FCNL Witness Wednesday silent reflection

I’m inviting you to join the Friends Committee on National Legislation’s Witness Wednesday Silent Reflection April 6, 2022, from 4:15-5:00pm Central on Zoom.

I will be sharing a story about our Mutual Aid work for reflection. You can read some of my more recent writings about Mutual Aid here: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/mutual-aid/

This is the Zoom link for Witness Wednesday Silent Reflection: fcnl.org/ww-stream

What to expect at Silent Reflection

The space is open for conversation and fellowship beginning at 4 p.m. Central Time.
At 4:15 p.m. CT, a designated convener will gather the group. Often the convener will share a quote or question to help the group focus.
The group will settle into silence. Anyone is welcome to share a message or reflection. We ask that you leave space between messages and only share once.
A few minutes before 5:00 p.m. CT, the convener will close the gathering and invite participants to introduce themselves and share closing thoughts.

To join, visit fcnl.org/ww-stream or register here to receive the information to join by phone.
You shouldn’t need this, but just in case:

Meeting ID: 854 485 249
Passcode: SR2021

This Wednesday, April 6, I will be sharing this story from my good friend Ronnie James. Ronnie is an Indigenous organizer with twenty years of experience. I’ve been blessed to be involved in the Des Moines Mutual Aid food giveaway program he talks about in this story. Other Mutual Aid projects include court solidarity and bail fund, and food and propane support for houseless communities in Des Moines.

So I work with a dope crew called Des Moines Mutual Aid, and on Saturday mornings we do a food giveaway program that was started by the Panthers as their free breakfast program and has carried on to this day. Anyways, brag, brag, blah, blah.
So I get to work and I need to call my boss. He remembers and asks about the food giveaway which is cool and I tell him blah blah it went really well. And then he’s like, “hey, if no one tells you, I’m very proud of what you do for the community” and I’m like “hold on hold on. Just realize that everything I do is to further the replacing of the state and destroying western civilization and any remnants of it for future generations.” He says “I know and love that. Carry on.”
–Ronnie James

A fundamental part of Mutual Aid is the entire community is involved. We avoid “us” versus “them”. This leaflet is included in the boxes of food we distribute. I know of people who once came for food who are now helping with the distribution of the food.

This photo is from the recent Des Moines Mutual Aid zine that contains excellent articles. DOWNLOAD HERE

Pope Francis Apology

I don’t know what Pope Francis’ apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the institutions of forced assimilation in Canada might mean to Indigenous peoples. This is something First Nations Peoples in Canada have been asking for many years. Acknowledging the harm done is part of the process of healing and reconciliation. The vast scope of the damage and the length of time it was done should have begun to be addressed years ago.

I must note that Quakers were among those who established and operated such institutions in the United States. The damage done by Quakers and other religious organizations should also have begun to be addressed years ago. This has long been and continues to be a deep concern of mine. [see: residential schools]

Vatican City. Pope Francis apologized on Friday for the Roman Catholic Church’s involvement in a system of Canadian boarding schools that abused Indigenous children for 100 years, and said he would travel to Canada as part of a process of healing and reconciliation.

His apology comes after Canada was jolted last year by the discovery of signs that more than 1,000 people, most of them children, may have been buried in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former schools.

“I feel shame — sorrow and shame — for the role” that Catholics played “in the abuses you suffered and in the lack of respect shown for your identity, your culture and even your spiritual values,” Francis said.

“I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry,” Francis said, adding that he joined with Canadian bishops “in asking your pardon.”

Pope Apologizes to Indigenous People of Canada by Elisabetta Povoledo and Ian Austen, The New York Times, April 1, 2022

CALGARY, Alberta — For decades, the Indigenous children were taken from their families, sometimes by force, and housed in crowded, church-run boarding schools, where they were abused and prohibited from speaking their languages. Thousands vanished altogether.

Now, a new discovery offers chilling evidence that many of the missing children may have died at these schools: The remains of as many as 751 people, mainly Indigenous children, were found at the site of a former school in the province of Saskatchewan, an Indigenous group said on Thursday.

The burial site, the largest one to date, was uncovered only weeks after the remains of 215 children were found in unmarked graves on the grounds of another former church-run school for Indigenous students in British Columbia.

