Calendar for December 2006

A breath of fresh air

“Nozizwe.” The deputy minister of health extends her hand and offers her first name as a greeting to the nurse. She then turns and greets the patients in a male ward at Don McKenzie Tuberculosis Hospital in Botha’s Hill outside Durban. About 80% of patients are infected with HIV and some 30 patients die every month at the 180-bed facility, according to staff.

Her message, like her greeting, is simple: “I want you to get better. You don’t need to die of TB or even AIDS. You don’t have to be afraid about AIDS anymore because government is working with the hospitals to fight AIDS. You must make sure that you eat properly. But if the time comes when you are getting sick, you can get pills. Then you will get strong and even be able to run again.” . . .

Madlala-Routledge is both tall and substantial. When stationary she has a calm presence, but she does not stay still for long, moving surprisingly quickly from ward to ward in elegant black leather running shoes. She makes a point of shaking hands with patients, even asking one man whose hands are folded under his blankets to bring one out so she can shake it.

Her visit to the hospital is unexpected. She is there at the request of the little hospice that runs from the hospital grounds. “I don’t know how they got her number, but one night they phoned her to complain that patients were not being treated properly at the hospital,” says Mabel Dlamini, Madlala-Routledge’s spokesperson. . .

After the hospital tour, the deputy minister heads down to the dilapidated hospice where its founder, Nonhlanhla Mavate, pours out her problems with passion and tears. Aside from patients being ill-treated, Mavate is concerned that the hospital is not accredited to provide ARVs.

Madlala-Routledge wants her entourage to catch public transport there to experience first-hand how long the trip is. Time is against her so she reluctantly settles for the official cars but asks her driver to follow the laborious taxi route. At RK Khan’s HIV/AIDS clinic, Chris Jack, the province’s head of HIV/AIDS treatment and care programme, is there to meet her. While encouraged that Jack has ensured that treatment is available at 50 sites, she is not impressed when he tells her that government tender regulations are hampering the expansion of clinics. “Why haven’t you written and told us that? If it is a problem at national level, you need to let us know.”

While Madlala-Routledge is an active listener, she is focused on addressing problems, with one of her favourite phrases being: “Propose a solution.” . . .

“It has felt like a natural move to be directly involved in health as I trained as a medical technologist,” she says. . . Her immediate agenda is to increase the number of people who have access to HIV/AIDS treatment. . . Unlike the minister, Madlala-Routledge is clear that nutrition is not an alternative to ARVs.

“I consider it extremely irresponsible that proponents of nutritional supplements are persuading people not to take or to discontinue their treatment, especially as we struggle against multi drug resistance whose main cause is people interrupting treatment,” Madlala-Routledge said in a recent speech to the Planned Parenthood Association of SA. “I am also concerned when people are asked to take diet supplements whose efficacy and safety is only based on anecdotal evidence.” . .

. . .she has already established a good relationship with most role players in the field. “She is very passionate about AIDS. She has even helped to set up support groups for people with HIV in her constituency in Ugu in rural KwaZulu-Natal,” says Jacobs, who is also a member of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The TAC’s Zackie Achmat says his organisation has been impressed by Madlala-Routledge’s compassion, commitment to dealing with HIV/AIDS and knowledge about the subject. However, spokesperson Dlamini stresses that her boss “will meet with anyone. This is part of her style.” . .

When I mention that her approach appears vastly different to that of the health minister, Madlala-Routledge says simply: “I would prefer us to concentrate on my programme.” Hers is an unenviable position. Tshabalala-Msimang has antagonised virtually all major players in the HIV/AIDS field and is notoriously confrontational. However, Madlala-Routledge is skilled at human relations and exudes immense inner strength and quiet self-confidence.

Not interested in the limelight, she is guided by a deceptively simple approach to life: “There has to be integrity and openness in everything that you do. If you show openness, others respond to that. Maybe this is my Quaker roots speaking, but I believe in the triumph of good over evil. Good is in everyone.”

Extracted from an article courtesy of Health-e News Service. Kerry Cullinan 06.20.2005

“Pendle Hill”

Meetinghouse

“Friends Meetinghouse, San Antonio, TX, by Lake/Flato Architects

The Meetinghouse design was inspired by early meeting houses, which were very functional and simple spaces for gathering. A gambrel roof structure encloses a 34 foot x 34 foot meeting space. The room, with exposed wood trusses, is flooded with light. Wood is utilized structurally and for interior finishes.”

November Meeting for Business

Denise W reported on Representatives’ meeting of SCYM. The topic for next year’s YM will be “Creating a World in Which We Wish to Live.” Each Meeting will be asked to contribute a square to a YM quilt. ???? Rio Grande hopes to become a Monthly Meeting; Lubbock Meeting hosted a retreat – Friends there feel isolated and would welcome visitors. New Orleans Meeting, hit by the flood, is being helped by AFSC.

