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FCNL, Iowa Quakers and Native Americans

Members of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) (Quakers) have a long history of involvement with the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). FCNL is the national lobbying organization that works to promote legislation consistent with Quaker beliefs in the US Congress.

Every two years FCNL contacts all the Quaker meetings and churches in the US, to ask what those meetings’ legislative priorities are. All those responses are combined into a list of the priorities that FCNL and its supporters will work on during that Congress. (See below). Following are several recent stories about Iowa Quakers’ work with FCNL, which shows the variety of ways this work can be done.

A couple of days ago FCNL published the following story about a national FCNL network for Indigenous justice (see below). One of the priorities for this Congress is “witness and advocate for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian rights and concerns. Honor the treaties and promises.“

There is a web of interrelationships among Native and non-native peoples in the Midwest that presents opportunities to work together to learn and publish the truth about Indian Boardings Schools. There are parts of this that are only appropriate for each community to work on separately. But hopefully these Congressional visits will be the beginning of further work together.

This began with an appeal from Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) asking us to contact our Senators to support that legislation (S. 2907). And specifically, to do this during their current recess when they would be in Iowa.

I know my friend Sikowis Nobiss is interested in supporting legislation related to Native Americans, so I contacted her about this. She put me in touch with Jessica Engelking, who is also part of the Great Plains Action Society. Fortunately, I met Jessica when we were attending the Buffalo Rebellion conference recently. Some of the networking that occurred there.

When Jessica asked what Quakers have been doing related to our role in some of the residential schools, I shared FCNL’s decades of advocacy for Native Americans. We began to work together to arrange visits to our Senators about the truth and healing commission act, and included Jessica Bahena, FCNL’s National Organizer, who is FCNL’s contact related to this legislation in our planning.

I told Jessica Engelking about the great tool FCNL has to help people write emails to support causes. The template sends your email to your Congressional representatives and senators. And that FCNL has such a letter template to Support the Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools (see below).

I was really glad when she wrote a blog post for Great Plains Action Society, telling their supporters about this letter writing tool!

Support the Establishment of a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding Schools: Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

As children are returning to school, we are reminded that school has not always been a safe place for Native children. For many years, Native children were taken from their homes and placed in government and religious run institutions with the aim of stripping away their Native language, culture, and identity. We are only now beginning the painful process of bringing home the children left in unmarked graves at the boarding schools they were sent to (U.S. report identifies burial sites linked to boarding schools for Native Americans). We are still working on healing the damage of boarding school and intergenerational trauma (American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many : NPR). Healing from the damage caused by the boarding school system will require effort by not just those harmed, but the institutions that did the harming. There is great work being done by our comrades at the Friends Committee On National Legislation (Native Americans | Friends Committee On National Legislation). For this edition of our Open Letter Campaign, we are directing you to a letter from our friends at FCNL to help you in urging your representatives to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444).

The following is courtesy our much appreciated Quaker friends (esp Jeff!):

It is long overdue for the United States to acknowledge the historic trauma of the Indian boarding school era. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Christian churches collaborated with the government to create hundreds of boarding schools for Native American children. The conditions at these schools, some of them Quaker-run, were unspeakable.

Now we must work with tribal nations to advance congressional efforts to establish a federal commission to formally investigate boarding school policy and develop recommendations for the government to take further action. Although the wrongs committed at these institutions can never be made right, we can start the truth, healing, and reconciliation process for the families and communities affected as we work to right relationship with tribal nations.

Remind your members of Congress of their responsibility to tribal nations and urge them to support the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444).

https://www.greatplainsaction.org/single-post/open-letter-campaign-truth-and-healing-with-friends

A small group of us had meetings with Iowa’s Senators, Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley’s staffs about the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444).

The following are excerpts from blog posts regarding those visits.

This morning Jean and David Hansen, Rodger Routh and I met with John Hollinrake, Regional Director for Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst. Several others had planned to join us but didn’t make it.

We expressed our appreciation for Senator Ernst voting for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

I asked John if he was familiar with the Indian Boarding Schools. He indicated he had read the information I had sent from Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) in emails prior to this meeting. Some of the great support we received from FCNL

John listened attentively and took notes as we told our stories and why we hope Senator Ernst will cosponsor and vote for the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S. 2907/H.R. 5444).

Jeff Kisling, Jean and David Hansen and Rodger Routh. Photo credit Rodger Routh

Senator Ernst and Indian Boarding Schools Commission, 8/31/2022

Yesterday we had a meeting with Senator Ernst’s Regional Director John Hollinrake, to ask the senator to co-sponsor the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States Act (S 2907). John was very polite and attentive but offered no feedback.

It was a much different story just now when I had a Skype meeting with Reid Willis in Senator Grassley’s Washington, DC, office.

Reid was familiar with the history of Indian Boarding Schools. He told me Senator Grassley agreed with intent of S 2907 with two exceptions. He feels the commission would duplicate work already being done by the Department of Interior’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative (see below). And that such a commission should not have subpoena power. Senator Grassley feels this particularly because he is the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senator Grassley and Indian Boarding Schools Commission, Sept 1, 2022

National FCNL Network Mobilizes for Indigenous Justice

A diverse cohort of grassroots advocates are driving support for a Truth and Healing bill to address the Native boarding school era by Alex Frandsen and Bobby Trice, FCNL, November 17, 2022.

A diverse cohort of grassroots advocates are driving support for a Truth and Healing bill to address the Native boarding school era by Alex Frandsen and Bobby Trice, FCNL, November 17, 2022.

FCNL Priorities for the 117th Congress (2021-2022)

Since the early days of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), God’s spirit has led Friends to be a prophetic witness and to take action in the world. Friends are called to promote genuine equality of opportunity and communities in which everyone can safely live, learn, work, worship, and love.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) brings Friends’ spiritual values and testimonies to bear on U.S. public policy decisions, guided by the legislative priorities below.

Our work continues to be understanding and addressing the root causes and long-term consequences of today’s crises.

We are mindful that our nation has a special responsibility to redress the consequences of our history of slavery and genocide, together with ongoing race-based discrimination and oppression.

With each priority below, we will identify, expose, and work to eliminate institutional racism, institutional sexism, and other forms of systemic discrimination.

The order of these priorities does not reflect their comparative importance.

  • Promote peacebuilding by emphasizing diplomacy and honoring treaties and by working towards peaceful prevention and resolution of violent conflict, especially in the Middle East.
  • Confront the paradigm of global militarism, demilitarize space, reduce military spending, limit the spread of conventional weapons, prevent armed interventions, repeal the Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs), and reassert Congress’ oversight role.
  • Promote nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.
  • Advocate for a justice system that is just and equitable, eliminates mass incarceration and police brutality, and establishes law-enforcement that is community-oriented and demilitarized.
  • Ensure that the U.S. immigration system promotes and respects the rights, safety, humanity, and dignity of all immigrants, refugees, and migrants.
  • Support equitable access for all to participate in open, secure, and transparent political and electoral processes; protect the integrity of our democratic institutions and processes; and work to ensure honesty and accountability of elected and appointed officials.
  • End gun violence by supporting policies that are informed by public health best practices.
  • Witness and advocate for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian rights and concerns. Honor the treaties and promises.
  • Address structural economic inequality through measures such as a fair and progressive tax system, a living wage for all, and an adequate social safety net.
  • Prioritize programs that meet basic needs, including universal access to quality affordable healthcare, a necessity magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Strengthen environmental protections and advance environmental justice, while recognizing the finite capacity of the earth and the need to protect human, animal, and plant diversity.
  • Promote sustainable, science-based solutions to the climate crisis and prioritize international cooperation to achieve global sustainability goals and protect vulnerable populations.