The discoveries have jolted a nation grappling with generations of widespread and systematic abuse of Indigenous people, many of whom are survivors of the boarding schools. For decades, they suggested through their oral histories that thousands of children disappeared from the schools, but they were often met with skepticism. The revelations of two unmarked grave sites are another searing reminder of this traumatic period in history.

Hundreds More Unmarked Graves Found at Former Residential School in Canada. An Indigenous group said the remains of as many as 751 people, mainly children, had been found in unmarked graves on the site of a former boarding school in Saskatchewan. Ian Auten and Dan Bilefsky, The New York Times, July 30, 2021

The Indigenous delegation also raised the issue of the Doctrine of Discovery.

The delegates also asked Francis to revoke a 1493 papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VI that had given Spain authority over the newly discovered lands of the Americas, allowing the Spanish to colonize and enslave the Indigenous peoples and convert them to Catholicism. The papal bull, which informed the “doctrine of disc overy,” was “used for centuries to expropriate Indigenous lands and facilitate their transfer to colonizing or dominating nations,” according to the United Nations.

Indigenous groups in Canada say that while the theories of racial superiority that underlie the doctrine have long been discredited, it continued to surface in legal disputes over land until 2014. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that year, without naming the papal bull, that the idea that no one owned land until it was claimed by Europeans “never applied in Canada.”

Pope Apologizes to Indigenous People of Canada by Elisabetta Povoledo and Ian Austen, The New York Times, April 1, 2022

I wasn’t sure what image might be appropriate for such a horrific subject. I took this photo at the destination of the first day of the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March. A small group of native and nonnative people walked and camped together along the path of the Dakota Access pipeline through central Iowa. Our sacred journey required eight days and nights to walk ninety-four miles, Sept 1-8, 2018. The intent of beginning a community who began to know and trust each other was achieved. Since, many of us have worked together in many ways, which have strengthened our bonds. [see: https://firstnationfarmer.com/]

Networking

Yesterday I was struck by all the interconnected relationships among my friends at Des Moines Mutual Aid.

I was happy to see my friend Donnielle at Mutual Aid for the first time yesterday. She and I were part of the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March, September 1-8, 2018. A small group of native and non-native people walked and camped along the path of the Dakota Access pipeline, from Des Moines to Fort Dodge, Iowa (ninety-four miles). One of the main purposes of that walk was to create a group of people who began to get to know each other so we could work on issues of common interest and concern. That really worked and many of us have worked together in many ways since. One of the first things several of us did together, was to lobby Senator Grassley’s staff to support a couple of bills related to safety of Indigenous women. That was in 2018. The renewal of the Violence Against Women Act was just passed and includes those tribal protections. The photo below at the Neal Smith Federal Building was taken the day of the meeting with Senator Grassley’s staff.

Jake, the climate justice advocate from Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI) was also there. Two weeks ago, I attended a board meeting of the Iowa Energy Center Board, having been asked to take photos there. Jake organized a group of us to attend the board meeting to try to get MidAmerican to shut down their five coal burning plants. We have since learned our presence there has had some effect. He also asked me to write a letter to the editor about the same issue, which I did. Yesterday Donnielle asked Jake about an upcoming city council meeting where MidAmerican’s franchise with the city will be discussed.

Jade was at Mutual Aid, as usual. She organizes the prison letter writing project of Central Iowa Democratic Socialists of America, which I have joined. A friend of mine in Indianapolis, a professor at the law school there, got me involved in Religious Socialism, part of DSA, hence the name of this blog.

And as usual, my good friend Ronnie was at Mutual Aid. I had told him about some transgender people who were looking for support. Yesterday we talked about that some more, and he gave me a couple of suggestions that I passed along.

My small Quaker meeting is also part of this networking. Some members have been supporters of ICCI for years. It is this meeting that is looking into how we might support the trans people. And I will be speaking about Mutual Aid during the annual gathering of Quakers this summer.

Other connections include supporting the Wet’suwet’en peoples as they try to stop the construction of the Costal GasLink pipeline through their pristine territory in British Columbia. In the photo below you can see Des Moines Black Lives Matter is helping us stand with the Wet’suwet’en.

The signs about Prairies Not Pipelines and #NOCO2PIPELINES was organized by my friend Sikowis, who also walked on the First Nation-Famer Climate Unity March.

