October 5, Sunday ........ Potluck lunch at 11.30. Painting Tent of Hope
October 11-12, weekend .... Quarterly Meeting. Eyes Wide Open at Alamo Plaza.
October 12, Sunday............ Quarterly Meeting.
October 19, Sunday ........ Meeting for Business, 11.30.
Display of Tents of Hope at Main Plaza.
October 26, Sunday ........ Forum.
Each Thursday at 4-5 p.m., a peace vigil is held at the corner of Commerce and Flores -- one block from Main Plaza.
Clerk: Bill Wilkinson, e-mail: billwilk3@att.net.
Website: http://www.sanantonioquakers.org.
Editor, Ken Southwood: jksouthwood@grandecom.net
Donations may be made to Friends Meeting of San Antonio, P.O. Box 6127, San Antonio TX 78209.
Meeting telephone to ask for information: 210-945-8456.
Quaker cobbler puts soul into soleThe project . . . employs 70 women and generated $1.5m worth of orders this year, double those of last year. It wants to expand into clothing in the UK, with plans to partner a major retailer. . . In the US, Clark has linked up with Tianello, a casual clothing firm, which sells a Soul of Africa range that raises funds for the charity. Clark, who is also involved with a micro-lending project in Congo that gives women the funds to operate small businesses, believes strongly in helping those in poorer countries through trade rather than aid. "We have enabled women to raise money themselves," he says. "By giving them sustainable jobs they are able to help themselves rather than hope aid may come." . . The Soul of Africa project, underpinned by Clark's theories, began nearly four years ago. Clark, whose family still owns a majority stake in the shoe firm his forebears founded in 1830, was in South Africa . . . when the wife of a colleague took him to visit an Aids orphanage. "It was filthy. I met an orphan there and when I picked him up he smiled. When I put him down he cried. Then I cried. I wanted to give them the means to help themselves," he says. Clark, who remains a cauldron of ideas and enthusiasm, decided to help by using the skills he had grown up with, designing a shoe that could be put together by women in their own homes. The women employed by the scheme are mainly unskilled workers living in squatter camps around Durban in KwaZulu Natal. . . The women receive a fair wage for sewing together pieces provided for them via local manufacturer Froggie Shoes . . . The shoes are sold . . .online via sites including the US e-tailer Zappos. Clark credits his desire to help others to his Quaker roots. "The philosophy is to work hard and try to make money but not to use it to show off ostentatiously but to try and help others and behave in an ethical fashion," he says. Clark is also involved in the ethical shoe brand Terra Plana, which is run by his son Galahad. The business has two stores and an internet site and is in talks to bring in backers to fund expansion. The pair also back Vivo Barefoot, which uses modern technology to give the feel of walking without shoes. Clark, who cycles to work and sticks by Quaker principles of living frugally, says he began making shoes as a child, using the wooden lasts his father brought home for fuel for the fire. "We did it for fun," he says. He ran part of Clarks for several years and successfully led the fight to stop the firm being sold off to investors in the 1990s. But he admits that the management "outsiders" who have run the business since then have done a much better job than the family could have done. He admits he didn't have "the guts" to close the firm's factories in the UK, a move that helped secure the future of the company . . . While he strongly believes the family should retain its interest in the firm, he's happy to focus on developing his new role as the Soul man of Africa.
Lancelot and Galahad – old Quaker names? Our Friend Gardner Stillwell visited the Clark owner (Lancelot’s father?) decades ago, and spoke of his bicycling to work.