FCNL solicited the views and concerns of Quaker meetings, churches, and organizations around the country to help discern these priorities for our lobbying and public education work during the 117th Congress (2021-2022).

The Legislative Priorities for the 117th Congress was approved in November 2020 by the FCNL General Committee. The discernment process took nearly two years under the leadership of the FCNL Policy Committee. It is based on the discernment of more than 200 Quaker meetings, churches, and other organizations.

FCNL Priorities for the 117th Congress (2021-2022)

Honoring all victims of war, including those who resisted

I have wished there were a memorial for those who resisted war. It was disconcerting to live in Indianapolis where there are blocks of war memorials downtown. The city streets are laid out from the Circle in the center of the city, where the Soldiers and Sailors Monument stands. Ironically, I have taken many photos over many years of anti-war and other demonstrations that have been held at the Circle.

Anti-war demonstration on the Circle, downtown Indianapolis

I’m grateful that a Quaker friend sent me this article in Bleeding Heartland.

By an act of Congress in 1954, the name of the holiday (Armistice Day) was changed to Veterans Day. Some, including the novelist Kurt Vonnegut and Rory Fanning of Veterans for Peace, have urged the U.S. to resume observation of November 11th as Armistice Day, a day to reflect on how we can achieve peace as it was originally observed.

It is in that spirit that we honor the original intent of Armistice Day this morning by honoring all victims of war, including those who resisted war, those who have advocated for peace.

Those who advocate for peace may do so in ways that challenge us. I would like to take the next few minutes to share with you stories of three advocates for peace, all associated with the University of Iowa over the past century, but each one following his own conviction in his own way.

Honoring all victims of war, including those who resisted by David McCartney, Bleeding Heartland, Nov 15, 2022

Steve Smith burns his draft card during “Soapbox Sound Off” in the Iowa Memorial Union on Oct. 20, 1965. Image from the 1966 Hawkeye yearbook, University Archives (RG 02.10), Department of Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
The Daily Iowan, Oct. 21, 1965. Image from University Archives (RG 02.11), Department of Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.

Steve Smith, a slight 20-year old sophomore English major, took the speaker’s stand Wednesday afternoon and spoke quietly of what he believed. He then burned his draft card.

The audience of approximately 200 persons had known what was coming. Comments, encouragement and laughter greet Smith. An emotional debate on the virtue of U.S. policy in Viet Nam had preceded his appearance. But Smith was very much alone in his act of defiance. He said he was “sick to my stomach” at what he was doing.

“I feel,” Smith said, “that now is the time, because of my own sense of dignity, my own sense of morality, to burn my draft card.” He took the card from the pocket of his sweater and ignited it.

U of Iowa Student Burns Draft Card During ‘Sound Off’. Steve Smith, 20, Says His Action Moral Decision by Paul Butler, The Daily Iowan, Oct 21, 1965

By the following summer (1964), Steve grew restive. He became a political activist, speaking out against racial segregation and participating in local marches calling for an end to racial discrimination. In July 1964, while in Canton, Miss., to help register African-Americans to vote, he was detained by a sheriff’s deputy and beaten brutally while in custody (The Des Moines Register, July 18, 1964). He was 19 at the time.

Steve’s attention turned toward the escalating U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. During 1964 and early 1965, there were scattered but growing antiwar protests around the country, including instances of draft card burning. The cards, issued by the Selective Service System to draft-eligible men between the ages of 18 and 35, became a symbolic target of antiwar protestors. Alarmed by the trend, Congress passed, and President Lyndon Johnson signed, a law in August 1965 criminalizing the destruction of draft cards: a maximum five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

For nearly two months, the law had its intended effect. But the silence ended on Oct. 15 when David J. Miller burned his draft card near an induction center in New York City. Five days later, on Oct. 20, Steve Smith became the first in the nation to do so on a college campus after the law’s enactment.

He did so during “Soapbox Sound Off,” a weekly open-mic session in the Iowa Memorial Union. Reaction from those in attendance was reportedly mixed: some cheered, others jeered. Smith was steadfast. “I do not feel that five years of my life are too much to give to say that this law is wrong,” he said at the forum. The next day’s newspapers reported that his father was unsympathetic and highly critical of his son’s action.

Two days later, FBI agents arrested Steve at an Iowa City apartment, where he was charged with violating the Rivers-Bray amendment to the Selective Service law. He left the UI after the fall 1965 semester and, while under arrest, married his first wife in Cedar Rapids the following February. For the charge of willful destruction of his Selective Service registration card, he was tried and convicted in U.S. District Court in 1966 and sentenced to three years’ probation. The Eighth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld his conviction later that year.

Old Gold: Steve Smith, following his conscience. UI archivist seeks info about the student who burned his draft card in 1965 by David McCartney, Iowa Now, 7/30/2012

Today we honor the good work of people like Steve. We honor his patriotism, his willingness to question our government’s actions. We honor his desire for a more just and generous and peaceful society. And we honor his legacy of courage that bloomed on our campus 57 years ago.

The University has taken steps to acknowledge this act of civil disobedience, and it has done so by recently installing a plaque in the Iowa Memorial Union. The plaque was unveiled last month and it recounts Steve Smith’s antiwar protest and its historic significance, an event that prompted further debate about the war not only on campus, but across the state and across the nation. I invite you to visit and view the plaque, which is located on the lower level of the Iowa Memorial Union near the south entrance.

The debate over war is never-ending.

…

What can we do? How do we respond, when our government engages in these practices? What can we do, individually or collectively?

We might feel powerless, we might feel hopeless, but we can start with ourselves. And we can do so on our terms. At age 18, in 1974, I registered for the Selective Service as a conscientious objector. It was a symbolic act, as the draft had been suspended by that time; I nonetheless found it necessary to commit myself to doing so. Yet as a U.S. taxpayer I realize I am complicit in the activities recounted in the Brennan Center report. Increasing charitable donations, in lieu of taxes, is perhaps one way to address this.

There is no single answer. But a common thread is hope. Rebecca Solnit writes,

I believe in hope as an act of defiance, or rather as the foundation for an ongoing series of acts of defiance, those acts necessary to bring about some of what we hope for while we live by principle in the meantime. There is no alternative, except surrender. And surrender not only abandons the future, it abandons the soul.

Rebecca Solnit

This of course is easier said than done. But if we recognize that the decisions we make come from our truth, as Steve Smith had done in 1965 in the face of hostility, we may find peace with ourselves. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhaur said, All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

In closing, I would like to share this from Kristen Suagee-Beauduy:

Resistance is not a one lane highway. Maybe your lane is protesting, maybe your lane is organizing, maybe your lane is counseling, maybe your lane is art activism, maybe your lane is surviving the day. Do NOT feel guilty for not occupying every lane. We need all of them.

Kristen Suagee-Beauduy

Honoring all victims of war, including those who resisted by David McCartney, Bleeding Heartland, Nov 15, 2022

I am grateful to learn about Steve Smith’s story and that he was a student at the University of Iowa.

I began as a student at Scattergood Friends School, a Quaker boarding high school in 1966, not far from the University of Iowa. While a student at Scattergood, in 1968 I attended the national conference on the draft and conscription, held at Earlham College. https://jeffkisling.com/2019/10/05/richmond-declaration-on-the-draft/

Friends Coordinating Committee on Peace has announced a national conference on the draft and conscription to be held at Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana), October 11th through 13th. It is primarily planned as a working conference, with about 180 representatives from Yearly Meetings, Friends schools and other Friends’ organizations and seventy to a hundred additional Friends appointed at large. A detailed program and other information may be obtained from FCCP, 1520 Race Street, Philadelphia, 19102.  

