I. International Cooperation and the Rule of Law

Goal: Strengthen international law and multilateral cooperation to address global threats to peace and security.

-Revoke the policy of "preemptive" war;
-Support and strengthen the United Nations and other international institutions working for the peaceful prevention and settlement of conflicts;
-Work with the UN Security Council to address emerging conflicts and threats to peace and security before they reach crisis levels;
-Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and support the Court in bringing human rights abusers and perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice, and Fulfill U.S. commitments under international treaties and work cooperatively for the strengthening of international law on arms control, human rights, the environment, and trade.

II. Preventive Diplomacy and Peace Operations

Goal: Enhance the international community's capacity to prevent the escalation of conflict, effectively respond to emerging crises, and rebuild societies shattered by war and conflict.

-Contribute annually to the UN's Trust Fund for Preventive Action;
-Invest in research and training for national, regional, and international early warning systems and early response mechanisms;
-Support the use of preventive diplomacy, including the use of mediation, arbitration, and confidence-building measures to de-escalate tensions and resolve conflicts;
-Support the creation of new international capacities for preventing and responding to conflict, including a stand-by corps of conflict resolution and prevention experts, as well as an international civilian police corps;
-Support and fund more effective civilian post-conflict reconstruction initiatives, including reconciliation and restorative justice programs.

III. Arms Control and Disarmament

Goal: Reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and the escalation of conflict by enhancing international arms control and disarmament regimes.

-Renounce the first use of nuclear weapons, prohibit the development of new nuclear weapons, and stop the push for new nuclear testing in the U.S.;
-Ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, fulfill U.S. obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and support the expansion of the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction program;
-Strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention through enhanced monitoring and inspections;
-Work to create zones free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East and other regions; Support multilateral efforts, including the UN small arms process, to limit the spread of weapons; Enhance U.S. and international arms export controls, end U.S. military assistance to repressive regimes, and work internationally to end weapons flows to regions of conflict and abusive regimes.

IV. Human Rights and Good Governance

Goal: Strengthen human rights and promote good governance as foundations for stable, secure societies.

-Support active cooperation between the UN Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Security Council's Counter Terrorism Committee;
-Support the deployment of international human rights monitors in situations of conflict and emerging crises;
-Uphold U.S. commitments under international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians in situations of conflict;
-Ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child and work to end the use of child soldiers;
-Ratify the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women and support an increased role for women in conflict management and peacebuilding, economic life, and the political arena;
-Support programs to strengthen civil society and promote human rights awareness, democracy, transparency, accountability, and peacebuilding, particularly in pre- and post-conflict situations.

V. Sustainable Development and Human Security

Goal: Address the root causes of violent conflict by meeting basic human needs and promoting more equitable use of world resources.

-Increase funding for programs to integrate conflict prevention and peacebuilding within traditional development assistance;
-Increase U.S. development assistance to the world's poorest countries and work to ensure transparency and accountability in aid distribution;
-Actively work to implement the UN Millennium Development Goals, including halving global poverty by 2015, promoting environmental sustainability, and creating a global partnership for development to address issues of aid, trade, and debt;
-Provide generous and effective U.S. funding--bilaterally and through the UN--for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in Africa and other highly infected regions;
-Reduce U.S. dependence on oil by lowering consumption, developing renewable sources of energy, and promoting alternative modes of transportation;
-Work with the international community to make clean water accessible and affordable for all.

December Business Meeting

Bill Wilkinson, Treasurer, told the meeting, with thanks, that income in November had exceeded expenses by $2,600. Nevertheless, total income over the first eleven months of the year were still running at 8% less than expenses. The proposed budget for 2008 reflects actual expenses for 2007 and thus assumes that income next year will exceed that of this year, averaging $150 per month per family unit, assuming 20 families.

The Nominating Committee report was changed from the November report by the addition of Carol Balliet as trustee and member of the Finance Committee, to reflect her position as treasurer. Bill Wilkinson remains as at-large trustee. Bill O‘Connell had agreed to serve on the Building Committee. The report was approved with these changes.