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Business MeetingThere were many committee reports at the September meeting for business. The treasurer’s report used a new format to clarify different lines. On p2 it now includes all the reserve funds previously approved. The largest payment was for the construction of the signs at the street corner. Expenses and contributions seem to be balancing out. The Finance Committee asks each committee to provide its estimate of its expenses in 2009. Carol R has audited the accounts for 2005 through 2007 and approved them. The Clerk expressed his appreciation of this work. Peace and Social Concerns submitted its list of donations for the 2009 budget. Friends should read this.First Day School said that Denise will arrange the Christmas program this year, and Ken has been active in the "Tents of Hope" project with the children. We must be ready “to indoctrinate scores of impressionable young minds into the screeds and dictates of official Quakerdom.” [Read that as a joke. Repeat it until it’s funny.] Karl and Frances plan to have an ongoing art project that embellishes upon different Creation myths, Stephen and Amy will continue to interview seasoned Friends as to the hidden import of Quaker sensibilities, and Gary plans on doing units on how Taoists and Quakers share distinct worldviews, and on how to use hypnosis to learn to get very deeply calm and focused to do proper pain management. Finally, it must be acknowledged that Lucy is a gem: how did we come up with someone who so much embodies what we cherish - gentleness, humor, warmth, with a firm and active ability to maintain proper behavior? Having our children under Lucy's care teaches Quaker values, in much the same way that just coming to Meeting does for our children, through all the varied interactions with the rich and peculiar diversity of people who make up the Society of Friends. M&O expressed delight at recent events which bring us together as a community, especially the enjoyable Labor Day picnic at the Wilkinson home. Members have become involved in the Tents of Hope project to increase awareness of the plight of refugees in Darfur. Painting the tent will be an inter-generational activity. Enthusiasm has developed for Quarterly Meeting, to be held the weekend of October 10 thru 12 here. The program will include displaying the AFSC Eyes Wide Open exhibit outside the Alamo. We hold Friends with losses in our thoughts. Jen’s younger brother died this month. A memorial meeting was held with the help of Houston Friends. His parents are our neighbors on Eisenhauer. Janet Wenholz’s son from Galveston and his wife and in-laws became homeless and may move here. Our dear Friend Don Warrington died this month. He was an active, dedicated Quaker, served in the Civilian Conservation Corps during World War Two as alternative service in support of his pacifist views and worked in the YMCA in Latin America for many years. He and his wife Dottie, also a dear Friend and member of Hill Country Meeting, were married for more than 60 years. His was a good life well lived. Carolynn Boone, daughter of Leilah and Scott, and Harvey Michael, son of Daphne and Michael, were born within days of each other in September, bringing much joy to those who heard the news. We send love and best wishes to them and to their parents and look forward to meeting them in person soon. Outreach is planning social evenings in the New Year. The coffeepot has been replaced and changes to the website are being considered. Topics for Forum were suggested and passed to the Meeting clerk. The photos of attenders at Meeting, with their names, will be placed on a cork board in the commonroom. Building reported that new signs had been built at the street corner, and a handyman engaged. It was pointed out that door closers are being installed and that these will need adjusting properly over time. Finally, the ad hoc Furnishings committee resubmitted its extensive report, which attempts to fit the equipping of the meetinghouse to its activities. Friends, and committees, should read in order to decide priorities and discuss changes.