Bill W reported on current finances. $50,000 has been paid down on the mortgage, which will reduce interest costs by $46,236 and time to complete payment by almost six years. $3,467 was paid down on the new benches; a “Furnishings” line has been added to General Expenses to account for the $20,000 gift for this purpose. Designated gifts were received for Grounds, Sinking Fund, and the book A Living Faith, for the Forum. The latter will be recovered from Friends purchases. In total, Cash on Hand decreased by $$52,629 and Liabilities by $50,430.

For M&O, Janet S spoke of pleasure at increasing uses of the meetinghouse. Tai Chi classes are being held, baby Catherine Day’s family will celebrate her birth, meetings for worship will be held on Wednesday evenings once or twice a month, the Interreligious Council will meet here in December, and a family evening will be held here on Christmas Eve. Meeting approved an application by Daniel M to hold a one-time meeting of tenants of the apartments opposite on Eisenhauer. Expressing support, Christine D and Julia E asked to attend this.

An application form for those applying to use the building has been drawn up by M&O and Outreach but cannot be completed as financial details are not yet available.

As Val L will be away for periods of 2007 and changing the date of Meeting for Business each month produces problems in scheduling of committee meetings, business meetings will be held on a regular Sunday of each month and M&O members will perform the clerk’s duties when necessary. [The matter of holding Business Meeting on the second Sunday at Val’s request will be considered at the December meeting.]

Carol R brought her recommendations for purchase of projection media. Meeting approved purchase of a laptop with this to provide greater flexibility. But problems of security were raised and Vaughan A and Marian C will meet and come back to Meeting with a final recommendation.

Ken S spoke for Outreach, saying that a Christmas party will be arranged for Saturday December 9. Friends are encouraged to bring suitable potluck dishes and ideas for party games which can be played by everyone (i.e., not chess). Sharon S and Margaret M have had some difficulties in teaching English to the Somali Bantu, perhaps due to the Bantu lack of attention to clock times. Vivian R has had better experience, going to the learner’s home. The Arts and Crafts evening was a success with nine people bringing items to show. The lighting was adequate, though not superb. Those who took part were happy with the facilities. The four extra tables we ordered arrived just in time but they were not all needed.

A picnic will be arranged in March and a one-day retreat has been suggested to M&O during the following months. The Friendly Eights lists will be provided in December.

Consequent on its proposal for furnishing of the Library, Outreach had been asked to meet with Religious Education to discuss furnishing the rooms in the old wing. It proved 4 impossible to meet with RE so Outreach repeated its earlier proposal, being reluctant to go further than this. Meeting agreed that the Clerks’ Meeting in January will discuss the matter of uses and furnishing of the whole meetinghouse. Outreach provided a summary of comments about this made by various Friends.

Meeting closed in silent worship.

“Photographs of an Episode That Lives in Infamy”

She was “discouraged” from speaking to the internees and nearly fired when a photograph was published in a “Quaker pamphlet denouncing the internment.” The photographs, released from a 50-year impoundment, are now published in a book, Impounded.

The AFSC, said at that time, "…we should share in such ways as our limited resources permit in breaking the force of this calamity which has come upon the Japanese population”. Some AFSC staff lived briefly in several of the permanent camps, helping those interned to realize there were people who wanted to help eliminate the camps as quickly as possible.

An effort was started to find colleges and universities that would be willing to receive evacuees who were eligible for higher education The AFSC, sometimes in cooperation with other groups and sometimes alone, established hostels in various cities where individuals who were released from camps could live while looking for work.(See http://afsc.org/about/hist/2002/japanam.htm)

In Urbana, IL, a Japanese woman, interned as a girl, lived for years thinking she was on FBI records for starting a riot. She had become upset at seeing her father burying a watch he feared would be stolen when guards came searching for “stolen flatware” and had screamed at one of them. Decades later she had been able to do research which showed the riot was one of several and nothing to do with her.

She had said nothing about this, ashamed, with other Japanese-Americans, at the stigma. But she agreed to come to Quarterly Meeting to speak of it for the first time, knowing of Friends’ actions. A young Japanese man spoke of his parents’ shame but of their memory that, when ordered to report to the railroad depot, able to save only what they could carry, California Friends helped them to carry extra bags. Such a small thing, an affair of a couple of hours.

Evening Gathering, Christmas Eve

Christmas Party

Emperors?

Personal

Barbara M says, “Starting Monday with a homehealth agency. Got the lead for the job from my old boss who evidently put in a good word. Very happy. Barb”

Leilah P and Scott D will celebrate Catherine’s birth at the Meeting on Sunday December 10. Catherine’s grandparents will ???

