Friends in San Antonio
7052 North Vandiver, San Antonio TX78209
February 2009
Forums begin at 11:30am and last about an hour. All attenders are welcome and encouraged to join in the forums and discussion groups.February 1 Sunday .... 9am, Bible discussion, with Sharon Shen. “New Testament: the Gospel of Mark.” Potluck lunch at 11.30. February 7 Saturday .. Clerks’ Meeting, 10 a.m. Bill W’s house. February 6, Friday ... Film, “ Sansho the Bailiff,” 7pm, meetinghouse. February 8, Sunday.... Forum – First Day School program, with Denise Wilkinson: “Growing Up Quaker: What Do We Want Our Meeting’s Children to Understand About Quakerism?” February 15, Sunday............ Business meeting. February 22, Sunday............ Forum – with Bill Wilkinson: “What’s ahead in 2009 for San Antonio Friends.”
Each Thursday, at 4-5 pm, a silent peace vigil is held at the NE corner of Main Plaza (Commerce and Dwyer or Commerce and Soledad, which is the same thing) near the San Fernando cathedral.
Clerk: Bill Wilkinson, e-mail: billwilk3@att.net
Newsletter Editor: Ken Southwood, e-mail:jksouthwood@grandecom.net
Website: http://www.sanantonioquakers.org
Donations may be made to Friends Meeting of San Antonio, P.O. Box 6127, San Antonio TX 78209. Meeting telephone for meeting times or to ask for other information: (210) 945-8456.
To: President-Elect Barack Obama |
Meeting for BusinessThe Treasurer reported that contributions exceeded expenses in 2008 by $1,860 due to generous one-time contributions and a bequest. Budgets, though, cannot assume such income. Earnings from use of the facilities totaled $2,505. The outstanding balance in the mortgage is $59,945. The average monthly contribution needed per family unit is now about $140.The Nominating Committee report was approved, showing many openings, and hoping for volunteers. The M&O report said that Denise W would facilitate a forum discussion to prepare the State of the Meeting report to Yearly Meeting. This provides a time to reflect on the highs and lows in our community life over the past year and is a time for sharing. M&O hopes that we might also take time to consider the year ahead. The committee is considering the time of Meeting for worship and whether some alternatives might be tried. Meeting approved supporting the work of the Free Speech Coalition, which is protesting the City Council’s imprecise charges for public demonstrations, fearing that these can be used to suppress some more than others. Bill W reported on behalf of the Ad-Hoc Property Committee on the conversations with the attorney representing the owners of the salon adjacent to our property, which will be offered for sale. Meeting approved further negotiations by the ad hoc committee.
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PersonalJulie B was admitted into hospital on January 28, having a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. She will be having chemotherapy and perhaps radiation therapy for six months. She and her mother thank everyone for their concern.Frances F says that little Von will be having a brother or sister in July! Leilah P is now teaching a course at Trinity U in the Urban Studies program in Anthropology. Jen O tells us that there is a pair of vultures nesting in the barn to be seen SE of us behind La Fiesta in her father’s lot. William and Thomas have seen them there, with three youngsters playing. Bill O tells us, “You probably know that Karen and I have been here in VA since November 27. Both of my parents were in poor health. Dad is recovering from major brain surgeries; Mom had even more problems, and died earlier this week. No word yet as to when Karen and/or I will return to SA. We are grateful for the support of family, friends, neighbors and employers. in peace, Bill. Bill’s mother was a teacher in Public Schools and the Laboratory School of Columbia University, where she supervised Master’s level student teachers and participated in the development of national reading tests and curriculum materials. She was the co-founder and first executive director of the Educational Information and Referral Service (EIRS) in Atlanta , GA. She also counseled adult students at the NOVA campus of the University of Virginia . She was formally recognized in Who’s Who of Outstanding Young Women of America in 1970. Bill’s mother’s life was one of volunteer service wherever she lived. Carol R received a Distinguished Faculty Award from St. Mary’s U. It is awarded for:
# positive student evaluation ratings; Carol Balliet says, “I think I inadvertently threw my phone into our big blue recycle bin with some trash -- just minutes before the garbage truck came along and swallowed it up. I kept calling my number all day (still not sure where my phone was), and I couldn't hear it ring so it may have been ringing forlornly deep in the bowels of the garbage truck. By the next morning though, my calls were going straight to voicemail which indicated that it was no longer able to ring. I think that means it's now been crushed up into a tiny ball of metal and plastic. Rest in peace.” Catherine Jett, who is our contact for the Cancer Support Group, which meets in the meetinghouse, says she went to Washington , D.C. to perform at the Hispanic Inaugural Ball, the Texas Boots and Black Tie Inaugural Ball and to march in the inaugural parade. She says “Our march was WONDERFUL! I cannot express all the positive energy and hope we experienced from the crowds. It was almost magical! We are in Urban 15's Carnaval de San Anto. We were at the back of the parade with lights and some of our dancers wore these big stars. It was tiring and cold but quite an experience. We were very happy to be a part of it all.” Marian C this month went about selling a big pile of books, donated at the end of an estate sale. She sorts them for value. But sales were very slow.