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PersonalPatrick has enjoyed repairing (rebuilding?) old slaves’ quarters in New Orleans. He has had to use the original tools to do this. He defied the hurricane and stayed in New Orleans during the recent evacuation. He loves New Orleans and his work.Amy Whitworth broke her foot. She said, “ I feel a bit ridiculous about the whole thing. We were walking home on Friday evening from a neighbor's house and I stepped on a rock and my foot turned underneath itself. I don't even have some great story about it. I have a minor break on the fifth metatarsal bone. Samuel and Audrey are very happy about having crutches in the house.“ Want to know more? Here: “The fifth metatarsal bone is recognized by a rough eminence, the tuberosity, on the lateral side of its base. The base articulates behind, by a triangular surface cut obliquely in a transverse direction, with the cuboid; and medially, with the fourth metatarsal.” Rough eminence? Not Amy, surely? On the same day, Pam suffered from an ankle avulsion. You don’t actually need to know more what that is. But it has to do with ligaments and bones and it hurts. Don’t do it. Sorry to hear it, Pam. Jen has returned from Rwanda, where she prepared for next year’s dissertation research. She took with her $100 from Meeting to use in some constructive way. She found that an organization, Never Again Rwanda, a non-governmental organization that works for peace and reconciliation following the 1994 Genocide there, is holding a youth soccer tournament in September, but had no money for footballs, so she donated it to them. Never Again Rwanda focuses mainly on youth. The organization's principle method focuses on critical thinking, community-building, and open dialogue. This is an excerpt from its web site that explains how NAR uses football as a peace and reconciliation tool in their youth clubs:
"The club’s first project is to extend their influence from their school to their community. Their first suggestion is to carry these discussion groups to a nearby school. . She is in frequent contact with an orphaned teenage boy there. Sal DiGiacomo has been in Dallas helping a friend recover from surgery. And, “I thought I could install solar panels, but the certification course only accepts journeymen electricians! Another 3 years of apprenticeship... I am getting too old for this stuff...” But, apart from that, life is fine. Bill and Denise hosted a Labor Day backyard party at their house, with badminton, croquet, the pool, and a barbecue. Bill operated the BBQ, saying his skills were highly exercised as he had to cook vegan veggieburgers, non-vegan veggieburgers, fish, steak, pork chops, hamburgers, and sausages as people all brought their own meat or non-meat. We are sorry to report that Don Warrington, of Hill Country Meeting, has died after a long illness (see M&O report above.) Janet and Ken’s son, Andrew, woke to the sound of crackling in the middle of one Saturday night, saw the window shades lit up by a flickering orange light, looked out and found the building was on fire. He grabbed his cellphone and his ten-year old daughter, and they rushed out in their nightclothes. He saw his apartment collapse and lost everything he owned except the phone and his car (a friend found his car key in the ashes.) The Red Cross gave him $300 and put him in a motel for a couple of nights (the first one starting at 6.30 a.m. that morning.) He is grateful for the help people have given him, giving him tables, microwave, etc. Andrew went to high school with the writer David Foster Wallace, who died recently. He would deliver brilliant commentaries from the sidelines of their scratch basketball games. Two brand new, smoothie-pink babies arrived this month! (See M&O above.) Harvey Michael was born on September 10th, at 2:34pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 6.3 oz and measured 20.25 inches long. Carolynn Boone arrived at 6:23 pm Sept. 14, 7 lbs 14 ozs and 21 1/4 inches. Welcome, Harvey and Carolynn! We don’t normally report what we personally weigh in at and nobody has measured how long we are for some time now.
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Dear Diary:“Overheard in the Bloomingdale’s home furnishings department. (An elderly couple: he, clearly past 70; she not much less.) He: ‘Let’s get out of here.’ She: ‘Stop acting like a fidgety old man.’ He: ‘But I am an old man.’ She: ‘Well then, get over it.’”
Okay. Noted.
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Great Causes“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
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EventsMeeting had a visit from Elizabeth, from Guatemala, who works with and for women there with the organization Centro Evangelico de Estudios Pastorales en Centro America. They train women to gain greater confidence in themselves and in their right to education and respect. They are then given a certificate which says “To be a Woman is Marvellous!” Some male pastors also take the training.She says the Spanish version of the Bible is biased, supporting male domination, but her organization gives a feminist view. She quoted the refusal of Queen Vashti to dance naked before King Ahasuerus’s guests, whereupon the king accepted advice to banish her as her disobedience would set such a bad example for other wives, “that every man be lord in his own house.” But to the women taking the training Elizabeth shows her to be a hero. Elizabeth told us of the crime and rape which are rife in Central America and earned our respect for the work she is doing there. Not being familiar with the story of Vashti, we read Esther 1:9-19. Our Revised Standard Version does no better than the Spanish. It says she was commanded to appear in her crown, with a footnote explaining that this meant she was “to appear in royal attire,” seeming to justify her punishment. Curious, we investigated. The explanation that she was to appear clad only in a crown appears to come from midrashic rabbis and “ the midrashic version, once imagined, will not go away. It has seized the text, and made itself a legitimate part of it. The rabbis did not say that Vashti was a hero, but they heightened our sense of what was at stake for her. She was not arrogant and willful, she was self-respecting and full of courage.” Norma Rosen, Biblical Women Unbound: Counter-Tales (JPS, 1996). Other rabbis proposed different accounts: “a sudden case of leprosy according to Rabbi Yossi bar Chanina or the surprise sprouting of a tail according to a beraita.” (www.myjewishlearning.com) We may be grateful for the interpretation which Elizabeth accepted and ponder the alternation of rabbinic flights of fancy with continuing revelation. Or vice versa. On Sunday, October 5, Meeting will paint a tent with bright messages of hope, love, and peace. The tent symbolizes Darfurian refugee encampments and will be displayed at Main Plaza with others on October 19, and in Washington with thousands of others on November 7-9 for a Tents of Hope conference. The campaign is to persuade politicians of the need for greater logistical support for peacekeepers and aid organizations in Darfur and Chad.