Spirituality over religion

People ask me if I believe in god… I tell them I pray to creator.
They tell me Jesus died for me… I tell them my ancestors did.
They say I will burn in hell for not following the Bible, but it has been used as weapon to colonize and murder my people…
for me it’s spirituality over religion. I don’t hate people for going to church, but I do hate what the churches have done to us…
before colonization we had our own ways and ceremonies, I choose the path of my ancestors.
Indigenous

I find myself in a spiritual crisis regarding Christianity. I realize being a Christian and professing to be a Christian are often not the same.

The Christianity I cannot be part of is the weaponized version of a religion. One that created and enforced the doctrines of discovery which gave permission to steal indigenous lands and instructed killing the people living on them. That codified white supremacy and empire. That drove global colonization.

One that raised great wealth from stolen lands and labor. And then built ostentatious churches in the midst of profound poverty.

One that tore native children from their families and took them far away, to places of forced assimilation where every kind of abuse was visited upon them. Where thousands died or were killed. And their families were often not even told of their deaths. Where other children were sometimes forced to dig the graves. The trauma passed from generation to generation. An open wound in Indigenous communities to this day that I have witnessed in my native friends. A wound that has been ripped open with the verification of the remains of thousands of native children. With many more places that haven’t been scanned yet.

Part of the reason for my crisis is reading “American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World” by David Stannard. Recent scholarship has revealed sophisticated Indigenous communities in the Americas prior to the arrival of white men. And much larger numbers of Indigenous people, millions more than previously thought. Meaning millions more deaths occurred.

American holocaust.

The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world.
Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

More often than we realize, in ways we don’t recognize, white Quakers continue to benefit from the American Holocaust. Continue white domination.

We made a small step in learning about land acknowledgements. But those are empty statements if we don’t take the next steps. We need actions, not more words.

The reason I write and talk so much about my experiences with Mutual Aid is because that gets to the root causes of white supremacy. Mutual Aid exemplifies what Christianity is supposed to be. Mutual Aid is a means to begin decolonization.

As painful as it is, I know out of my confusion and distress, I will be led to a better place.

Real radicalism implores us to tell the whole ugly truth, even when it is inconvenient.
Brittney Cooper, Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (2018)

Congress reauthorizes Violence Against Women Act

Tribal nations are celebrating the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act.

Congress passed the omnibus spending package for the 2022 fiscal year late Thursday, which included major tribal provisions. It passed in the Senate with a 68-31 vote. The bill will now head to the president’s desk to be signed.

This means that tribal nations “will continue to increase safety and justice for victims who had previously seen little of either,” said Fawn Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians in a statement.

VAWA reauthorization headed to President’s desk. Tribal provisions passed in appropriations bill for 2022 fiscal year, INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY, March 11, 2022

The US Congress just passed the omnibus spending package that included major tribal provisions. Many people and organizations have been lobbying for these provisions for years. Below you will find some history of our lobbying efforts in Iowa since 2018. Despite frustrations about the process and time required, sometimes our goals are achieved. I am especially thankful for all I have learned about lobbying and the support from the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).

Coalition to Work with Senator Grassley

November 20, 2018

Today a coalition of Native and non-Native people, representing several organizations, met with Carol Olson, Senator Chuck Grassley’s State Director at the Federal Building in Des Moines, Iowa. Two of Senator Grassley’s staff from Washington, DC, joined us via a conference call. The meeting was a chance for us to get to know each other and find ways we can work with Senator Grassley and others to pass legislation to support Native American communities. Those who attended are shown in the photo below.

This coalition came together from two circumstances. One relates to the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March this September, where a group of about forty Native and non-Native people walked ninety-four miles, from Des Moines to Fort Dodge, along the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This March was organized by Bold Iowa, Indigenous Iowa and Seeding Sovereignty. The goal was the development of a community of Native and non-Native people who would get to know each other so we could work together on areas of common interest. All those in the photo were on the March except Shazi and Fox Knight, who are members of Bear Creek Friends Meeting, as am I.