Friends Journal 8/15/1968

When I was a Senior, during one of the days of the Moratorium to end the war in Vietnam, Oct 15, 1969, the entire student body (about sixty) walked from the school into Iowa City, to the University of Iowa (about 12 miles). During another of the Moratorium days, Nov 15, 1969, we held a conference about the war and the draft at the school.

October 11, 1969  School Committee Day

From the Scattergood Friends School committee minutes:

A group of students attended Committee meeting and explained plans for their participation in the October 15 Moratorium. The Committee wholeheartedly endorses the plans. The following statement will be handed out in answer to any inquiries:

“These students and faculty of Scattergood School are undertaking the twelve mile walk from campus to Iowa City in observance of the October 15 Moratorium. In order not to detract from the purpose of the walk, we have decided to remain silent. You are welcome to join us in this expression of our sorrow and disapproval of the war and loss of life in Vietnam. Please follow the example of the group and accept any heckling or provocation in silence.”

Scattergood Friends School students’ Peace Walk from the School to the University of Iowa on the Moratorium to end the war in Vietnam

I turned in my draft cards but was not prosecuted. Unfortunately, my schoolmate, Daniel Barrett was imprisoned for his draft resistance. Our stories can be found in those collected by (Quaker) Don Laughlin, Young Quaker Men Facing War and Conscription.

My friend and mentor, Don Laughlin (Quaker) collected stories of Quaker men facing war and conscription.

https://1drv.ms/b/s!Avb9bFhezZpPi7YFXFpPjpzhJin_rA?e=KJCZnO

David F. McCartney, University Archives

david mccartney

McCartney is a dedicated archivist ensuring access to University of Iowa history and highlighting voices that are underrepresented in the archives. McCartney has developed relationships across campus, working with classes or faculty in every department. After publishing an award-winning article on the life of UI student Stephen Smith, a young man from a small Iowa town who found his voice through civil rights activism in the 1960s, McCartney organized the Historical Iowa Civil Rights Network to bring together related repositories and collections from across the state. He also established the Stephen Lynn Smith Memorial Scholarship for Social Justice. He has served as a consultant for many smaller archives and libraries in Iowa and volunteers with smaller nonprofit organizations. He has held many positions in the Midwest Archives Conference, including president, and makes invaluable contributions to the Big Ten Academic Alliance University Archivist Group and the Consortium of Iowa Archivists.

UI honors recipients of 2020 faculty, staff awards by JACK ROSSI, Iowa Now, 11/17/2020

https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/hicrn/

The Historical Iowa Civil Rights Network uncovers, preserves, and shares the stories of Iowans who participated in Civil Rights-related activity or the African American experience. HICRN  is made up of community members, archivists, historians, librarians, former Civil Rights workers, and others from across Iowa who seek and preserve photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, letters, personal memoirs, and oral history interviews. https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/hicrn/

Although not exactly a memorial for war resisters, my dad, Burt Kisling, and Chuck Day, both Quakers, worked to have this sculpture of three intertwined doves, the “Path to Peace”, installed in downtown Des Moines, Iowa.

“Path to Peace”, Des Moines, Iowa

Spiritual connections for survival

For many years I’ve been praying, thinking, writing, and discussing how we can prepare for an increasingly dystopian future. In an article in Friends Journal, Donald McCormick asks “why is there no vision for the future of Quakerism?”  I wrote about my vision in the article What is your vision for the future?

The increasing threats from environmental devastation and chaos lead me to share more of my vision, which has been evolving over the past several years. It’s taken me a long time to write this article, I think because I haven’t found resources available to check on what I’m saying here.

I’ve always believed the greatest problem to solve is how communities of the future organize and govern themselves. We’ll have to do things differently because our present systems are collapsing. Which is often not a bad thing since those systems are based on colonialism and capitalism.

Spirituality

Spirituality is especially important now as we experience increasing environmental chaos, which will contribute to further social, economic, and political collapse. We will have no choice but to band together for the survival of us all. The alternative is tribalism with its violence, destruction and death.

We will need the help of those who know survival skills that we don’t. It takes time to build the trust necessary for these connections. It is urgent to do this now. It is by the Spirit that we can engage with everyone around us, of all cultures, identities, ethnicities.

  • Spirituality can show us how to live with integrity now. How to be examples to others. This is how change happens.
  • The Creator can help us heal the wounds of the past. And the wounds that will be inflicted in the future.
  • The Spirit can guide us through the coming chaos.
  • It is by the Spirit we create connections among diverse peoples.

Kheprw Institute (KI)

One set of my spiritual experiences relates to my introduction to a community of people of color, the Kheprw Institute (KI). I wrote about this in detail at: https://jeffkisling.com/2021/03/14/white-quakers-and-spiritual-connections-with-the-kheprw-institute/

At my first meeting with the KI community, I was asked a number of questions. When I said I was a Quaker, one of the adults (the group was mainly teenagers) spoke about the history of Quakers related to the underground railroad. When she finished, all eyes turned to me. I said I was glad my ancestors did that, it was the right thing to do, but we try not to take credit for things we have not done ourselves. When I was asked to speak more about that, I wasn’t sure what to say. I remember clearly that an answer came from the Spirit, which told me to not only say that Quakers believe there is that of God in everyone, but to also look into the eyes of each one there and say, “and that includes you”. Each person smiled at me when I did that. That ended the questioning, and I was welcomed into the community. We had this spiritual basis for our work together.

But that was just the first step. Trust was built, but slowly. With permission, I invited members of my Quaker community to engage with KI’s monthly book discussions. This was one way we began to get to know each other. But it was two years after this introduction before I was invited to teach a class on photography for KI.

Kheprw Institute, Indianapolis

First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March

Because of my lifelong commitment to care for our environment, I’d always wanted to learn about Indigenous peoples and their sustainable lives. I jumped at the opportunity to do so when I heard about the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March in 2018. The intention was to build a community of native and nonnative people by walking and camping together along the route of the Dakota Access pipeline from Des Moines to Fort Dodge, Iowa (94 miles). Many long hours walking together, for eight days, along empty Iowa gravel roads was very effective in creating the beginnings of trust. There were about fifteen native and fifteen nonnative people, which allowed each of us the opportunity to share stories with every other person.

I’d hoped there would be ways to learn more about their spirituality, and to share some about my own. But I knew there was a huge barrier between us related to Friends’ involvement in the institutions of forced assimilation of native children. It is uncomfortable to admit this, but at the time I wondered how much awareness there was about the Indian Boarding Schools. I was soon to learn how profound that trauma was, and how it was passed from generation to generation. Is a deep wound today in every Indigenous person I know. I discuss this in detail in White Quakers and Native Peoples and other writings.

I didn’t know if, or how, the occasion might occur to talk about this during the March. Or whether I should.

But I vividly remember when the Spirit told me to say, “I know Quakers were involved in the Indian boarding schools and I’m sorry that happened” to the native person I was getting to know the best early in the March. I was worried saying that would upset him, open wounds. But he just nodded his head, and we kept walking together. But later in the day he said, “I want to tell you a story”, and proceeded to tell me a story related to him and his mother and the boarding schools.

At various times the Spirit led me to bring this up with each of my native friends. Every one of them and their families have had traumatic experiences related to forced assimilation. And the removal of native children from their homes continues in the guise of child welfare.

This is something that should not be taken lightly. A certain level of connection and trust is important. This is not about us (White people) and what we would like to see or do. There should be clear spiritual guidance.

I’ve found my Indigenous friends to be deeply spiritual. I like the sign, Earth is my church, carried by my friends Foxy and Alton Onefeather during the March. That says a lot about why I feel my friends are spiritual, their reverence of all things human and nonhuman. And their practices such as smudging, putting down tobacco, expressing thanks to the Creator each time they speak in public. Their humbleness. One friend often says “we are just pitiful people” during her prayers.