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Update of 23rd Psalm"Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want. He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests. He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness. He restoreth my fears. He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office. Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me. Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion. Thou anointest my head with foreign oil. My health insurance runneth out. Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term... and my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever."
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Iran: Key to Middle East PeaceJim Fine, of Friends Committee on National Legislation writes, in FCNL’s website, that an agreement with Iran is the key to reducing tension in Israel, Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan. FCNL joins former Secretaries of State Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher, and Madeleine Albright, among others, in urging the United States to pursue talks with Iran rather than take military action.Iraq: Selig Harrison, a journalist who has had extensive talks with Iranian leaders, states that “Iranian influence with all parties means that the United States cannot get its forces out gracefully or stabilize Iraq thereafter without Iran’s cooperation. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: If Iran pressured Hezbollah and Hamas to end violence, and if the United States persuaded Israel that it no longer faces a strategic threat from Iran and its allies, a peace agreement would become more viable. Afghanistan: Iran’s diplomatic help was essential in convincing Afghan factions to set up the post-Taliban government of Hamid Karzai in Kabul. Iranian help could again calm the situation. A high-profile reconciliation between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran could ease tensions throughout the Muslim world.”
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Killing Not the Way“Toward the mass of the Sunni insurgency, Petraeus adopted a new strategy. ‘We can’t kill our way to victory,’ he was fond of saying. He sought instead to convert those who were fighting — bringing the ‘reconcilable’ insurgents in from the cold.. . .The United States and NATO need an approach that wins over the Pashtuns, looks for Taliban converts, and uses the resulting intelligence in a very focused counterterrorist campaign against al Qaeda. Unfortunately, this is contrary to the dominant thinking in the policy debate. Many in Washington are pressuring the administration and Pakistan to ‘get tough’ in the tribal areas when in fact they need to ‘get smart.’ Given what he has achieved in Iraq, Petraeus brings unique credibility to the ‘get smart’ crowd. And unlike many U.S. generals who see war in narrow military terms, Petraeus lives and breathes the Clausewitzian maxim that ‘war is the conduct of politics by other means.’ He understands better than anyone that each time an errant bomb kills innocent Afghan or Pakistani villagers, the coalition loses support in those countries and at home.”
And read in the New York Times what Ehud Olmert, outgoing Prime Minister of Israel said, under the heading, "Israel Must Leave West Bank:" "With them (traditional Israeli defense strategists) it is all about tanks and land and controlling territories and controlled territories and this hilltop and that hilltop. All these things are worthless." Is the world catching on? But Olmert's a lame duck. Where is the Israeli government strong enough actually to do this?