Deborah W says, about the Somali Bantu girls, “the girls danced yesterday. The Bantu girls all looked so pretty, happy, and danced confidently. Unfortunately, none of their parents were there. I took lots of pictures and will hopefully be able to bring them to meeting in the next few weeks.”

Tom R says, “They danced yesterday in Bavarian dresses. They did wonderfully and ‘were just like all the other kids’. After I recover a little, there is plenty of material for the next ‘narrative’. Several other Somali Bantu issues/crises have come and gone or linger in a little cloud above my head.. I will be ‘running through the jungle’ for a few more weeks. .

As pictures and films of the dancers become available, I will share them with you when time allows. We are having our ‘awards banquet’ at Pollo Loco (The Crazy Chicken) on Thursday. We will give the girls trophies and/or certificates, then go to the Lee Theatre and watch the performance of ‘CATS’".

Deborah and her children have not been to meeting recently, dealing with problems of Breanna, their fosterchild, who was apparently deprived of loving care before coming to them. Keep them in your hearts.

Taking Patricia’s place at William Penn House for 7 weeks, Janet and Ken point out that the Penn website cites a visitor as speaking of the “magnificent and well-informed staff”. Ken is concerned that by the time Patricia returns it may be more like Fawlty Towers.

Meeting had visits from Margaret F of FWCC, and J.E. McN (she calls herself J.E.) of Washington D.C. who gave a Forum session on her work answering questions about military service and conscientious objection for members of the armed forces and young people thinking about it. They were attending a conference of Evangelical Friends in San Antonio.

Also attending was Joseph A, a Quaker pastor from Kenya, also with FWCC in London, who spent the week here. He stayed with Marian C and spent the days with Val L, the S’s, and David B and the R ‘s, staying overnight. He had met Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge on a visit to South Africa and he spoke of founding programmed meetings in England to serve Kenyan Quakers there. Friends House lent its facilities. He left here with a laptop from the Refields and a warm coat (for Boston) and two suitcases from Charles G. He described his church as “very simple” (think African simple) with “no chairs,” just rickety benches.

Steve O, who works at the Alamo, has been writing the text for an illustrated book on the Alamo which just been published. It’s beautiful but can only be bought from the Alamo or its website.

Ken S ’s niece in England has seventeen chihuahuas.

Dialog, Justice, and Peace

Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.
But the wisdom from above is first of all
pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant,
full of mercy and good fruits,
without inconstancy or insincerity.
And the harvest of justice is sown in peace
for those who cultivate peace.“

Two Wolves

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

AFSC – Meeting with Ahmadinejad

Those of us who attended the Corporation meetings in November were anxious to hear a firsthand report from Mary Ellen McNish, general secretary of AFSC, about the meeting she and other religious leaders had with President Ahmadinejad to discuss the country’s current political crisis with the United States and the role religious communities can play to resolve it. When such a meeting seemed to be a possibility it was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee and the Quaker United Nations Office with just 24 hour notice. They found the president very personable and engaging, listening to their concerns attentively, and saying he was a religious leader also. The group’s main questioning was related to asking how religious communities can cooperate in a time of tension. He said the Iranian people love Americans but not their administration. He was asked about such topics as the holocaust and nuclear weapons and he reaffirmed the earlier statements he had made. He did not say everything they wanted to hear. He said again that their country was not making nuclear weapons, but they had a right to develop nuclear power. He was courteous, in spite of questioning he did not choose, and agreed to having further conversations with a smaller group. He welcomed the opportunity for continuing dialogue with faith leaders that would focus on a religious basis for peace and justice. When asked again he said “absolutely yes” and they should meet in January 2007. When the president was asked after the meeting why he had been able to have a meaningful discussion with the religious leaders but had become angry when he met with the Council on Foreign Relations he said he found the Council were just a mouthpiece for President Bush saying that they would just continue their approach until he had done what they wanted, then they might be willing to talk. He said he found the religious leaders were sincere. Mary Ellen McNish, of AFSC, said she was impressed by his spirituality and his willingness to be available.”

Could it possibly make a difference?

Arts and Crafts

Neil R showed a display board containing photographs from the "Eyes Wide Open" display and five different short poems centered around racism, a book of poetry titled "Surrender to the Moon", containing a poem of his. There were also two videos, “one of video clips of our backyard plants , accompanied by the song ‘Scarborough Fair’ by Simon and Garfunkle and one of clips from one of my favorite games, Kingdom Hearts II, with the song ‘Every Time we Touch’ by Cascada.”

Jim S displayed a beautiful collection of six photos on the theme "Nature, Closely Observed", three photos on the theme "Juxtapositions" and three larger photos, unthemed, "Aboriginal Portrait", "Norwegian Piers", "Sandhill Cranes." Val L had over a dozen colorful knit scarves made of various fuzzy synthetic yarns, a watercolor, and 3 pieces of pottery.

