Dear Grace,

The only positive thing about your passing is that you were at home. And that friends and admirers are speaking about you, sharing memories, informing, possibly inspiring others, in your name. You are all over the internet. I even heard your voice there, reading a fine story.

Through these messages we learn things about you we may have missed. We're hearing outpourings from your editors, fellow authors, students, close friends, neighbors, readers, a young writer you encouraged, and many colleagues in the life-long school of leafleting, agitating, and organizing. And we recognize, in the variety of websites honoring you, including the War Resisters League, PEN, progressive Jewish Voices, MADRE, and more, the broad scope of your work and your dedication to many 'tribes.'

Yet as the first reports of our loss arrived on screen and newspapers, I missed not hearing more of one aspect of your full and courageous life's work that I know was important for you: the 1979-82 northeast ecofeminist network "Women and Life on Earth"and the related 1980 "Women's Pentagon Action."So I was glad when Peacework asked me to write about this, although I have not found it easy to think about you in the past tense or write about you in the third person.

Women and Life on Earth

Grace was one of 12 women from New England and New York State who came together in September 1979 in response to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident and other threats, demanding change. Our experiences in the anti-nuclear, pro-solar, peace, and women's health movements led us to want a more integrated approach. And we wanted to work together, as women. We talked, exchanged ideas, and discussed the new concept of ecological feminism and how it related to us and our work.

At that and later meetings there was much discussion, exchange, unity. Grace was one of us, a quiet thoughtful leader in special ways, one being finding the right words. It may well have been her who came up with the name for our ambitious "save the planet"group. In any case she was able to synthesize our ideas, hopes, and fears into our Unity Statement.

On the basis of this statement we organized "Women and Life on Earth: a conference on Eco-Feminism in the '80's"in March 1980, on the vernal equinox. Six hundred women met for a variety of workshops, art events, and discussion. Grace was in the workshop on peace, where the idea of a women's action at the Pentagon came up, I assume from her. But the first mention I have found of it in print is in the yellowed minutes of a Women and Life on Earth continuation meeting in June 1980 in Amherst, MA. First came reports on conference proceedings, resources, networking, fundraising, and all those good organizational nuts and bolts. And then on the last page: "Women's Pentagon Action: Grace Paley proposed this action as a project of the coalition. She stressed the urgency of acting against militarism and the potential power that women have to organize against the forces that deny us life. We discussed the need for creative actions…. Grace cautioned that this kind of national action takes a lot of work, but she's ready to begin if other women are also committed."

A few lines down, "two closing quotes for inspiration,"the first from Grace: "We're stubborn. We know it's a lie when they separate human life from the earth's life, and our children by their color."

Through meetings and intense dialogue, the statement of the Women's Pentagon Action evolved, with Grace as editor and muse of action in time of danger: "There is a fear among the people, and that fear, created by the industrial militarists is used as an excuse…."If this sounds as real now as it did then, it is because Grace touched the core of military reality and the manipulation of fear behind it. The statement guided our action and was taken up and appreciated by women around the world with similar struggles.

Sue Hoffman was working in the Women and Life on Earth office 27 years ago and as minute-taker reported on Grace "stressing the urgency"of our activism. Sue's commitment to carry on Grace's legacy speaks for many of us. "She was a mentor and role model for my Jewish eco-feminist activism in the early 1980's when we organized the Women's Pentagon Action together. She passed along to us young women her heritage of activism and encouragement to speak up and take risks, but to root our activism in love, not anger. She shared power in collective decision-making. Let us carry on her legacy by teaching and sharing as she did, with an open heart, across the generations."