The other circumstance is the desire of the Friends Committee on National Legislative (FCNL) to build teams of people to develop ongoing relationships with the staff of their U.S. Senators and Representatives in their in-district offices. FCNL is a 75-year-old Quaker organization that has worked to support legislation for peace and justice issues. FCNL is non-partisan and has developed an extensive national network of Friends and others who support this work for peace and justice. Since the 1950’s Native American Affairs have been one of the principal areas of focus of the organization.

During this meeting, I talked about the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the SURVIVE Act. Christine Nobiss (Sikowis) spoke about the racism and violence against Native women and Savanna’s Act. Everyone else then contributed to the discussions.

Jeff Kisling, Fox and Shazi Knight, Christine Nobiss, Shari Hrdina and Sid Barfoot

October 15, 2018

Dear Mr. Kisling:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me to express your support for a tribal set-aside within the Crime Victims Fund. As your senator, it is important that I hear from you.

I was an original cosponsor of the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), which established the Crime Victims Fund. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I’ve also called on congressional appropriations leaders to provide an appropriate funding stream for Tribes under VOCA. As stated in a letter I initiated to the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year, “individuals on Tribal lands experience high rates of domestic and sexual violence, and resources from the Crime Victims Fund are critical in addressing” these victims’ needs. This letter was cosigned by several dozen of my Senate colleagues.

I hope you find this information helpful. Your involvement in this issue is important, and I encourage you to keep in touch.

Sincerely,

Chuck Grassley
United States Senate

“For too long, tribal communities have been under-resourced and under-supported in their pursuit of justice,” said FCNL General Secretary Bridget Moix. “By reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act as part of the omnibus spending package, lawmakers are helping chart a more just and secure future for Native communities across the country.”
“Expanding tribal criminal jurisdiction strengthens the capacity of tribes to exercise their sovereign authority to protect their citizens,” said Portia K. Skenandore-Wheelock, FCNL’s Native American advocacy program congressional advocate. “The ability of tribal nations to hold all perpetrators accountable is directly linked to protecting tribal communities from further violence and truly getting a handle on this crisis.”
As a Quaker organization, FCNL continues a historic commitment to working in solidarity with Native American communities in support of the full realization of their rights.
Quaker Lobby Commends Congress for Reauthorizing Violence Against Women Act by Alex Frandsen, Friends Committee on National Legislative, March 11, 2022

The historic tribal provisions in VAWA:

Reaffirm Tribal Nations’ jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indian perpetrators of child violence, sexual violence, sex trafficking, stalking, crimes against tribal law enforcement and correctional officers, and obstruction of justice;
Establish an Alaska pilot project, which will allow a limited number of Alaska Native Villages to exercise Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction and civil jurisdiction over non-Indian perpetrators for the first time since the 1998 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie;
Clarify that all Tribal Nations in Maine can exercise tribal jurisdiction under VAWA;
Ensure that non-Indian defendants must exhaust all Tribal court remedies;
Reauthorize funding for and amending the Tribal Access Program, to ensure that all Tribal Nations can access national crime information systems for criminal justice and non-criminal justice purposes;
Make the 2010 Bureau of Prisons Tribal Prisoner Program permanent and allow Tribal Nations to place offenders in federal facilities that are sentenced to one year or more; and
Significantly increase resources for Tribal Nations to exercise Special Tribal Criminal Jurisdiction and establish a reimbursement program to cover tribal costs.

National Congress of American Indians

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uOAEpwyjQXi_NjF30w85aA

NCAI Tribal Leader Town Hall on the Violence Against Women Act

Date: March 16, 2022
Time: 2:00 – 3:15 p.m. EDT

NCAI will host a virtual Town Hall on March 16, 2022 on the VAWA reauthorization to discuss this historic moment for Indian Country, review the tribal provisions in the law, and highlight the next steps for Tribal Nations. More information to come.

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uOAEpwyjQXi_NjF30w85aA

What else is in the bill?

