Deptford woman, 89, heads to jail, Quaker was arrested at anti-war protest.

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Deptford woman, 89, heads to jail,

Quaker was arrested at anti-war protest

 

RICHARD PEARSALL

 

October 22, 2004 - Lillian Willoughby, a Deptford Quaker who will turn

90 in January, went to jail Wednesday to protest the war in Iraq.

 

Shortly before noon, Willoughby rose from her wheelchair, gave her

husband of 64 years, George, a hug and a kiss, and disappeared into

the federal detention center at Seventh and Arch streets here.

 

Reporting with her were five other peace activists, including a young

couple from Camden, Cassie Haw, 22, and her husband, Chris, 23. All

were convicted of obstructing the entrance to the federal building in

Philadelphia on March 20, 2003, the day the United States invaded Iraq.

 

Given a choice between a $250 fine and a seven-day jail term, the six

chose jail.

 

" I don't believe supporting the war in any way, " Willoughby said

Wednesday.

 

Addressing a group of about 50 supporters who gathered a block away,

Willoughby said nonviolence isn't something that just happens.

 

" You have to learn to do it, " she said, " to train for change, " whether

it's dealing with violence on the street or violence between nations.

 

Marion Brown, 59, of Northeast Philadelphia, one of those who would go

to jail with Willoughby a few minutes later, recalled how she told the

federal judge who sentenced them that she'd pay the fine if " you can

use the money to provide clean drinking water to children in Iraq or

to lessen our grandchildren's tax burden for paying for this war. "

 

" He said, `No,' " Brown said. " He said he didn't think I was in any

position to negotiate. "

 

Willoughby, a native Iowan who has been active in anti-war and civil

rights campaigns since the start of World War II, said Wednesday she

was not nervous as she prepared to enter jail for the first time,

although she confessed to being nervous at times since her sentencing

last month.

 

She expects to be in solitary confinement, with only an hour a day

outside her cell.

 

" I'll do yoga and exercises and prayer and some writing on my

experiences there, " she said.

 

The people who gathered, many of them Quakers, most of them veterans

of anti-war protests, were on hand to support all six going to jail,

but mainly Willoughby.

 

" I've never been photographed so much in my life, " Willoughby said as

she sat in a wheelchair but appeared and sounded fit.

 

A young Marine from North Philadelphia came to speak with Willoughby.

 

" I wanted to thank her for resisting this war, " said Lance Cpl. Elliot

Ruiz, 19, who spent 5 1/2 months in Iraq before he was wounded when a

car ran a checkpoint he was guarding near Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's

hometown.

 

" It tore the back of my leg open, " said Ruiz, who had two decks of

campaign ribbons, including a Purple Heart, on the chest of his blue,

full dress uniform.

 

John Thompson, 21, of West Philadelphia, a member of the same Friends

meeting as Willoughby, showed up to give Willoughby some tips as well

as support.

 

Thompson, who belongs to the Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of

Friends, spent 21 months in the federal detention center for

conspiracy to distribute drugs.

 

" There's a shower in the cell that you can turn on to get heat, "

Thompson said. " It gets cold and the steam helps. "

 

No one at the detention center would comment.

 

Willoughby's supporters gathered at Sixth and Market before making the

two-block walk to the detention center.

 

" I don't celebrate going to jail, " Chris Haw told the small crowd of

supporters. " I don't harbor hatred for those who are jailing us. I

celebrate love.

 

" We cannot watch war be made and cease to act, " Haw said.

 

Willoughby talked about a booklet titled " 52 stories of successful

nonviolence " that she and others left in the courtroom where they were

sentenced.

 

" There are skills, " she said. " Get informed. Do nonviolence. "

 

Bob Smith, head of the Brandywine Peace Community, based in

Swarthmore, Pa., organized the group for the walk to the detention center.

 

Willoughby led the way, with Thompson pushing her chair.

 

As she and the others entered the building, Sylvia Metzler, 67, who

stayed a week in the detention center for the same offense, predicted

that Willoughby will " have a good effect on the guards, " many of whom

are military veterans.

 

" First, there is her age, " Metzler said. " It's hard to look at those

gnarled and arthritic hands and have ill feelings.

 

" And when she opens her mouth, and speaks with so much knowledge and

love, she'll blow them away. "

 

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