Janet Southwood gave the M&O report. With the change of Meeting clerk, meeting for business will revert to the third Sunday of each month, starting in January. The Forum on February 10 will be devoted to consideration of the spiritual life of the Meeting in 2007 in preparation for the 2008 State of the Meeting Report to Yearly Meeting. Christine Drennon will facilitate. M&O will also prepare a memorial minute for Charles Goebel for reading at Yearly Meeting.

The committee is considering the situation that a homeless man, and maybe others, has slept on the property for several nights. It was pointed out that, while Meeting would wish to be hospitable, permitting this on a regular basis could produce greater difficulties. M&O would appreciate hearing Friends’ views on this.

It was noted that the Martin Luther King march will be on January 21, and P&SC was asked to coordinate with FDS on laying a wreath on the previous day. FDS was also asked to ensure that child care is available on Sundays when Lucy is not present.

Val Liveoak, outgoing clerk, thanked committees for their work.

Personal

Sebastian W's soccer team made it to the state tournament which was in Brenham, Texas in December. They did not win but it was nip and tuck. Megan M. went through a trying interview process which ended with her getting a faculty position – she had been a temp! We’re sad to know that Julie B and her husband have separated and expect a divorce soon.

Carol B spent her 70th birthday with her family in Pittsburg. She says, “I'm pleased to have reached 70. And I know there is much left to do, and to enjoy. It's good to be an Elder.” Pam W has finished her first semester in music at Albion College, finding it enjoyable. Jocelyn W played in a youth orchestra concert last month.

Temple R is in Iraq. Lindsay says that he is taking his work day by day. He treats both Iraqi civilians and Coalition troops. He says it's a fairly steady stream of traumatic injuries-- lost limbs, severe burns, etc. He is enjoying his work, though, because he is over there with a team of great doctors.

Jim S and Meredith M have been in Latin America, where Meredith is collecting information about village development projects. She hopes to take this to Australia to help aborigine communities. Jim said, “Greetings from rainy Ecuador. It´s been unseasonable, but beautiful. We´re in some rather cold mountains right now, so we perhaps feel the rain more. But we´ve enjoyed our trip tremendously.” They have now returned.

Val L was in Latin America from Oct. 20-Dec. 4. As the Coordinator of Friends Peace Teams' Latin America-Caribbean Program, she co-facilitated four Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshops in Guatemala and El Salvador, and spent two weeks meeting with AVP facilitators in Colombia where they planned work for 2008. Among plans for 2008 are several trips to the region. In Colombia, FPT plans to begin a community based trauma healing and reconciliation project based on the Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities work done in Burundi and Rwanda by the African Great Lakes Initiative of Friends Peace Teams. She's looking forward to this work, and also to mostly staying home till late April.

From the New York Times

Kenneth Jackson reminded us again of the Flushing Remonstrance of December 27th 1657 when a group of non-Quakers addressed the Dutch director-general with a protest against his suppression of Quakers:

“If any of these said persons come in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free egress and regress unto our town . . . For we are bound by the laws of God and man to do good unto all men and evil to no man.”

Roger Cohen reminds us of a modern miracle: “On a train the other day, gliding through the mists of Belgium, along pale lines of poplar trees, I thought of the slaughter at Passchendaele 90 years ago. European peace is a miracle; we forget too many miracles.”

William Falk notes some lesser miracles: “President Bush invited Al Gore to the Oval Office for a friendly chat about global warming. France elected a president who likes and admires Americans. Eliot Spitzer discovered the virtue of humility. In mid-rant Hugo Chavez was finally told to shut up. The cute little Canadian dollar – the ‘loonie’ – became worth more than a greenback.”

And the writer of the Times editorial says, “It is a shameful distinction, but Texas is the undisputed capital of capital punishment. At a time when the rest of the country is having serious doubts about the death penalty, more than 60% of all American executions this year took place in Texas. That gaping disparity provides further evidence that Texas’s governor, Legislature, courts, and voters should reassess their addiction to executions.”