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Hate?Recently 28 million copies of a” right-wing, terror propaganda” DVD were mailed and bundled in newspaper deliveries to voters in swing states. The 60-minute DVDs are titled Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West." Funding came from a New York-based group called the Clarion Fund.David Horowitz toured the country screening the film on college campuses during 2007. Mainstream religious groups have called Obsession biased and divisive. It cuts between scenes of Nazi rallies and footage of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers. Talking heads in the film include Daniel Pipes and Walid Shoebat. In 2001, Pipes claimed the "presence" and "enfranchisement" of Muslims in the U.S. presented "true dangers to American Jews." Last year, Shoebat told the Missouri Springfield News-Leader, "Islam is not the religion of God - Islam is the devil." We received this information. Is it reliable? The makers claim they spoke only of extremists.
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Peacebuilding en las AméricasVal Liveoak, PLA Coordinator, has in May through July been traveling and working in Central America and Colombia.“I have done eight Alternative to Violence Project (AVP) workshops and with Cecilia Yocum and Alba Arrieta, two demonstration /experimental workshops on community-based trauma healing, following the model of the Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) work in Africa. Additionally, PLA helped sponsor AVP workshops with youth in Guatemala in June. During my travels, I formed closer bonds with our partner groups in Guatemala, and with AVP groups in Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua; I co-led an AVP Basic workshop in Managua as well. As a result of the outreach I did in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, I expect PLA to consider future programs in those countries. PLA, with a generous grant from Cambridge Monthly Meeting, is planning to send a Guatemalan AVP facilitator to the AVP International Gathering in Kenya in September. In Colombia, the seven AVP workshops I have done with PAV-Colombia have resulted in 21 new apprentice facilitators in Sincelejo and Barranquilla, and energized AVP groups there and in Montería on the Northern Coast. Each group has plans for getting grants to hold more workshops especially with displaced people and youth. Each also plans regular workshops financed with local funds and using an olla comunitaria (community potluck) to provide meals for workshop participants. In Montería, which didn´t have a Training for Facilitators workshop, one is planned for August or September. I think AVP is now ready to take off in Northern Colombia, one of the most conflictive regions of the country—where guerrilla, paramilitary and Army units are still fighting, and one with well over a million displaced people. Additionally, the coordinating team of PAV-Colombia is developing organizational and administrative skills, and has finally received its legal status as a nonprofit organization. Participants in the trauma healing workshops affirmed the value and effectiveness of the workshops and are anxious to see a program on this subject developed in their communities. For a full report, please go to the PLA website, under “Initiatives” at www.friendspeaceteams.org. For more information or to make a donation, contact Friends Peace Teams, Peacebuilding en las Américas, 1001 Park Ave., St. Louis MO 63104 USA or call Val at 532-8762. E-mail: PLA@friendspeaceteams.org
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Russian judge: a patriotic dutyFrom Joshua Keating’s blog , 07/31/2008: “A 22-year-old St. Petersburg ad executive who was hoping to become the third woman in Russian history to successfully sue for sexual harassment (yes, you read that right) just had her case thrown out. Here was the judge's reasoning:‘If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children.’ Well, I guess that's settled then.” The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally. According to a recent [Russian] survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.