In the four years since that March, various combinations of us have had numerous opportunities to work together.

And yet again, that trust has been built, is being built slowly.

Foxy Onefeather holds sign on First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March (2018)

Spiritual guidance

Quakers believe our lives must be guided by the Spirit. But far too often people haven’t found, or don’t try to discern that spiritual guidance. They try to figure out how to do justice work on their own or in conjunction with like-minded people. with the best of intentions. That phrase usually indicates not listening to those affected by injustice. And indicates not having discerned what their faith is trying to tell them.

And that often results in unintended, harmful consequences. A common phrase to keep in mind is nothing about us without us. This is especially challenging for White people who are accustomed to their privileges. Often not even aware of those privileges. We would not need to qualify what our intentions were if we were following the leadership of the communities facing injustice.

One horrific example of best intentions gone wrong were the Indian boarding schools. A policy of forced assimilation of native children into White culture was thought by many to be a way to help Indian children adjust to the enveloping White society. But tens of thousands of children suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Thousands died. Genocide. And that trauma has been passed to each following generation, including todays. Every one of my native friends has been affected.

This is an example of difficulties in making connections between different communities and/or cultures. With this horrific history, and ongoing trauma, how can a bridge ever be built between these two cultures, White and Indigenous? Or between White and BIPOC people and communities? (Black, Indigenous and other people of color)

But for others, especially in the government and military, this policy and horror was exactly what they intended.

Mutual Aid

The Spirit also led me to become involved in a Mutual Aid community. And led me to be involved in efforts to abolish police and prisons. I’ve written extensively about these things on my website Quakers and Religious Socialism, Intersection of Mutual Aid, Abolition and Socialism.

How to create connections between different communities or cultures

Returning to Donald McCormick’s question, “why is there no vision for the future of Quakerism?” I’ve tried to express my answer here. In these increasingly trying times, spiritual guidance is crucial. Sharing this with others is a gift Quakers have to offer. But we need to understand the history and concepts of oppression. Of Quakers’ role in oppression. And discern how the Spirit is leading us.

Frontline communities are figuring out how to live when the systems that are supposed to serve them no longer do, if they ever did. White communities will look to these communities and their solutions for our own survival.

I was recently surprised when a Quaker friend said I had a way of finding and connecting with oppressed communities. Which made me realize something I hadn’t expressed before, which is we must seek out these communities ourselves. Be guided to these communities by the Spirit. Search for these opportunities. Searching social media is usually very useful. And we can learn what our Friends and friends are doing and join those efforts.

Following is a list of things I have been learning from my experiences related to making connections between different communities and/or cultures.

You have to be in it with them

When I say I pray each morning, seeking what to write, I do spend time in quietness. But I also research what my sources are saying.

I came across this photo I took in 2013 that I found on the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement’s (ICCI) website. The photo was taken at ICCI’s offices during the two days of training for leaders in the Keystone Pledge of Resistance. Where I learned so much about community organizing.

Keystone Pledge of Resistance training, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Des Moines, Iowa 2013

This reminds me we have been working on pipeline resistance for ten years. We defeated the Keystone XL pipeline, but not the Dakota Access pipeline. It also looks like the Coastal GasLink pipeline in British Columbia, on Wet’suwet’en lands, will be completed.

Now we are faced with the “false climate solutions” of several proposed carbon (CO2) pipelines in Iowa. The liquified carbon dioxide in these pipelines is a hazardous material that can be lethal when ruptures occur. If that happens in a densely populated area, there could be many deaths.

On November 9th, we held a rally against carbon capture in Des Moines, organized by the Buffalo Rebellion I’m a member of. See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2022/11/10/dont-look-down/

Part of that rally was blocking Third Street, in front of the Iowa Event Center, where the carbon pipeline supporters were meeting, for about twenty minutes.

Blocking traffic on third street in front of the Iowa Event Center.
Jake Grobe, ICCI and Buffalo Rebellion organizer

In this photo my friend Jake Grobe says “yes, these people stuck in traffic are impatient and angry. But so are we. How long have we waited for action on real climate solutions?”

That is demonstrated by the time span between this photo, and the one above, taken in 2013.

The images of the latest environmental catastrophe, Hurricane Nicole, are really stunning. And, of course, the erosion of beach fronts will only worsen. As another warning, the article below was published just today.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Nations will likely burn through their remaining carbon budget in less than a decade if they do not significantly reduce greenhouse gas pollution, a new study shows, causing the world to blow past a critical warming threshold and triggering catastrophic climate impacts.

World has nine years to avert catastrophic warming, study shows. Scientists say gas projects discussed at U.N. climate conference would seriously threaten world’s climate goals, by Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post, November 11, 2022

The question of human survival

Running throughout (Lopez’s book) Horizon is the question of human survival. The multiple threats we now face, especially the very real possibility of climate disaster, expose the tensions between human aspiration and ecological reality. Perhaps what is most needed, Lopez suggests, is for us to lament what we’ve destroyed, but also to praise and love the world we still have. “Mystery,” he writes, “is the real condition in which we live, not certainty.”

Bahnson: You’ve confronted the darkness you see on the horizon with anthropogenic climate change. How do you talk about this with audiences? People need to know what’s coming, yet if you overwhelm them with depressing news, they might freeze. How do you strike the balance between educator and artist?

Lopez: Whenever I speak in public, I write out a new talk. I begin by stipulating, with a modulated voice, that things are way worse than we imagine. And I offer some examples: the collapse of pollinating insect populations; the rise of nationalism; belligerent and ignorant narcissists like Donald Trump; methane gas spewing out of the Siberian tundra. You’re saying to everybody, “Let’s take off the rose-colored glasses now and see what our dilemma really is.” And then the second part of the talk is an evocation of the healing that is necessary and possible, a gradual elevation of the human spirit. It’s about the mobilization that is needed and which is within our reach. Then people know you’ve spoken truthfully, and you have evoked in each person a desire to help, to take care of their families, to have self-regard. I see this pattern in every talk I give. To remember, geographically, exactly where you are speaking that night, and to know whether there might be a full moon outside the building; to offer that sense of immediacy and groundedness; to underscore the specificity of the moment; and to be sure that you implicate yourself in the trouble. It all helps in these situations. If you attempt any version of “I know, and you don’t” or “This is not my fault” or “I am the holy messenger, and you’re the fools,” the evening ends in darkness. You have to be in it with them.

The World We Still Have. Barry Lopez On Restoring Our Lost Intimacy With Nature BY FRED BAHNSON, The Sun, DECEMBER 2019

You have to be in it with them

“And then the second part of the talk is an evocation of the healing that is necessary and possible, a gradual elevation of the human spirit. It’s about the mobilization that is needed and which is within our reach. Then people know you’ve spoken truthfully, and you have evoked in each person a desire to help, to take care of their families, to have self-regard”

I have experienced this healing with my Des Moines Mutual Aid community.

“You have to be in it with them” is the core concept of Mutual Aid. Perhaps more accurately stated, “we are all in this together”.

Please build Mutual Aid communities where you are.

Don’t Look Down

Don’t Look Down is a spoof of the recent movie Don’t Look Up in which people refuse to acknowledge a meteor heading for earth. That’s what came to me as I’m praying about what to write this morning.

One of the things I heard my friend Sikowis say recently was the earth below the surface is also sacred ground, part of Mother Earth. And we don’t know the consequences of digging pipelines underground. Thus, the title Don’t Look Down.

Some of the most powerful experiences I’ve had were each time we walked over the Dakota Access pipeline during the First Nation-Farmer Climate Unity March in 2018. We could feel the sinister black snake below. Several of us broke down in tears.