Events

To launch the annual SEASON FOR NONVIOLENCE, the peaceCENTER is hosting the blessing of the Peacemakers to honor our collective and individual visions for an empowered, nonviolent world. All are welcome! This year we will be announcing San Antonio's first PEACE LAUREATE. Dana Clark will be leading the peace choir (you can sing along).

At the intersection of N. New Braunfels Ave and East Houston Street in front of the Martin Luther King statue. Friends, including some of school age, may be taking part.

Monday, January 21, 2008 will mark the 21st anniversary of the nation's largest MLK March in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., here in San Antonio. More than 100,000 adults and children of every race are expected to participate in the nearly three-mile march through the community's eastside. Other activities are planned citywide. Free. (210) 207-7224.

The march starts at the MLK Freedom Bridge, 3500 block, MLK Drive and ends at Pittman-Sullivan Park, 1101 Iowa. Watch the Express-News for the times.

On January 27 Val Liveoak will lead a Forum on Peace, Taxes and War: How can individuals who have conscientious objections to war protest continued funding of it? Information and discussion about symbolic, legal and other methods of resisting war taxes.

From the Economist of September 1:

“Peace between Palestinians and Israelis is not a problem: anyone can make it. . . [Many] went to peace camps and summer schools in Israel and abroad. An 86-year-old Californian Jew donated 12 surfboards to Gaza and called it ‘Surfing for Peace.’ Previous attractions have included a ‘hip-hop sulha’ by Arab and Jewish rappers; an olive oil blended from the produce of Israeli and Palestinian farmers; and an Israeli-Palestinian comedy tour. Add in long-established projects such as the Jerusalem peace circus, Fighters for Peace (Israeli ex-soldiers joining up with Palestinian ex-guerrillas), a host of mixed Jewish-Arab villages, schools, youth groups, environmental bodies, magazines, and websites, a peace phone line, two peace radio stations and much more besides, and the churlish might ask: if so many people are intent on making peace, why hasn’t it happened by now?”

The Economist explains this by saying that views on borders and refugees remain far apart. Israeli security measures have rendered many projects impossible.

Many activists have realized that just bringing people together is just not enough, ignoring inequalities between Palestinians and Israeli Jews. The Abraham Fund focuses on improving the way Israeli Arabs are treated, cultural awareness training for Israeli police, Arabic lessons for Jewish schoolchildren, and reducing discrimination against Arab-Israelis.

The New Israel Fund provides legal advice centers and civil rights groups for Israeli Arabs. The European Commission pays for training young Palestinian leaders. Many other projects try to develop long-term programs. The effects of short programs tend to dissipate quickly. Schemes that focus on internal change probably have more impact, though these can arouse storms.

Diplomatic Concern

During Queen Victoria’s father’s reign, Richard Vaux, of Twelfth St. Meeting in Philadelphia, was appointed secretary to the legation at the Court of St. James. Apparently an attractive youth of elegant manners (how did that happen?), he soon found a place at court and wrote to his mother that he had gone to a ball at the palace and “even danced with the Princess Victoria.” His mother’s response was, “I do hope Richard won’t marry out of Meeting.”

Well, whose responsibility was it that he had learned to dance?

There were times when Pennsylvania Friends were pretty parochial in outlook. It is said that one woman, traveling from Pocono Manor to Philadelphia, asked at Stroudsburg for a copy of the Public Ledger. The boy said he did not have it but had the New York Times. At this, she hesitated, but her friend said, “Oh, why doesn’t thee take it? There might be something in it.”

But probably nothing about Pocono Manor.

Taken from the Poleys’ Friendly Anecdotes.

Quaker Week in Britain

Britain Yearly Meeting recently held a National Quaker Week, with publicity and Meeting events. Tom Robinson, in the Guardian, wrote that his father, a hater of religion, harbored a grudging respect for the Quakers, and sent all his four children to Quaker schools. So Tom has now taken to going to meeting again, mostly “because the intense shared silence of a meeting still refreshes those parts other religions cannot reach.”

