By John McCallum
Editor 

Development of a Ragin' Granny

Marshall-area's Margie Heller's journey from Pennsylvania to Spokane Valley train tracks

 

Last updated 10/6/2016 at 4:35pm

Margie Heller

Margie Heller (right) and some of her fellow Ragin' Grannies perform a satirical protest song at a Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane conference in February, 2016 at the Unitarian Church on Fort Wright Drive.

Margie Heller is not a grandmother, at least not yet.

And besides, you don't need to be a grandmother to be a member of the Ragin' Grannies, a grassroots protest group that draws attention to their causes by wearing colorful, grandmother-ish clothes and singing well-known songs with humorous and satirical made up lyrics.

Heller said someone just needs to be old enough to be a grandmother, which, when she thinks about it "could be about 32." The Marshall-area resident has been a member of the Ragin' Grannies Spokane chapter for about 15 years, and on Aug. 31, was one of three Grannies arrested for blocking the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train tracks in Spokane Valley in a protest over coal and oil rail shipments.

Heller couldn't say much about the protest itself; she was scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 3. But in a way, it stems from something started long ago when she was growing up in Pennsylvania.

Heller said she came from a conservative family, but, along with her mother, began attending the United Church of Christ, a more liberal Christian denomination.

"And then I went to college," Heller said.

That was in 1967 and that college was Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. Oberlin was one of the first colleges to admit African Americans - its first black graduate in 1844, George B. Vashon, became a founding member of Howard University and the first black lawyer admitted to the New York State Bar - as well as women.

As a Quaker-supported institution, Heller said Oberlin also has a tradition of advancing social justice issues. Heller attended to get a music degree, but it also impacted her in other ways.

"It's a place that really encourages you to think, to think deeply, critical thinking," she said. "That had a profound influence on me. You could say it changed my life."

It was also during the height of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement in the U.S. Heller said she participated in some protests while at Oberlin, but nothing major. One that particularly stood out was a weekly protest where students surrounded the college square and stood silently.

After graduating she moved to Seattle in 1972, and then to Stevens County in northeast Washington in 1973, where she met her husband, Gerry Copeland.

"The reason we were up there is we were those back to the land hippies," Heller said.

Heller speaks fondly of her time in the Colville area. She didn't do any protesting, in fact moving there was more a "kind of drop out thing," but she and her husband along with others organized a food co-op and worked to transform an area that was conservative and unaccepting of differences into one that was still conservative, but more accepting.

While in Colville, Heller began playing viola for the Spokane Symphony, something she did for 22 years. Eventually, the commute, and kids, forced the couple to move to Spokane in 1986, where her husband began a successful architect firm.

They eventually longed for the country life again, and in 1999, found and purchased their acreage in the Marshall area. After retiring from the symphony, Heller began teaching music, but not before regaining the protest bug and joining the local chapter of the Ragin' Grannies.

Heller said there are about 15 members of the group, but they don't meet regularly and don't do as much protesting as other chapters. The original Ragin' Grannies formed in 1987 in Vancouver, British Columbia, to protest U.S. warships that came to port which likely were either nuclear powered, carried nuclear weapons or both.

Heller said the BNSF protest wasn't organized by the Grannies themselves, and was not directed at the railroad It was about alerting people to the threat of man-made climate change, something she sees as a very important issue.

"Once it gets to where it's going, it's going to be burned and that affects climate change," Heller said.

Heller acknowledges that oil, in particular, is used in many other products besides fuel. She would rather it be used in this fashion, instead of burned.

The Ragin' Grannies hope in drawing attention to these issues that people, for one, find some humor, and two, understand they can do something about it.

"A lot realize it's a problem, but think they can't do anything, that 'It's too big for me,'" Heller said.

Margie Heller's Statement

"Transporting fossil fuels is done for one purpose only: they will be burned. If burned, they will add to the greenhouse gases which are already causing serious climate change. Continuing to add to climate change factors puts the health, perhaps the very existence, of future generations at risk.

Climate change is THE most urgent issue of our time. Why should we even think of short-term profit at the cost of environmental destruction and our children's future? We must keep fossil fuels in the ground and develop alternative energy sources NOW."

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.

Author Bio

John McCallum, Retired editor

John McCallum is an award-winning journalist who retired from Cheney Free Press after more than 20 years. He received 10 Washington Newspaper Publisher Association awards for journalism and photography, including first place awards for Best Investigative, Best News and back-to-back awards in Best Breaking News categories.

 

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