Ed, Miriam, Lakasha and Mahmud standing over the Dakota Access pipeline, 2018

As an example of how long many of us have been fighting, Miriam and Mahmud (in the photo) were at the rally against carbon pipelines yesterday. Most of us were fighting against fossil fuels for many years before that March. (My own fight began in the early 1970’s when I moved to Indianapolis and was so horrified by the clouds of noxious auto exhaust that I refused to own a car since.)

For a long time, I’ve been begging people to speak out against pipelines. Most recently carbon pipelines.
(See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/?s=carbon+co2 )

Few people have done so, as is the case in so many justice struggles, including opposition to the Keystone XL, Dakota Access, and Coastal GasLink pipelines. And yet we did defeat the Keystone XL pipeline.

There were probably less than two hundred people who showed up for yesterday’s rally. But the same small, core group of people were there, again. Sharing this work together, battling discouragement at times, has brought us closer together. We’ve formalized our connections by forming the Buffalo Rebellion.
(See: https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/buffalo-rebellion/ )

The Buffalo Rebellion is a coalition that includes Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Great Plains Action Society, Des Moines Black Liberation Movement, Iowa MMJ (Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice), SEIU Iowa (Service Employees International Union – Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa), Sierra Club Iowa Beyond Coal, and Cedar Rapids Sunrise Movement.

the earth below the surface is sacred ground

Sikowis

I’ve been to a lot of rallies, but yesterday’s Rally Against False Climate Solutions was the best organized I’ve experienced. As it says above, it was organized by the Buffalo Rebellion, which I’m glad to be a part of. My friend Jake Grobe, is Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement’s climate justice organizer. He sent many emails and social media posts ahead of the rally and was the leader for the rally’s march to the site of a convention of carbon pipeline supporters at the Iowa Event Center.

Jake and several others, including Jaylen Cavil of Des Moines Black Liberation, spoke out against carbon pipelines in the middle of the carbon capture convention the day before the rally.

The day before, members of CCI Action and Des Moines BLM disrupted a nationwide carbon capture convention in Des Moines during a panel that featured the 3 companies who want to force their greenwashing scam on America’s heartland– Summit, Navigator, and Wolf. 

When the panel claimed that most Iowans and landowners are in support of their pipelines, seven of us rose up to speak the truth. 

Watch today’s action here!

We’re not done shaking things up yet– we need you to join us tomorrow to give these corporate polluters a proper sendoff! 

Buffalo Rebellion will be holding a rally against false climate solutions tomorrow at 1PM

My friends Sikowis Nobiss and Mahmud Fitil, also part of the Buffalo Rebellion, were also very involved in preparing for, and being present at the rally. I was honored when Mahmud said they had an emblem for me and pinned it on my back.

One of the important things yesterday was safety. Water was available. There were several people that acted as parade marshals, wearing orange vests, who walked with us. And several street medics. There were also several cars that blocked intersections. Those cars also completely blocked the street where we stopped walking and rallied in front of the Iowa Event Center where the carbon pipeline conference was going on. Traffic was blocked for about twenty minutes. Jake (with a megaphone) said those driving might be angry and impatient but spoke of how angry we’ve been for years waiting for anything to be done about the climate crisis.

At the rally yesterday, Sikowis spoke of why it is so important for Indigenous voices to be heard.

Traffic blocked for a short time

Video slideshow of photos of the march.

Carbon pipeline resistance

Today I plan to be in Des Moines for a rally against false climate solutions.
(https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/2022/11/08/peacemaking-means-stopping-carbon-capture-and-pipelines/)

  • 1 pm rally at Cowles Commons
  • 1:30 pm March to the Iowa Events Center
  • 2:00 pm Protest outside as the convention is concluding
  • 3:30 pm Report back to the CCI office for food, refreshments and to debrief

There are several terms related to Carbon Capture and Storage/Sequestration (CCS). I like carbon pipeline resistance. It reminds me of the Keystone Pledge of Resistance that I was deeply involved with when in Indianapolis. A campaign that, after years of work nationally, defeated the Keystone XL Pipeline. (See: https://jeffkisling.com/?s=Keystone)

Also, that is the name of a coalition I belong to, Iowa Carbon Pipeline Resistance.

A summary I wrote about carbon pipelines can be found here: https://landbackfriends.com/2021/12/04/carbon-capture-in-iowa/

On July 12, 2022, I was at the Iowa Utilities Board meeting where many people spoke against carbon pipelines in Iowa.

The best overview about carbon capture I’ve found is the following webinar hosted by my friends Mahmud Fitil and Sikowis Nobiss.

Check out the first webisode of Prairie Not Pipelines, an Indigenous web series focused on climate, water and resource extraction on the plains.

Hosted by Mahmud Fitil and Sikowis Nobiss. Folks from across the Great Plains in ND, SD, NE and Iowa will be discussing the recent push for CO2 pipelines across the region.

Currently, the majority of the media and public pushback is coming from white landowners. However, these pipelines are being proposed to be forced through stolen land and treaty territories where Indigenous voices need to be heard. This forum will discuss the legal, environmental and tribal perspectives of Carbon Capture and Storage. These projects are being touted as environmentally sound when in fact they are huge greenwashed projects which extends a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry which is responsible for our current climate emergency in the first place. These investors and corporations are merely looking to profit from government programs and subsidies rather than address our climate woes in any meaningful way. The people, land and water in the way of their profiteering ambitions are of little concern.

Mahmud and Sikowis organized a gathering at the offices of Summit Carbon Solutions in Ames. Following are some of the photos I took there.

Peacemaking means stopping carbon capture and pipelines

This morning I wrote about peacemaking. Encouraging Friends, each of us, to take a careful look at our life, and to speak out against the injustice and violence occurring today. To work to fill the spiritual void. But to do that means we have to show up. Be at Cowles Commons tomorrow at 1 pm

Tomorrow is our chance to do this. To speak against the violence of carbon capture, carbon pipelines and the hazardous material they carry. To support Black Lives Matter and Indigenous peoples. To protect our children and future generations. To be peacemakers.

You can see what my friends did today here!

This morning, members of CCI Action and Des Moines BLM disrupted a nationwide carbon capture convention in Des Moines during a panel that featured the 3 companies who want to force their greenwashing scam on America’s heartland– Summit, Navigator, and Wolf. 

When the panel claimed that most Iowans and landowners are in support of their pipelines, seven of us rose up to speak the truth. 

Watch today’s action here!

We’re not done shaking things up yet– we need you to join us tomorrow to give these corporate polluters a proper sendoff! 

Buffalo Rebellion will be holding a rally against false climate solutions tomorrow at 1PM. Sign up here to fight back with us as we tell CO2 pipeline profiteers to pack their bags. 

Here is what the day will look like:

  • 1pm rally at Cowles Commons
  • 1:30pm March to the Iowa Events Center
  • 2:00pm Protest outside as the convention is concluding
  • 3:30 pm Report back to the CCI office for food, refreshments and to debrief

Between disruptions this morning, a panel member representing Summit Carbon Solutions– Bruce Rastetter’s company– had the nerve to tell the crowd that objection to the CO2 pipelines comes from a “small minority.”

We know that’s not true, let’s prove him wrong tomorrow! Join us by RSVPing here.

For people power, Caitlin, Devyn, and Jake
Farming & Environment  

Peacemaking: fill the spiritual void

Yesterday I wrote about the video of the interview of Friend Mary Mendenhall (included below). She told of the Quakers who left the United States because of their opposition to war and the military draft. That migration and the development of the Monteverde community in Costa Rica, where they settled, is an example of Quakers living in a manner consistent with their beliefs.