A large newspaper ad said:

The George W.Bush Library:

suggestions from Margret Hofman:

•The Alberto Gonzalez Room –where you can’t remember any of the exhibits.

•The Hurricane Katrina Room – still under construction.

•The Texas Air National Guard Room – where you don’t have to show up.

•The Walter Reed Hospital Room – where they don’t let you in.

•The Guantanamo Bay Room – where they don’t let you out.

•The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room – nobody has been able to find it.

•The K-Street Project Gift Shop – where you can buy an election or, if no-one cares, steal one.

Mario Capecchi

Mario Capecchi is a Quaker, an immigrant, and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for medicine, He was born in Verona in 1937. His free-spirited American mother Lucy was anti- Fascist and unmarried and they lived in the Italian Alps, until in 1941 she was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Dachau. She had paid a Tyrolean peasant family, to care for him, but they shortly abandoned him when he was 41/2. He begged and stole, like a feral cat, and lived in the streets for five years , sometimes with gangs of homeless children, sometimes in orphanages, mostly hungry. His mother survived Dachau and in 1945 she set out to find him. It took her a year. She bought him a Tyrolean outfit, complete with feathered hat. "I still have the hat," he said. They set out for America, to live with her brother, Edward, who was a Quaker, a scientist for RCA, and committed pacifist. He had helped to set up the community at Bryn Gweled, where they lived, with people of all races and religions. In the CPS as a CO during WWII, he had worked as an aide at a psychiatric facility, drained land in Maryland, and developed electronic aids for the blind.

Capecchi said his mother was not recognizable, mentally destroyed. But he thrived with the children of 65 other commune families He attended George School, even though he had had no other education and spoke no English. "The only bad thing," he said, "was that my poor aunt and uncle got an uncivilized kid and had to socialize him."

He got his BA at Antioch and his doctorate in biophysics from Harvard University, and worked with James D. Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. By 2001, he had won most important prizes, including Philadelphia's Franklin Medal. (George School has another Nobel-winning alumnus - physicist Kenneth Wilson in 1982.) Due to his research on "gene targeting" scientists have a new power to manipulate and study development. His daughter, Misha, is also a George School graduate, now studying in California. He said, "Quakers don't believe in things. They believe it's what you do with your mind and spirit that's important," He and his wife live in Utah, preferring to live outside the cities.

Compiled from various sources.

Before the election: “I have signed up to be an election monitor here in Luma-kanda. . . Quaker Peace Network- Africa has 49 Kenyan and 29 international monitors. AGLI is helping to support the Kenyan monitors. Hezron Masitsa in Nairobi and Rose Imbega for Kitale are the QPN organizers. The election monitors here in Western Kenya include many of the top leaders of the Friends Church in Kenya -- this is a very good sign for arousing more interest in Quaker peacemaking in Western Kenya.

The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) surely has done a fine job of outlining what everyone should do. My job is just to watch for and notice any one of a number of infractions. Many of the international observers will be folks from Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo well known to AGLI --- Elie Nahimana, Sizeli Marcellin, and Zawadi Nikuze. We were given a T-shirt with QPN-Africa on the front and "Quaker Peace Network, Friends Church, Kenya, 2007, Election Observers Team" on the back.

QPN got interested in Election Monitoring when at the QPN meeting in Kibuye, Election Monitoring is a critical component of peacemaking in Africa and the Quaker Peace Network has taken on this international task. QPN has had teams previously for 3 elections in Burundi, 3 in Congo, and the Constitutional voting in Kenya in 2005.” Then, after the election: “ I just took a walk around Lumakanda town. While most of the shops are open, there are very few people in town. The police are very evident; talking with townspeople about the situation. The police station is filled with vehicles: including most of the town's matatus (which are mostly owned by Kikuyu). Clearly they are parked there for safekeeping.

Directly to the north is a large plume of black smoke. What does it mean? Has another building been burned in the countryside? Or is it just some normal burning of trash, etc? Considering the tension, everything is under suspicion.”

And later: “Currently I am at my father-in-law's house in the countryside with no electricity or e-mail. We were supposed to return home today but due to rioting we are unable to travel. Massive fraud has taken place in the elections, especially in Kikuyu areas.”