Steve O showed some of his writing and three paintings, saying, “I hope people find them unique and not easy to describe. They, like my writing, are open to individual interpretation. If two people look at the same work and experience something different... then I was successful.” Mark H displayed some of his poems.

Ken S showed some woodwork including a carving of a pelican, a book trough, an inprocess 1/50 scale model of the biplane he soloed in in 1944, and a clay head of Janet at age 25.

Audrey W displayed a hand-made purse and a ceramics piece, Emma displayed a handmade purse and a picture that she had constructed out of torn paper, and Amy displayed a coffee mug that she made for Stephen, “only because the girls made me bring it. . . As we were driving home, Emma was looking out the car windows and said, "you know, it is strange how we were just in a room where we were looking at worthwhile things and now all I see are lights and signs that are not."

Jan De Hartog

Ann Sieber, Liveoak Meeting

Less heroically, in 1955 we were driving an old 1936 Daimler through Redhill, in England, when it gave a lurch and, wondering why, we saw a wheel trundling past us. As we pulled cautiously in, it mounted the sidewalk with a bounce and bowled towards a shop window. A gentleman (rugby player?) walking up the road neatly fielded the wheel before it hit the window. We pulled up, got out, and walked over to him as he waited. He nodded politely and said, “This is your wheel, I think,” as he handed it over. “Yes, thank you very much,” we said, and he walked on.

Bric A Brac

Woman 1 “It’s really tough because I’m a Republican and I don’t like Bush.”

Woman 2 “That’s O.K. I’m a vegetarian and I don’t like vegetables.”

A new breath of hope in the Middle East? To avoid civilian casualties, Israel warned that it would attack a Gaza house in 30 minutes. Palestinian women swarmed around it and Israel called the attack off, calling the women’s move “a cynical exploitation of our attempt to avoid harm to civilians. They are using them as human shields.” But, even though the women were protecting a suspected militant, they had assembled voluntarily. In Lebanon, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who provoked, and then led resistance to, the Israeli attack is urging the government to resign. In street demonstrations, he says, “. . . if they insult us we will tell them, ‘God forgive you,. If they beat us we will tell them, ‘God forgive you.’”

We must watch to see if the nonviolent approach takes root, becoming a commitment rather than a tactic, and whether it moves both sides to greater moderation and humanity. The first day of demonstration was peaceful.

A Thought From an 8th Grade

Opening the Scriptures

Reviewed by Frances F

Opening the Scriptures is a series of talks given by Tom Gates at the 2005 Annual Gathering of Friends. Gates begins by discussing the relationship that early Friends had with the Bible – a relationship more intimate than the one enjoyed by most modern Friends. After arguing that early Friends were so steeped in the Bible that much of what they said was either referencing scripture or directly quoting it (a fact that modern Friends miss because we are not familiar enough with the Bible), Gates moves on to discuss specific aspects of early Friends’ use and interpretation of scripture (e.g., Religious Language (chs. 2 & 3), Metaphors (ch. 4), Transforming Symbols (ch. 5)).

I greatly enjoyed “Opening the Scriptures” and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Quaker interpretations of the Bible or anyone who has been looking for a way into the Bible. Gates argues that there is value in all Quakers learning to speak from the Bible and he offers a gentle way into doing so.

Coming to Liberal Quakerism from a more high church/charismatic Protestant background, I found Gate’s discussion of the Bible to be both educational and liberating. So many voices are out there pushing ugly and hurtful interpretations of the Bible that it is too easy to reject the Bible and what it has to give. Gates shows that liberal Quakers have a lot to offer regarding scriptural interpretation and that this offering, far from being new, reaches back to the roots of Quakerism.

“Declaration in Defense of Science and Secularism”

It calls on political leaders of all parties:

• to protect and promote scientific inquiry...
• to base public policy insofar as possible on empirical evidence rather than on religious faith...
• to provide a reliable and impartial source of scientific analysis to assist Congress...
• to maintain a strict separation between church and state and, in particular, not to permit legislation or executive action to be influenced by religious beliefs.

Where do Friends stand on this? We clearly support science and oppose many faith-based policies. We would hope that any policy FCNL advocated would be firmly based both on Friends’ beliefs and (empirical? scientific?) practicality. But . . . does this imply that our beliefs are better or more right than those of others? That’s what the others believe.

A Quaker Center on Capitol Hill

• Nurtures and celebrates those who "Speak Truth to Power" in pursuit of peace and social justice,
• Has a special ministry to youth,
• Connects visitors from the United States and around the world with the service and with the service and witness resources of Washington D.C.
• Serves as a communication center for Friends' meetings in the Washington area.
• Promotes the Quaker vision of a peaceful and just society by providing educational seminars, opportunities for dialogue, and simple, inexpensive lodging for those who come to the area to learn, lobby, or serve.

Advice for December