If you aren’t familiar with Doris “Granny D” Haddock, think of her as a modern-day Paul Revere. He, of course, raced from Boston to warn the Minutemen that British troops were coming. Haddock’s “midnight ride,” completed at age 90, was a 14-month, 3,200-mile walk across the country to awaken Americans to the growing corruption of our democracy by wealthy special interests, and to enlist modern-day patriots to fight it.
On Saturday, Aug. 12, a nonpartisan grassroots group founded by Haddock will celebrate her and enlist new supporters to her cause with a six-mile walk starting soon after 9 a.m. near her former home in Dublin. The walk will end in Peterborough with a rally, live music, and a pizza lunch. Please join us!
Haddock died at age 100 in 2010, but she would not have been surprised today that the United States spends nearly three times as much for health care as comparable advanced countries without getting better overall care. Nor would she be surprised by how polarized Congress is, or by its seeming inability to debate and pass multi-partisan, fair, affordable and workable solutions to health care, the economy, and other challenges.
Most importantly, recent events would never have made Haddock stop fighting. When she began her walk, many dismissed her as an out-of-touch dreamer and considered her cause futile. Fourteen months later, several dozen members of Congress walked some of the final miles to the U.S. Capitol with her, and Congress soon passed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act.
Haddock didn’t stop. Not long after her walk, she was arrested while reading the Declaration of Independence as part of a protest inside the Capitol. In court, she told the judge she chose the Declaration “to make the point that we must declare our independence from the corrupting bonds of big money in our election campaigns.”
It was her first arrest, and she acknowledged that it put her good name at risk, which she did not take lightly. But, she said, “some of us do not have much power, except to put our bodies in the way of an injustice _ to picket, to walk, or to just stand in the way. It will not change the world overnight, but it is all we can do.”
Bravo, Granny!
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Kazi posted this on behalf of Joe Magruder, a retired journalist and New Hampshire Rebellion member since 2013.