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"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." (Mark Twain)
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| Be not forgetful to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2) |
A Personal RecollectionIn early 1941 the Luftwaffe repeatedly bombed Plymouth. We lived in a subdivided house. On the third floor was my aunt and uncle, on the second a naval officer's family, and we lived on the first. When the air raid siren sounded, the women and children would run to the basement. My father would go to the wardens' post. The other men (at fifteen, I was a man) would go to the front door, examine the sky, and discuss the war. If guns went off, Uncle Bill and Lieutenant Bassett would retire to the basement and I, a Civil Defence Messenger, would go off to the wardens' post.Lieutenant Bassett had assured us that he was not the heroic type, being just a cook, up from the ranks, in charge only of the kitchens at the Royal Naval barracks at Devonport. Nevertheless, he had strong opinions about Jerries. These were that no prisoners should be taken; Germans were swine, to be shot at sight without mercy. He expressed these opinions forcefully. One night, in the early hours, the front doorbell rang. Dad went, to find two Naval police who wanted to speak to Lieutenant Bassett. Later, in his uniform, he left with them, not coming back until the following afternoon. Our conversation buzzed with speculation. The next night, when Lieutenant Bassett, Uncle Bill, and I stood in the front door during an uneventful air raid warning, Uncle Bill, a railway laborer, asked “Well, what wuz that, las’ noight, then?” Lieutenant Bassett looked thoughtful, and told us that the Navy had sunk a U-boat in the Channel and had later found German sailors afloat in the water. They had picked them up and brought them in to Plymouth, arriving at midnight. They had not eaten, and he was called out to feed them. This was a confrontation. I looked at him wonderingly. “Well, then,” asked Uncle Bill, “wha’d you do?” Lieutenant Bassett looked a little abashed. “Well,” he said, “I never saw such a sorry-looking lot of fellows in all my life. Wet through, all wrapped in blankets. They looked like drowned rats. Miserable faces, all of ‘em prisoners." He paused. "Well, I just called the lads out and we cooked ‘em a good supper of Devonshire pasty.”
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Cielo Grande Quarterly MeeetingQuarterly Meeting will be held here on the weekend of October 10-12 when we shall exhibit Eyes Wide Open. EWO is here an exhibit of the boots and shoes of Texas military and of Iraqis killed in Iraq to demonstrate the cost of war. Friends will set out the exhibit, monitor it, and take it back in. We hope Friends will engage with each other through the course of the day as we work with the exhibit. Further, we want to talk about our different experiences with Eyes Wide Open in worship sharing. We will also spend some time discussing the border wall and hope that Friends from the Rio Grande Meeting will add greatly to that conversation. We’d love to do some singing on Saturday night if there are some willing leaders amongst us.Babysitting will be available on Saturday and Sunday at the Meetinghouse. High School Friends will help with EWO set up/tear down, but can otherwise hang out at the Wilkinson’s or possibly explore downtown SA. High School Friends can plan to stay at the Wilkinson’s (BRING SLEEPING BAGS). Middle School and Elementary Friends will probably help with EWO set up/tear down and participate in table games at the Meetinghouse. There may also be an opportunity for them to add their artistic touches to the Tents of Hope project for Darfur in which San Antonio Friends are participating. Here is the CGQM schedule:
Friday Evening (6PM, Meetinghouse):
Saturday:8:15AM – Brief Meeting for Worship, Eyes Wide Open (EWO) briefing Sunday:
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Bric A BracWe like this:“People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” Bill Clinton But not this: our advice to a wild teenager in Harrold, Texas – “Shoot the teacher first.” Will university schools of education require courses in gunmanship? Governor Palin apparently said that the war in Iraq was “a task that is from God,” and that it was “God’s will” that the federal government contribute to a $30 billion gas pipeline she wants built in Alaska. (NYT editorial Sep 3.) God can be just downright confusing sometimes. Or is he a politician, telling people what they want to hear? Begun informally in 1983 by a small group of Quaker publishers and booksellers, Quakers Uniting in Publications is now an international network of over 50 Friends organizations and individuals concerned with the ministry of the written word. Look up www.quaker.org/quip/ to search for New and Recent Publications, Quaker Titles in Print, Quaker Bookstores, Journals and Periodicals, Quaker Publishers, the Tacey Sowle Fund and Author Web Sites. The Tacey Sowle Fund is a modest fund intended to assist Quaker authors and publishers. The star of Damien Hirst’s auction was “‘The Golden Calf,’ a white bullock preserved in formaldehyde, with hoofs and horns made of 18-carat gold and a gold disc crowning its head.” It went for $18.6 million with another two-odd million commission for Sotheby’s (NT, 9.16.08.) Our bid failed the cut. We had thought how inspiring it would look in the meetingroom foyer. A letter to the Times says, of Herbert Hoover, his “real problem [at the time of the impending slump] lay in the president’s free-market ideology, which he refused to revise in light of new knowledge and experience. It also reflected his outsized ego, which made him believe that he could alter business behavior simply through the force of his own personality.” Frederick W. Marks, in 1988, said, “Brand Whitlock, President Wilson's minister to Belgium, described his manner as one of ‘sullen boorishness’; in British social circles he was called ‘the rudest man in London.’" So much for Quaker humility. Headline in the Express-News: “Chertoff Tours Devastated E. Texas.” Couldn’t somebody have warned him what would happen if he went there? Did you see the photo of the meetingroom in the Express-News business pages? Lake|Flato won another award, this time from the Texas Society of Architects for the design. We told Ted Flato and Bob Harris that they’d done us proud but that this was a sin we were doing our best to avoid. That’s why this item is buried in the bric-a-brac. You might want to look out for a movie, Silent Light. It is about a rural Mennonite community in Mexico, performed by a cast of mostly Mennonite non-professional actors. It concerns the test of a man’s faith when he falls in love with a neighbor, and is described as beautifully filmed by the NYT reviewer.
