Texas grandmother(and minister) sweeps streets of Washington as punishment for anti-war protes

[RedEarth]

By Gerry Smith
January 31, 2007 -- Diane Baker’s voice was barely audible above the rumble of the trash can she pushed down the sidewalk. But her actions tended to speak louder, anyway.



Four months ago, Baker was one of 71 people arrested during a protest in Washington for crossing a police line to sit on the steps of a Senate office building.

As punishment, the 60-year-old was sentenced to sweep the streets of the nation’s capital for eight cold, blustery hours Tuesday.

"I’m a rather fragile, small woman," said Baker, a hospice chaplain at United Church of Christ in Dallas. "Being a minister, I offered to do counseling, but this is what they gave me."

Baker, a mother of four and grandmother of two, suffers from myoclonic epilepsy, a degenerative muscle condition that causes her voice to quiver and hands to shake. As she signed in to begin her community service, she struggled to write her name.

With morning temperatures in Washington in the high 20s, Baker prepared for the cold as if a protest could start any minute.

She wore 10 multicolored T-shirts with messages ranging from "End the War in Iraq" to "Shut Down Guantanamo" and "Save Darfur." She also wore her clerical stole with a dove carrying an olive branch sewn into the fabric

http://dallaspeacecenter.org/?q=node/1670

[chelsea0011]

1. And Bush will have to do what?