$6.707 billion for Native health programs at the Department of Health and Human Services

$6.63 billion for Indian Health Service programs, including $2.3 billion for IHS clinical services
$55 million for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Tribal Opioid Response grant program
$22 million for Health Resource and Services Administration grants to the Native Hawaiian Health Care Systems

$3.65 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education at the Department of the Interior

$7 million for DOI’s Indian Boarding School Initiative to conduct a comprehensive review of the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies

$1 billion for Native American housing programs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development

$922 million for the Indian Housing Block Grant program
$72.09 million for the Indian Community Development Block Grant program
$22.3 million for the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant program

More than $86 million to address the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis and public safety needs of Native communities

$50 million for the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs assistance to tribes
$25 million for DOI’s initiative to address MMIW cases
$5.5 million for DOJ’s Office of Violence Against Women Tribal VAWA implementation grant program
$3 million for a DOJ initiative to support cross-designation of tribal prosecutors as Tribal Special Assistant United States Attorneys
$1 million for DOJ – OVW to conduct analysis & research on violence against Indian women
$1 million to support establishment of a Native Hawaiian Resource Center on Domestic Violence
$500,000 for a national Training and Technical Assistance clearinghouse on issues relating to sexual assault of American Indian and Alaska Native women
Five percent set-aside for tribes to receive direct funding from the Crime Victims Fund

More than $47.5 million for programs to support Native American languages and cultures

$16 million for Tribal Historic Preservation Officers
$14 million for HHS’s Administration for Native Americans Native language grant programs
$9.37 million for the Department of Education’s K-12 Native American language immersion grants
$2.3 million for Native American and Hawaiian museum services
$1.5 million for Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native culture and arts development
$1.5 million for DOI Native American language instruction and immersion programs for federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations
$1.5 million for Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act implementation and enforcement at BIA
$1 million for the National Bison Range
$600,000 for a cultural resource study to protect Chaco Canyon
$500,000+ for ED to fund establishment of a Native American Language Resource Center

More than $65.42 million in tribal climate and environmental resiliency funding to help tribal communities address and prepare for the effects of climate change

$5 million for DOI’s tribal climate adaptation grants
$8 million for DOI’s tribal relocation grants
$10.65 million for reclamation of abandoned mines on tribal lands
$4.8 million for clean energy development through BIA Minerals and Mining
$12 million for mitigation of environmental impacts of Department of Defense activities on Indian lands
$6 million for the tribes wildlife conservation grant program at DOI’s Fish and Wildlife Service

VAWA reauthorization headed to president’s desk. Tribal provisions passed in appropriations bill for 2022 fiscal year, INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY, March 11, 2022

Hearing from Quakers in Kyiv, Ukraine

I recently wrote about support for Quakers in Kyiv, Ukraine, including the peace posters sent from students at Monteverde Friends School in Cosa Rica.

This morning at our meeting of Bear Creek Friends, we approved sending the following message to Quakers in Kyiv and were very relieved to receive the following response from them.

You’re our friends, the best friends on the planet,
those who send kind and deep words.
We are happy to have you with us and believe that God will make a miracle and stop the war.

https://www.facebook.com/QuakersKyivUkraine/

Quakers Of Kyiv, Ukraine / Квейкери Києва

Welcome to the page of Ukrainian supporters of Quakerism.
Religious Society of Friends is a Protestant Christian church, known for its humanistic orientation, human rights and environmental guidelines, etc.
The Quaker prayer meeting is first and foremost a time of peace. This is an hour free from unnecessary words.
Quakers in the world have different currents. We, the Quakers of Kyiv, belong to the liberal trend without the well-known religious speechifying and lexicon.
Seekers of friendship, peace, truth, and equality are cordially invited to the meeting, following the Spirit’s guidance in affairs, ready for the hour of silent worship.
Details on messenger:
m.me/QuakersKyivUkraine
by e-mail: quakers@ukr.net

Support for Ukraine

Here is some information related to support for Ukraine.

There is news from Quakers of Kyiv, Ukraine, including how to connect for meeting for worship.
Information from Mennonite Central Committee who have been in Ukraine since the 1920’s
Posters of support 7/8 grade students at Monteverde Friends School in Costa Rica. sent to Ukraine Quakers.
There will be a ZOOM meeting for worship sharing related to Ukraine at 7:00 pm Central on Thursday, March 3. Everyone is welcome. Email me for the link. jakislin@outlook.com

Quakers Of Kyiv, Ukraine / Квейкери Києва

February 25, 2022

Despite everything, we prepare for silent prayer worship on Sunday at 10:30 Kyiv Time EET Eastern European Time UTC/GMT +2 hours
We did it and we’ll do it again!

zoom.us/j/718459680
Passcode: 002873

If you are unable to enter this conference due to the limited number of participants, there will be an opportunity behind this link to enter:
https://zoom.us/j/95573361111
Passcode: d02uNj

February 24, 2022

Dear Friends!