“Bainito Wamalwa is a Friend in Eldoret and part of Eldoret Friends Church. He says that there are 62 families--some Kikuyu and some not (meaning that in Eldoret they are attacking people of various ethnicities)--living in the Friends Church. The Friends in Eldoret are doing what they can to help. Friends in Britain are collecting and sending funds to help. But how do we get it from Britain to Eldoret? They are sending it to the AGLI account in England and I can withdraw funds from my own account IF I CAN GET TO A BANK. Then we still have to figure out how to get the funds to Eldoret. Bainito may come in his car to see me in Lumakanda: but I won't have any funds available. Bainito also said that houses are still being burned in the countryside around Eldoret. The town is totally shut down except for the queue at the supermarkets where you can buy some things. One of Gladys's nephews, who lives in Eldoret, says that the Kikuyu and Nandi (Kalenjin group) are still fighting and killing each other.

As I was on my morning walk, I saw that the internally displaced people (IDP) were being moved from the police station to the Lumakanda Primary School where I was an election observer. I had missed them before but they were a few blocks away past the hospital. The police station was filled with trucks, matatus (minibuses) , cars, pick-ups, and a tractor. This included one oil tanker and one long-haul big truck--I assume that they got stuck on the highway at 6:00 PM on Sunday night and decided to park in Lumakanda. Some of the trucks were filled with household goods--particularly bed frames. People were moving their goods to the school. At the school I watched men, women, and children all carrying things into the compound- -clothes, mattresses, firewood, pots and pans, a car battery, etc.

On my walk I met a policewoman who attends Lumakanda Friends Church. I talked with her a little and moved on. Later I found out something that really has bothered me--I guess because it makes all this abstract violence personal. I was told that on Sunday evening when Kipkarren River town was being attacked by looters, as one of the police sent to quell the rioting, she shot one youth in the leg and hit a second one who perhaps died. I really can't say I blame her for whatever she did since she was just doing her job and I can have no idea what kind of pressure she might have been under. Yet it is unnerving to realize how close I am to the violence. I am certain that some of the people I know in town--for example, the young guys who are at the matatu station, usually drunk – were probably involved in the violence. But when a violent mob rules, what do you do?”

Malesi Kinaro, a Quaker from Kenya and the author of the following account, visited Urbana-Champaign Meeting in 2004. She gave a talk on grassroots peacemaking at the IDF. Malesi has been active in Rwanda, Burundi, and Kenya in various peacemaking projects since 1994. When Malesi visited, a Friend remembers being struck by her compassion and ability to forgive:

“Dear Friends,
Yesterday I was able to leave my house in Kakamega. The previous days had been crazy with police running after youths who kept throwing stones and the police shooting. The shot guns made me think maybe I was in Rwanda or Burundi. Today is better but confusion still reigns in this usually very, very peaceful town.

As soon as the election results were announced youths armed with petrol went for some Kikuyu properties not just here in kakamega but in Nyanza, Rift valley, Nairobi and Coast provinces. Many Kikuyu families are in Displaced Camps in police stations areound the country. About 400 went to a church in Eldoret and something burning was thrown in. About 30 people died mainly children. WE have received security alert that we should not travel to Nairobi becuase the Luo, Luhya and kalenjim tribesmen are being flushed out and their heads cut around Naivasha, Kijabe, A few kilometers from Nairobi.

You note I have not began with Happy New year. There is nothing happy here. The intesity of the anger especially among the youths is palpable. Young people in Kenya are people who feel disillussioned, discouraged and angry. They came to vote in their thousands becuase they believed that the change Raila was promising would involve them. They feel cheated.So many of them have been guuned down by thepolice yet they remain adamant.

SO I can only say pray for Kenya. WE are going to a very dangerous place. Janet, Shamala and I are going to meet just now to see what we can do especially in terms of the people at the police station. Zarembka canot join us becuase he has been holed up at this father in laws home since there no public vehicles moving.

Malesi Kinaro