I also wrote about attending the Friends National Conference on War and Conscription in 1968. I had forgotten there was a similar declaration in 1948. One of the statements in that declaration is “We realize that the basic task in peacemaking is to fill the spiritual void in our civilization.” I’ve often prayed about what I call the Spiritual poverty that exists today and how Quakers could help fill that void.

The basic task in peacemaking is to fill the spiritual void in our civilization

Richmond Declaration Against the Draft, 1948

A statement in the 1968 declaration is “we acknowledge our complicity in these evils in ways sometimes silent and subtle, at times painfully apparent.” That declaration also includes a call for affirmation of action.

AFFIRMATION OF ACTION

We commit ourselves to validate our witness by visible changes in our lives, though they may involve personal jeopardy. We cannot rest until we achieve a truly corporate witness in the effort to oppose an end conscription. Let us hold each other in the Light which both reveals our weaknesses and strengthens us to overcome them.

I believe we were led to talk about Mary Mendenhall at Bear Creek meeting last Sunday. And that I was led to write about other stories related to Quakers and peacemaking yesterday. That I was led to remember the 1948 declaration against the draft.

I was especially struck by the Affirmation of Action part of the 1968 declaration. There is a similar admonition in a statement about racial justice of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). “Each person is urged to take a careful look at their life, to identify where one is benefiting from this, and work to correct that.  We urge Friends to speak out against the injustices and violence occurring today.“

We urge Friends to speak out against the injustices and violence occurring today.

Declaration on the Draft and Conscription: Richmond 1968

Among the injustices and violence today are attacks, physical and otherwise, against Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC). And the all-out assault against Mother Earth.

All of this relates to my Des Moines Mutual Aid community, and to the Buffalo Rebellion I’m part of. There will be a rally against carbon capture and the pipelines needed to transport the carbon. An important part of the Buffalo Rebellion, including tomorrow’s rally, is the leadership of Indigenous peoples in the Midwest.

This is an opportunity for Friends to speak out against the injustices and violence occurring today.

https://www.facebook.com/events/580951207110378

Did you hear? The corporations vying to get rich from building carbon capture pipelines across Iowa will be meeting at a convention right here in Des Moines Nov 8-9!

People from Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, and all four corners of Iowa will be there to say “NO CO2 PIPELINES! NO MORE FALSE CLIMATE SOLUTIONS!”

Will you help us send a strong message that Iowans are united against CO2 pipelines? RSVP at https://actionnetwork.org/…/rally-against-false…/

Here is what the day will look like:

1pm rally at Cowles Commons
1:30pm March to Iowa Event Center
2:00pm Protest outside the carbon capture convention

Whether you’re Black, White, Indigenous, rural or urban, we are ALL feeling the impacts of climate change ramping up in Iowa and around the world.

Big corporations that have significantly polluted our land, air, and water are scrambling to find “solutions”—false ones— in attempt to cover up the environmental damage they inflict on our state. And they’re trying to use our tax-payer dollars to do it.

CO2 pipelines are being pitched as the golden ticket to end greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol, fertilizer, and coal plants.

The problem?

–Carbon capture projects have never actually reduced greenhouse emissions.
–They bolster industries that capitalize off dirty energy and destructive agricultural practices
–CO2 pipeline leaks are extremely dangerous and public entities are not equipped to respond.
–Pipeline developers are bankrolling Governor Kim Reynolds to use eminent domain to seize land in order to enrich private corporations.

We need you to rise up with us to stop these projects! RSVP at https://actionnetwork.org/…/rally-against-false…/

References

Richmond Declaration Against the Draft, 1948
Advices on Conscription and War: By the Religious Society of Friends in the United States, Richmond, Indiana, 1948

We realize that the basic task in peacemaking is to fill the spiritual void in our civilization by replacing the fear that now cripples all our efforts with a faith in the Eternal Power by which God unites and sustains those who pursue His Will; and we extend our fellowship to all those of other persuasions who share this faith.

In humility and repentance for past failures, we call upon all Friends to renew the springs and sources of our spiritual power in our meetings for worship; to examine our possessions, to see if there be any seed of war in them/ and to live heroically in that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars and strife.

By a called Meeting representing Friends in the United States, held at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, July 20-22, 1948.

Declaration on the Draft and Conscription: Richmond 1968

We call on Friends Everywhere to recognize the oppressive burden of militarism and conscription. We acknowledge our complicity in these evils in ways sometimes silent and subtle, at times painfully apparent. We are under obligation as children of God and members of the Religious Society of Friends to break the yoke of that complicity.

As Friends we have for many years been granted privileged status within the draft system. This has often blinded us to the evil of the draft itself, and the treatment of those not so privileged. We are grateful for all those who by resolutely resisting the draft have quickened our conscience. We are called into the community of all who suffer for their refusal to perform unconscionable acts.

We reaffirm the “Advices on Conscription and War” adopted at Richmond in 1948. We realize in 1968 that our testimony against conscription is strengthened by refusing to comply with the Selective Service law. We also recognize that the problem of paying war taxes has intensified; this compels us to find realistic ways to refuse to pay these taxes.

We recognize the evil nature of all forms of conscription, and its inconsistency with the teachings and examples of Christ. Military conscription in the United States today undergirds the aggressive foreign policies and oppressive domestic policies which rely on easy availability of military manpower. Conscription threatens the right and responsibility of every person to make decisions in matters of conscience. Friends opposing war should refuse any kind of military service; Friends opposing conscription should refuse to cooperate with the Selective Service System.

We call for the abolition of the Selective Service System and commit ourselves to work with renewed dedication to abolish it. We shall oppose attempts to perpetuate or extend conscription, however constructive the alleged purpose, by such a system as National Service. We do not support efforts at draft reform; the issue is not equal treatment under compulsion, but freedom from compulsion.

We recognize how difficult it is to work through these complex issues, and to bear the burden of decision and action. We hold in love and respect each member of our Society as he follows where conscience leads. We know there are spiritual resources available to those who would be faithful.

AFFIRMATION OF ACTION

We commit ourselves to validate our witness by visible changes in our lives, though they may involve personal jeopardy. We cannot rest until we achieve a truly corporate witness in the effort to oppose an end conscription. Let us hold each other in the Light which both reveals our weaknesses and strengthens us to overcome them.


Declaration on the Draft and Conscription: Richmond 1968. Friends National Conference on the Draft and Conscription, October 11-13, 1968

An Epistle to Friends Concerning Military Conscription

Dear Friends,

It has long been clear to most of us who are called Friends that war is contrary to the spirit of Christ and that we cannot participate in it. The refusal to participate in war begins with a refusal to bear arms. Some Friends choose to serve as noncombatants within the military. For most of us, however, refusal to participate in war also involves refusal to be part of the military itself, as an institution set up to wage war. Many, therefore, become conscientious objectors doing alternative service as civilians, or are deferred as students and workers in essential occupations.

Those of us who are joining in this epistle believe that cooperating with the draft, even as a recognized conscientious objector, makes one part of the power which forces our brothers into the military and into war. If we Friends believe that we are special beings and alone deserve to be exempted from war, we find that doing civilian service with conscription or keeping deferments as we pursue our professional careers are acceptable courses of action. But if we Friends really believe that war is wrong, that no man should become the executioner or victim of his brothers, then we will find it impossible to collaborate with the Selective Service System. We will risk being put in prison before we help turn men into murderers.

It matters little what men say they believe when their actions are inconsistent with their words. Thus we Friends may say that all war is wrong, but as long as Friends continue to collaborate in a system that forces men into war, our Peace Testimony will fail to speak to mankind.

Let our lives speak for our convictions. Let our lives show that we oppose not only our own participation in war, but any man’s participation in it. We can stop seeking deferments and exemptions, we can stop filling out Selective Service forms, we can refuse to obey induction and civilian work orders. We can refuse to register, or send back draft cards if we’ve already registered.