We don’t know anything about how our traditional meeting of worship will go. It is not clear whether the Internet and electricity will be available, whether we will be in the capital or evacuated.

Today all Kyiv people were warned that the city will be bombed. And that all citizens should be ready to hear the sound of sirens go to the bomb shelter.

We don’t lose our temper. God and your prayers help us.

This is the kind of lovely support we get from Costa Rica. (see the following from Monteverde Friends School.)

When I contacted Monteverde Friends School for permission to share the signs from the students, Ellen told me, “The post with the 7/8 class posters for the people of Ukraine has already gone to over 11,000 people, with 112 shares on the post. “

The post with the 7/8 class posters for the people of Ukraine has already gone to over 11,000 people, with 112 shares on the post.
Ellen, Monteverde Friends School

Monteverde Friends School / Escuela de los Amigos de Monteverde

February 24, 2022

Update: Quakers in Kyiv have shared these posters on their page!

Our 7/8 grade social science class discussed the war in Ukraine today and made these posters for the Ukraine people. https://www.facebook.com/QuakersKyivUkraine/

#wearewithyouUkraine

Mennonite Central Committee

MCC has worked in Ukraine since our beginnings in 1920, opening soup kitchens to provide relief to thousands of starving families. Our current projects include relief, peace, health and education.

Since the beginning of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, MCC has worked with partners to assist internally displaced people (IDPs) and to build peace. The UNHCR reports there are some 1.8 million IDPs and conflict-affected people in Ukraine.

“We pray that hard hearts of conquest will be softened. We pray that the very best practices of peace will prevail among leaders. We pray gratefully that your spirit of healing and hope is present.” Rick Cober Bauman and Ann Graber Hershberger, executive directors of MCC, share a prayer for peace in Ukraine. We invited you to pray, give and advocate for peace for our global neighbours in Ukraine.

For more information, or to make a gift, please visit,
mcc.org/crisis-ukraine

Peace and the seeds of war

It is devastating to see the images and hear the stories of the Russian invasion into Ukraine. It is disheartening to feel helpless. Good to see the efforts many governments are attempting for nonviolent means to end the war.

I’ve been praying about the statements below from early Friends admonishing us to look at ourselves, to explore what in our lives might contain the seeds of war.

I don’t say this to call attention to myself because my carbon footprint is many times greater than that of those who live in less industrialized countries. But it was a crystal-clear spiritual message that led me to live without owning a car. This was in 1975. Think of what might have been if all Friends had done so then. Such an example by thousands of Friends would have influenced others to do the same, I believe.

Would have resulted in good mass transit systems.
Would have dramatically slowed fossil fuel emissions and at least slowed the accelerating environmental catastrophe.
Might have prevented multiple wars for oil.
Might have meant the Dakota Access and other pipelines would not have been built.
Might have meant our children would have a livable future.

I can’t believe the Spirit did not say this to everyone. Did Friends not hear the message? Or if they did hear it, they must have decided to ignore it. On further reflection, I don’t know what the Spirit is saying to anyone else. Again, I’m not saying I’m blameless.

This time of war is an opportunity to listen to the Spirit, to that still small voice. To support each other. During our meetings for worship. To hold worship sharing meetings. And act on that spiritual guidance. Either individually and/or together as a meeting. To make a “commitment to active peace making” as Sidney Bailey says below.

Iowa Holocaust Memorial

I’ve been feeling unanchored by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I came of age during the Vietnam War and was involved in draft conferences, a twelve-mile peace walk from Scattergood Friends School to the University of Iowa, during the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam, and conscientious objection that led to draft resistance.

Entire Scattergood Friends School peace walk, twelve miles to Iowa City

One of the scariest things three of us Scattergood students did, as suggested by our history and government teacher, Bob Berquist, was to go into the small town of West Branch, Iowa, near the school to ask people what they thought about the war. We just walked up to random houses and knocked on the door. What a wise thing he taught us. Instead of the angry defense of the war we expected, universally everyone was upset about the war.

