On Jan. 1, 1999, Doris Haddock, a 90-year-old great-grandmother of 12 and lifelong advocate for social justice, began a cross-country walk in Pasadena, Calif., to call attention to the need for campaign finance reform in American politics. More than a year later, on Feb. 29, 2000, she arrived in Washington, D.C., with thousands of petitions she’d collected along the way. Lori Hoyt was among those on hand to greet her. Hoyt, who writes about the experience below (“I Agree With Granny D”), traveled to Washington in a group organized by the N.C. Alliance for Democracy. Hoyt is one of the Raging Grannies, an activist singing group, and is chair of the Chapel Hill-Durham branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. On page 23, in “Making the Worms Squirm,” Haddock (a.k.a. Granny D) outlines her vision of why this country needs to rid itself of the “cancer” of big money in politics.