In our early history we Friends were known for our courage in living according to our convictions. At times during the 1600’s thousands of Quakers were in jails for refusing to pay any special respect to those in power, for worshiping in their own way, and for following the leadings of conscience. But we Friends need not fear we are alone today in our refusal to support mass murder. Up to three thousand Americans severed their relations with the draft at nation-wide draft card turn-ins during 1967 and 1968. There may still be other mass returns of cards, and we can always set our own dates.

We may not be able to change our government’s terrifying policy in Vietnam. But we can try to change our own lives. We must be ready to accept the sacrifices involved if we hope to make a real testimony for Peace. We must make Pacifism a way of life in a violent world.

We remain, in love of the Spirit, your Friends and brothers,

Don Laughlin
Roy Knight
Jeremy Mott
Ross Flanagan
Richard Boardman
James Brostol
George Lakey
Stephen Tatum
Herbert Nichols
Christopher Hodgkin
Jay Harker
Bob Eaton
Bill Medlin
Alan & Peter Blood.

Don Laughlin and Roy Knight, among those who signed that Epistle, were members of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). Both were imprisoned for their refusal to participate in the military draft. As were a number of other Quakers. Don collected some of those stories, which can be found here:

Young Quaker Men Facing War and Conscription

Bill Deutsch interviews Mary Mendenhall

One story leads to another

I’ve recently been writing a number of articles related to the beginning, evolution, and current state of my foundational stories. We were challenged to do this at the annual sessions of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) this summer. https://quakersandreligioussocialism.com/foundational-stories/

I wanted to do that, in part, because my experience has been that stories are among the most powerful tools we have to affect change. And stories of the past can remind us of how earlier generations worked on many of the same things we struggle with today. (Which is also a bit discouraging).

Yesterday at Bear Creek Friends Meeting, we were talking about the Mendenhall family and I said I would share the video I made of Bill Deutsch interviewing Mary Mendenhall about her life, including her time in the Monteverde Friends community in Costa Rica. Photography is one of my foundational stories. I took the photos in this video during my only international trip, which was to Costa Rica, for the 60th anniversary of the double wedding of my mom and dad (Burt and Alberta Kisling) and Lucky and Wolfe Guindon. Lucky was my mother’s childhood best friend. The wedding took place at Bear Creek Friends meeting in 1950, (where we were meeting yesterday). The Guindon’s moved to Costa Rica shortly afterward for reasons Mary explains during the interview.

Burt and Alberta Kisling and Lucky and Wolfe Quindon, wedding, Bear Creek Friends Meeting, 1950
Lucky, Birdie, Burt and Wolfe, Monteverde, Costa Rica, 2010

I love this tee shirt worn by my cousin Jeffrey. Costa Rica has not had an army since 1948.

Bill Deutsch interviews Mary Mendenhall

In 2012 Paullina Friends met at the Mapleside meetinghouse, and told stories related to the meeting.  Some of those videos are available at the links below. As you can see many of the stories relate to war and pacifism.
As I looked through my writings, I found this story by my uncle Bernard Standing, reporting on the annual sessions of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative), in Friends Journal, 1966

Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Reported by BERNARD A. STANDING

IOWA Yearly Meeting of Friends (Conservative) held its sessions August 16-21 in the rural community of Mapleside near Paullina, Iowa. A family atmosphere prevailed, as evidenced by the parent-children groups arriving by car or seated in the meeting house, by the many young people at play on the volleyball court, and by the little children at the sand-pile and the swings. The mingling of Friends from urban communities with those from rural areas was a truly growing experience. Lincoln Meeting in eastern Nebraska has been added to this group within the past year. Visiting Friends were welcomed from Monteverde (Costa Rica), Concord (New Hampshire), and Media (Pennsylvania).

A dominant concern was the war in Vietnam. E. Raymond Wilson of the Friends Committee on National Legislation spoke on this topic to different age groups at several sessions. Various approaches to a peaceful settlement of the conflict were presented. The meeting gave its approval to the statement issued recently by Friends United Meeting, “An Appeal to End the War in Vietnam Now,” which calls for cessation of hostilities, negotiations, free elections, economic development of the land, and the help of all nations of the world to accomplish these results.

Boyd Trescott of the Friends World Committee for Consultation explained the function of that committee, placing special emphasis on the Friends World Conference to be held at Guilford College in North Carolina in 1967. Plans are being made to send seven delegates from Iowa Yearly Meeting.

Marian Baker, a young Friend from New Hampshire, told of the Young Friends’ plans for that conference and for subsequent visitation throughout the United States.

Other concerns were Indian welfare and race relations.

Projects of the North Central Region of the American Friends Service Committee were reported. The summer workshop in which several young people joined with the Musquakie Indians in preparing for the annual powwow at Tama, Iowa, was successful in fostering understanding and friendship between the two groups.

James Thomas, director of the Iowa Rights Commission, spoke one evening about the efforts of his group to achieve equal opportunities in housing and employment for minorities.

The annual report of Scattergood School at West Branch, Iowa, the Yearly Meeting’s major educational project, showed progress in the building program, including the construction of· a new science building. The purpose of the school is reflected in the lives of returning alumni.

At the last evening gathering, Cecil Hinshaw described possible vast changes in our material world in the near future. He challenged Friends to cope with these new situations by imaginative training of personnel in the fields of industry and education. Though change is inevitable, the eternal values of truth and love remain.

October I, 1966 FRIENDS JOURNAL

The date of that Friends Journal article was the year I first attended Scattergood Friends School. The Vietnam War was a large factor in the lives of the boys there, since we were required to register for the draft on our eighteenth birthday. Like many Iowa Quakers, I eventually decided to become a draft resister.  Cecil Hinshaw of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) who spoke at the 1966 Yearly Meeting sessions (see above), also spoke at a draft conference held at Scattergood that fall.

Cecil Hinshaw, President of William Penn College, and my father–counseled many of these young Quaker men to resist the draft. And many have thanked him over the years for helping them come to the decision, in writing letters of support. My brother, Robert, struggled with the decision, and at the age of 18, he wrote to his draft board and told them he would not register for the draft and would be willing to go to prison for his act of conscience. He never even got a response from his draft board. We all asked ourselves WHY?? My father finally came up with the response that to give the son of Cecil Hinshaw any publicity, would only further the cost of passive resistance and refusal to serve in the armed services. So Robert lived for many years with the fear that he might be arrested for speeding, or some other misdemeanor, and it would be discovered that he did not have a draft card and the waiting game would over. He must have lost his fear of being arrested for speeding–for he became quite a speed demon on the highways and I did not want to ride with him!! I was very proud of him.

Eleanor Hinshaw Mullendore
As often happens, one story leads to another. I appreciated this powerful letter when I was struggling with my decision about the draft.

An Epistle to Friends Concerning Military Conscription

Dear Friends,

It has long been clear to most of us who are called Friends that war is contrary to the spirit of Christ and that we cannot participate in it. The refusal to participate in war begins with a refusal to bear arms. Some Friends choose to serve as noncombatants within the military. For most of us, however, refusal to participate in war also involves refusal to be part of the military itself, as an institution set up to wage war. Many, therefore, become conscientious objectors doing alternative service as civilians, or are deferred as students and workers in essential occupations.

Those of us who are joining in this epistle believe that cooperating with the draft, even as a recognized conscientious objector, makes one part of the power which forces our brothers into the military and into war. If we Friends believe that we are special beings and alone deserve to be exempted from war, we find that doing civilian service with conscription or keeping deferments as we pursue our professional careers are acceptable courses of action. But if we Friends really believe that war is wrong, that no man should become the executioner or victim of his brothers, then we will find it impossible to collaborate with the Selective Service System. We will risk being put in prison before we help turn men into murderers.