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The Shrinking Missile ThreatThe USA will spend $12 billion on an antiballistic missile system this year. “But what makes this spending most remarkable is that the threat it seeks to counter is actually declining.” Russia has 660, China 20, Iran’s and N. Korea’s have failed. Reagan needed to intercept 5,000. “The truth is that diplomacy has destroyed far more missiles that interceptors ever will. . . The last time the Joint Chiefs were asked to recommend a budget for antimissile systems, in 1993, they said to spend no more than $3 billion a year. Asked again, they would likely give similar advice.”
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Jenin, RebornJenin, in Palestine, was a nest of suicide bombers. But the Israeli and Palestinian governments, “instead of a shaky negotiated treaty imposing coexistence from the top down,” are trying to build a “bottom-up set of relationships that lock the two societies together,” standing conventional wisdom on its head. Together, Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, and Palestinians are striving to build the Jenin economy with the help of Gilboa, the neighboring Jewish-Arab community in Israel which has worked to create its own model of co-existence. Daniel Atar, Jewish mayor of Gilboa, said, “We have a choice in Israel of making peace or living in a bunker.”At Fadu Abu Hijab’s new workshop, clothes are made for Tel Aviv shops, with materials and products carried by Israeli Arabs. So watch Jenin. Success is not assured, nor is its spread to other parts of Palestine.
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A Prayer for the Victims . . .
God, help us to remember
Help us learn to
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Our British ConnectionA Friend in England read our newsletter on the web. He said, “I read the note on Mortality and thought it poignant. I would like to use it in our Quaker newsletter 'Reader'. You can find details of our Area Meeting in Wensledale in the UK on our website http://www.dalesquakers.org.uk/index.php?section=0&page=index.
The quotation was from Tony Snow. So now you can read their newsletter. Wensledale is part of Middleham, next to the Yorkshire Dales, Herriott country. It’s kinda British: “Middleham is reached by a hill. The town grew up around the great Norman castle. Find time to walk through the two market places, both with a cross. Wander the cobbled alleys. Visit the church dedicated to St Mary and St Alkelda, the latter a saint who was strangled for refusing to renounce her faith. Middleham was once the home of a king. From the square go uphill for a very short distance and turn left up the first narrow, cobbled way, lined with pretty cottages. Go ahead along the signposted lane, with the castle to your right. Just before a gate across the lane, take a waymarked gated stile, on the right, and head diagonally left to a gate in the fence. Stride over the next pasture towards a rounded hillock. This is William's Hill, Ring and Bailey, the site of a Norman motte and bailey castle, which was probably occupied for many years. Explore the moat and climb the outer fortification. From here you have a fine view of Middleham Castle, which replaced the one you are standing on.”
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BetweenBetween ashes and ashes,between dust and dust, atoms of the earth got organized to form a hand to hold a pen, eyes, to tell me where I am, nerves, to tell me how I feel, and brain to say, I am.
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