 100th Anniversary projects, I had no idea how many friends of mine have been active with WRL over the years. Then email messages started coming to me from friends across the U.S. who were excited to see my picture and read about the work I’m doing coordinating WRL’s 100th Anniversary.
Here’s what my contra dance camp friend Dee Michel said:
I just saw your photo in the Sept 100th Anniversary Project letter! I have been a WRL member since I was in high school, when my mother had a poem in the WRL calendar and she didn't need it and gave it to me [the calendar, not the poem :-). A year or two later I took the WRL bus to Washington for the March Against Death, which was the November 1969 Moratorium event. I used to give WRL calendars as gifts to the friends I had made each year and was really disappointed when they stopped printing them.
Now, I’m eager to hear more about Dee’s experience at that March and other things he did with WRL. Dee said, “The poem of my mother’s was ‘The Coward.’ Her name was Eve Merriam. She did feminist theater, history, poetry and kids books.” Here is a screenshot of the digitally archived 1966 WRL Peace Calendar's table of contents listing her poem.
I have enjoyed roaming around in the WRL digital archives that include digitized versions of many WRL publications, including the Peace Calendars. Check out the collection here.
We know that WRL members have MANY stories about WRL direct actions, rallies, and events over the years. I’m going to ask Dee if he’ll write up a brief story about his experience at that 1969 March. We hope you’ll write up a very brief story of an experience you had with a WRL action or longtime WRLer. We'd like to share some of these stories on the WRL Centennial History blog. Please limit yourself to 400 words. WRL reserves the right to edit for clarity and length. Questions? Contact Mary McClintock at wrl100history [at] warresisters.org (subject: My%20WRL%20story%20for%20the%20WRL%20Centennial%20History%20Blog) .
– Mary McClintock is WRL’s 100th Anniversary Project Coordinator and a peace activist from Western Massachusetts who helped start the ongoing Greenfield Weekly Peace Vigil in 2002