It matters little what men say they believe when their actions are inconsistent with their words. Thus we Friends may say that all war is wrong, but as long as Friends continue to collaborate in a system that forces men into war, our Peace Testimony will fail to speak to mankind.

Let our lives speak for our convictions. Let our lives show that we oppose not only our own participation in war, but any man’s participation in it. We can stop seeking deferments and exemptions, we can stop filling out Selective Service forms, we can refuse to obey induction and civilian work orders. We can refuse to register, or send back draft cards if we’ve already registered.

In our early history we Friends were known for our courage in living according to our convictions. At times during the 1600’s thousands of Quakers were in jails for refusing to pay any special respect to those in power, for worshiping in their own way, and for following the leadings of conscience. But we Friends need not fear we are alone today in our refusal to support mass murder. Up to three thousand Americans severed their relations with the draft at nation-wide draft card turn-ins during 1967 and 1968. There may still be other mass returns of cards, and we can always set our own dates.

We may not be able to change our government’s terrifying policy in Vietnam. But we can try to change our own lives. We must be ready to accept the sacrifices involved if we hope to make a real testimony for Peace. We must make Pacifism a way of life in a violent world.

We remain, in love of the Spirit, your Friends and brothers,

Don Laughlin
Roy Knight
Jeremy Mott
Ross Flanagan
Richard Boardman
James Brostol
George Lakey
Stephen Tatum
Herbert Nichols
Christopher Hodgkin
Jay Harker
Bob Eaton
Bill Medlin
Alan & Peter Blood.

Don Laughlin and Roy Knight, among those who signed that Epistle, were members of Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative). Both were imprisoned for their refusal to participate in the military draft. As were a number of other Quakers. Don collected some of those stories, which can be found here:
Young Quaker Men Facing War and Conscription

This also leads to the story about the draft conference I attended at Earlham College in 1968.

[Friends Coordinating Committee on Peace organized a Friends National Conference on the Draft and Conscription, held in Richmond, Indiana, Oct. 11-13, 1968. This declaration was used by many Friends who took the noncooperator position at their trials. It was reprinted in Quakers and the Draft, Charles Walker, editor: 1969.]

I was a student at Scattergood Friends School at the time, and a classmate and I were able to attend. Scattergood was one of 15 Quaker Secondary Schools represented.

Confederating counter-institutions

As I was sitting in the dark this morning praying about what to write, I noticed the light from the sunrise reflecting on the clouds in front of my windows. So, I went out to take some photos. Photography has been one of the threads of my lifelong foundational stories.

On my way to Mutual Aid Saturday I stopped at Easter Lake, even though it was raining heavily. So, I rolled down the window and shot the photos from within the car.

Easter Lake, Des Moines, Iowa

I usually avoid the subject, but American politics is in the news as the Midterm elections approach. The Republican party is no longer participating in the democratic means of governance. That is such a radical departure, and the damage can only be minimized by not electing those politicians.

But even if the Democrats win control of the Senate and House, they will continue to be beholden to corporate financial influence and White superiority. Continue to use armed forces throughout the world. Or as one of the most glaring failures, will continue to support the fossil fuel industry. For example, releasing millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves and supporting carbon (CO2) pipelines.

Whatever happens in the election, our political, economic, and social systems will continue to fail, and fail completely in the face of environmental catastrophe and chaos.

I see all of this through my experiences with Mutual Aid, which is as much about building beloved communities as it is about supporting people’s survival needs. It is important to build Mutual Aid communities now in preparation for continued collapse.

There will continue to be a need to transition from the current, dominant systems of governance to alternatives such as Mutual Aid. This process is referred to as “dual power”.

Dual Power

How do we effectively build political space where direct democracy, mutual aid, solidarity, and an ecologically sustainable human existence can prevail? To start with, we need to be able to provide for our immediate needs. In doing so, we must organize to seize control of powerful nodes of production, reproduction, and realization while simultaneously cultivating models of the society we wish to live in.

Dual power is a strategy that builds liberated spaces and creates institutions grounded in direct democracy. Together these spaces and institutions expand into the ever widening formation of a new world “in the shell of the old.” As the movement grows more powerful, it can engage in ever larger confrontations with the ruling class—and ultimately a contest for legitimacy against the institutions of capitalist society.

In our view, dual power is comprised of two component parts: (1.) building counter-institutions that serve as alternatives to the institutions currently governing production, investment, and social life under capitalism, and (2.) organizing through and confederating these institutions to build up a base of grassroots counter-power which can eventually challenge the existing power of capitalists and the State head-on. In the short term, such a strategy helps win victories that improve working people’s standard of living, helps us meet our needs that are currently left unaddressed under capitalism, and gives us more of a say over our day-to-day lives.

Dual Power: A Strategy To Build Socialism In Our Time, DECEMBER 31, 2018 – CAUCUS STATEMENT. DSA
LIBERTARIAN SOCIALIST CAUCUS

Building counter-institutions

In this graphic the concepts under Red/Green New Deal are counter-institutions that are being built now.

Confederating counter-institutions

Buffalo Rebellion

The recently formed Buffalo Rebellion is an example of confederating counter-institutions.

Buffalo Rebellion is a new coalition of Iowa organizations that are growing a movement for climate action that centers racial and economic justice. The Earth Day Rally will be an afternoon of honoring Mother Earth through sharing stories and visions for climate justice and taking action together for a world that puts people and the planet before profits for a few.

Following the Earth Day Rally, Buffalo Rebellion will be holding two days of immersive training to develop 100 grassroots leaders who will build local teams to take on climate justice issues in their community and come together to create a thriving state-wide movement.

Formed in 2021, the Buffalo Rebellion is comprised of seven Iowa organizations: Great Plains Action Society, DSM Black Liberation Movement, Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, Sierra Club Beyond Coal, Cedar Rapids Sunrise Movement, SEIU Local 199, and Iowa CCI

Buffalo Rebellion

I believe that world-ending and world-making can occur, are occurring, have always occurred, simultaneously. Given that racial and ecological violence are interwoven and inextricable from one another, more now than ever, Black and Indigenous communities—who are globally positioned as “first to die” within the climate crisis—are also on the front lines of world-making practices that threaten to overthrow the current (death-making) order of things. Put otherwise, our communities, quite literally the post-apocalyptic survivors of world-endings already, are best positioned to imagine what this may be. This, after all, is the radical promise (if as of yet unachieved) that was and is extended to us by the world-making projects of abolition and decolonization.

Maynard, Robyn; Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. Rehearsals for Living (Abolitionist Papers) (p. 31). Haymarket Books. Kindle Edition.

But it’s not just that mutual aid can ease material conditions or help striking workers so that they have more power against the bosses. Its assault on the existing power structure runs much deeper. Consider this: if mutual aid can meet the food needs of everyone in a city without them having to pay for the food, what’s the point of paying for food in the first place? Start asking questions like this, and you can quickly start to unravel the capitalist economy itself in that local area. Capitalism is based upon a network of institutions that draw their power from control and exclusion. Free access is capitalism’s poison. By building up the capacity to universally provide resources on a non-market basis, we plant the seeds for capitalism’s ultimate destruction.

In all this, we must remember that mutual aid runs not from the socialist movement to the grateful workers but is something workers do for each other on an egalitarian basis. We must work to ensure our mutual aid raises each other up as opposed to charity which hands down from “on high.”

Dual Power: A Strategy To Build Socialism In Our Time, DECEMBER 31, 2018 – CAUCUS STATEMENT. DSA
LIBERTARIAN SOCIALIST CAUCUS

Buffalo Rebellion