FCNL
launched its new Advocacy Team focus “Averting War with North Korea.” Friends
from at least four monthly meetings in So Cal have taken part in this
effort—Claremont, Santa Monica, Orange County and Orange Grove. The Pasadena
Advocacy Team works with a number of other groups on this issue, including Interfaith
Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP), ReconciliAsian, Unity and
Diversity Council, Montrose Peace Vigil, Women’s League for Peace and Freedom,
Ban the Bomb—LA, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Office of the Americas,
Progressive Asian Network for Action, Veterans for Peace, and Orange Grove
(Quaker) Meeting.
The
Pasadena Advocacy Team has made 5 lobby visits this year, published 3 letters
in newspapers, and is organizing an event on Sunday, May 6, at Orange Grove
Meeting called “Give Peace a Chance in North Korea” (see flyer).
Orange
Grove Meeting has approved a minute on averting war with North Korea which it
would like SCQM to consider (see below).
Friends
at Orange Grove Meeting have formed an AFSC Social Change Ministry group that
meets bimonthly with members of the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church
(see Arthur Kegerreis). This group is focusing mainly on immigration issues and
members have been visiting Adelanto Detention Center (see Edie Salisbury). They
are also making plans to organize a “Know Your Rights” and Free Legal
Assistance workshop for immigrants in Pasadena.
Santa
Monica Meeting continues to be concerned about income inequality. (See minute
below.) To learn more about this concern, see this blog consisting of timely
and relevant articles pertaining to income inequality and how to address it:
https://quakersagainstinequality.com/2016/
Santa
Barbara Meeting’s retreat in the fall of 2017 focused on George Fox’s prophetic
witness and how it is applicable today. The Santa Barbara Friends Meeting Peace
Earthcare and Social Concerns committee was involved with Truth in Recruitment,
advocating for school policies limiting recruiter access to students, providing
students with alternative information and options to military careers (Kate
Connell). We also participated in ongoing protests against missile testing at
Vandenberg Airforce Base and against nuclear war at various 'pop-up vigils in
Santa Barbara. We continue to advocate for the abolishment of the death penalty
and prisoners’ rights. Some Friends are also involved in Vandenberg prison
visitation (Jim Robertson).
Some
Friends in Ojai, San Diego and La Jolla have been involved with the Golden
Rule, a “peace ship” that Veterans for Peace launched two years ago. See http://www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org/
For
a number of years Orange County Friends have had a project of supporting the
nonprofit Human Options, which serves women and children who are victims of
domestic abuse. Friends pick up and deliver food from the food pantry
each week and help with their holiday gift exchange. OC Friends also
visit detained immigrants in the OC prisons.
Recently
OC Meeting affiliated with Friends of Orange County Detainees (friendsofocdetainees.org), which provides visits to people in
ICE detention in O.C. county jails and also has a transition program through
which volunteers meet asylum seekers upon their release (on parole, on bond, or
with asylum), provide them with clothing and toiletries as needed, help them
with travel arrangements, and get them to the bus or airport.
Lawrence
Alderson reported that some Friends in OC Meeting are interested in
establishing a prison ministry, visiting with a person known to them through an
attender and who would welcome a program of visitation, ministry and support. He
is looking for like-minded friends in the area who have experience with this
and can assist this group and provide pointers to resources that would be
useful. The prisoner his group is planning to visit is currently at Century
Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, CA, so any specific knowledge about
that facility and doing prisoner visitation for ministry and support in a Los
Angeles Sheriff's Department facility would be greatly appreciated.
If we have omitted any monthly
meeting activity or concern you would like to have shared, please contact
Anthony Manousos at interfaithquaker@aol.com. We are also planning to have monthly conference calls for
So Cal Friends with peace and justice concerns. Please contact me if you'd like
to be part of these calls.
Minute
of Concern About Averting War with North
Korea
Approved by Orange Grove Meeting, April 8, 2018
Led by Spirit and
faithful to our Quaker Peace Testimony, Orange Grove Monthly Meeting of the
Religious Society of Friends supports the FCNL Advocacy Team effort to avert
war with North Korea by urging Congress to pass S 2047 and HR
4837, bills that would prevent the President from launching a
preemptive attack on North Korea without the authorization of Congress. Given
that our President and the leaders of North and South Korea have agreed to
meet, we urge them to do so without preconditions since preconditions have been
a stumbling block to past negotiations. We also support and encourage all those
who are working to build bridges of understanding and trust between North and
South Korea. We are called to love those who may seem to be our enemies, and to
find ways to turn them into our allies and friends.
Action: To share this
minute with Friends everywhere, through our website, and by sending it to
Quarterly and Yearly Meeting. We also authorize the clerk to write a letter to
our Senators and to our Representative Judy Chu, thanking them for their
support of these bills, and encouraging them to make public statements
regarding the need for a diplomatic, rather than military approach to the
conflict on the Korean peninsula. It was said by Jesus that “those that live by
the sword, perish by the sword.”
Minute on Income Inequality from Santa
Monica Friends Meeting
16-12-04: Santa Monic Meeting approves the following
Minute on Income Inequality, Economic Inequality and Social Justice, noting our
desire to share it widely, and acknowledging the discernment involved in
preparing it:
Friends (Quakers) believe that there is a divine spark in everyone, and
on that basis we believe in the equality of all people. That belief leads us to
create community among ourselves, foster community in the broader society and
promote equal justice and equal opportunity.
We find that the laws, tax structure, and regulations of our society now
disproportionately favor and reward the few, while disproportionately impoverishing
the many. Wealthy special interests have used their resources and access to
influence politics, the courts and regulatory agencies to redistribute wealth
to enrich themselves at the expense of the middle class and the poor, who now
experience declining wealth, declining earning power and declining levels of
education. Our society now experiences rising poverty, homelessness, mental
illness, drug addiction and environmental degradation. These factors in
combination result in the weakening of our democratic institutions and our
social fabric. We also find that this inequity is reversible, with correction
of the tax codes, regulations, laws, and political reform.
We call on Friends to teach themselves and others about the truth of
economic inequality. We call on Friends, people of other faiths and people of
good will to recognize the need to change our tax code, our regulations, and
our electoral processes to restore our social safety net and our educational
systems to create a more just, healthier and more sustainable society based on
principles of equality and respect for our fellow human beings. We call on
Friends, people of other faiths and people of good will to work to reduce
income inequality in our society by supporting actions that redistribute the
fruits of our economy more broadly and equitably in order to build a stronger,
more just, more rewarding and more stable society.
Economic inequality is at the root of many of social ills we now see. We
seek to reduce income and wealth disparity, while recognizing that success in
doing so will not cure all social ills. Our goal is to reduce economic stress
in our society to the point that people of modest means may lead happy,
productive lives and realize their God-given potential. We seek to restore the social
fabric and respect for the inherent dignity of all.
Our goal reflects our Quaker testimonies on simplicity, equality, peace,
community and integrity.
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