All those years since, I’m sorry to say, I’ve become numb to the stories of the United States’s violence in so many countries. Death by remote control, armed drones, and the civilian casualties from them. One of the worst things I learned was how terrorized the people, the children were from the sounds of the drones overhead.

As I wrote yesterday, as I prayed about war and what I could do, I was led to the video describing the time when Scattergood Friends School was a hostel for people, refugees, fleeing from their countries during the second world war. In that video, below, Michael Luick-Thrams tells the history of the Scattergood Hostel. That was the subject of his book, Out of Hitler’s Reach: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees, 1939-43. That story makes me wonder if there might be ways for us to help refugees from the current war.

I finally found these photos I’d planned to use in yesterday’s post. They were taken at the Iowa Holocaust Memorial. Which includes a quote by Michael Luick-Thrams.

Constructed during the summer of 2013, the Iowa Holocaust Memorial is situated outdoors on the grounds of the West Terrace at the State Capitol, near the corner of East Grand Avenue and East 7th Street in Des Moines.
With four walls of aluminum engraved with inscriptions and photographs, and arrayed in an artistic design, the memorial was established to commemorate the millions, including six million Jews, murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II in Europe; to express gratitude to the Iowans who, as members of the U.S. armed forces, participated in the liberation of the concentration camps in 1945; and in honor of the survivors who came to Iowa.
Iowa Holocaust Memorial

The following describes Michael’s recent work, a bus tour about the social and political struggles of the First World War and the inter-war years. My friend, Leo Ko, accompanied the tour. Leo is from Afghanistan and a graduate of Scattergood Friends School, too. He gave me a tour of the exhibit last summer when the bus was at the Living History Farm in Des Moines, Iowa.

The “BUS-eum History Tour” will visit to present the exhibit “Hidden or Forbidden No More: Prequels to the ‘Greatest Generation,’ 1914-39.”
“Hidden or Forbidden No More” will feature five sub-stories: Kickin’ the Kaiser; The Killer: 1918 Flu Pandemic; The Klan: America’s White Cancer; Cow Wars: Farmer Rebellions; and Whiskey Cookers.
The traveling exhibit was curated by Iowa-raised Dr. Michael Luick-Thrams.
“That period — the First World War through the inter-war years — saw various social and political struggles, both abroad, but moreover at home,” Luick-Thrams said. “Not only did we fight Germany twice, but in the U.S. various factions warred with each other.”
‘Hidden or Forbidden No More’ exhibit to highlight issues relevant to Iowa
‘BUS-eum History Tour’ rolling into Fort Museum Thursday by MICHAELA FRERICHS, The Messenger, August 17, 2021.

What can I do?

I feel this strong tension to be doing something about the war in Ukraine. But I don’t know what that would be. What is the Spirit calling me, calling us to do? I was glad to come upon Clarence Pickett’s quote, at the time of World War II, because I have been feeling paralyzed. Not only from the war in Ukraine, but from so many things that make it feel like everything is falling apart. COVID, state sanctioned violence, political polarization, and the increasing environmental chaos to name just a few.

“The world was breaking loose in so many places that it was difficult to know how to think about one’s responsibilities…it was important in such a time not to become simply paralyzed by the quantity of the need.”
Clarence Pickett

I have been thinking about Quaker’s response to Nazism and World War II. I know the Scattergood Hostel story because many of my relatives and I attended Scattergood, a Quaker boarding high school.

In addition to assisting those still in Europe, the Quakers helped newly arrived refugees adjust to life in the United States. The AFSC established a series of workshops and hostels to help refugees learn English and prepare for their new lives, including Sky Island Hostel in Nyack, New York; the Haverford Cooperative Workshop in Haverford, Pennsylvania; and the Quaker Hill Hostel in Richmond, Indiana. The largest and longest-running hostel was Scattergood, in West Branch, Iowa, where more than 185 refugees lived between 1940 and 1943. Working with the Joint, Hertha Kraus traveled to Havana, Cuba, in 1939 to found the Finca Paso Seco hostel, where refugees could learn agricultural trades.
Holocaust Encyclopedia

Michael Luick-Thrams has written a lot about the Scattergood Hostel, including the book, Out of Hitler’s Reach: The Scattergood Hostel for European Refugees, 1939-43. See more about Michael’s work here: https://www.traces.org/

In this video Michael tells the Scattergood Hostel story.