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EventsNo event in January is greater than the accession to the presidency of an African-American who holds the promise of an early end to the war in Iraq and of a foreign policy based on Soft Power, that of values and example, rather than Hard Power, that of economic and military strength. The history of Friends in the anti-slavery and civil rights movements gives us especial pleasure in the election of Barack Hussein Obama, particularly in the direction in which he promises to take America.So, what should we do? In addition, the coincidence of the presidential inauguration and the Martin Luther King Day March on the previous day made for a special memory. More about the Meeting’s participation next month. The PeaceCENTER honored Rev. Claude Black as its 2009 Peace Laureate. In 1960 he sat at a local lunch counter here when sitting was allowed only for whites. He refused to stand until the manager finally gave in and San Antonio was quoted in the NYT as becoming the first southern city to integrate lunch counters. He also forced the removal of labels "white" and "colored" from the water fountains in front of the Alamo . He's now 92 and honored here. The Center event kicked off the national season of nonviolence through April 4. Nonviolence is part of our charter, as it were. What should we do? On a less elevated note, a small number of Friends came for the Bring and Show evening in January. Janet S showed photos of her mother’s family, with her grandfather’s bible; her mother died when Janet was a baby. Barbara M showed her collection of art glass Blue Birds of Happiness (and a blue whale of happiness.) Marian C read letters from her grandfather written about his difficulties during his cattle drive in west Texas to a railhead a hundred years ago. Frances F showed a delightfully ingenious box made by Karl to use as his proposal to her – a romantic event. Sharon S showed a very nice ceramic head she had made in junior high, which she has treasured and kept ever since. Bill W described the process of finding he was diabetic and dealing with the complicated daily insulin program, ultimately solved by an automatic pump (which he showed.) Ken S showed the Mexican-style house they lived in north of Singapore at the time of Malayan independence, a flub in the celebration, and photos of a drive with Janet from there up the isthmus to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Sharon Shen will lead a Bible discussion at 9 a.m. on the First Sunday each month. On February 1 she will introduce the topic, “The New Testament,” beginning with the Gospel of Mark. She will give the contemporary background of the writers of the Gospels to give a better understanding of what they were addressing.
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Crop WalkSunday, March 1, 2:00 – Mission Park.Now that you’ve all gotten in shape on the 3-mile MLK March, please consider participating in the 6-mile CROP Walk on Sunday, March 1. The CROP Walk is sponsored by Church World Service. For the San Antonio walk, 10% of the funds raised go to the San Antonio Food Bank, 10% to Christian Assistance Ministries (CAM), and the rest to CWS and other designated agencies. Factoid: every dollar ($1) donated to the SA Food Bank is the equivalent of 7 meals or $13 in groceries or 10 pounds of food. Last year the food bank received over $6,000 from the San Antonio CROP Walk. Last year Friends raised over $1783, so $178 went to the Food Bank – or the equivalent of $2314 in groceries or 1,246 meals for hungry people in our local area. As for the portion that goes to Church World Service, consider that $30 buys a two-month supply of maize for a family; $34 gets 200 tree seedlings; $10 a pair of rabbits to breed; $112 a pair of goats; $72 an emergency food package containing food supplies for a family of five for a month; $32 a birthing kit; $50 piping for a drip irrigation system, etc. So does our participation make a difference? You bet! If you’re interested in being part of this (as San Antonio Friends have for over 10 years now), please see Denise Wilkinson to get an envelope for collecting sponsor donations.
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Quaker PresidentsIt is appropriate to consider Quaker presidencies this month. They have not gone down in the way we would have wished. Both Friend Richard Nixon and his chosen vice president Spiro Agnew had to resign in disgrace. We have to remember that at least his opening of relations with China was in accord with Friends’ principles.Friend Herbert Hoover is remembered as “uncaring and devoted to laisser-faire principles and balanced budgets to set the economy right. . . Hundreds of thousands were living in ‘Hoovervilles’ and eating at soup kitchens or scavenging food from garbage cans.” FDR, “ebullient, charming, and naturally optimistic,” was met by a Congress eager to give him “whatever he demands” which he met by signing “14 major acts of legislation” at a rate of one a week. What could have happened to transform Herbert Hoover from an American noted for his philanthropy into an old grinch? A successful engineer, after WWI, he asked the Service Committee to carry out a massive feeding program in Germany and, in four years' time, the AFSC was feeding millions of German children. It was remembered warmly by those who received the food. One said, “ the early memory I have of the Quakers is of warmth and sweetness.” When the Mississippi broke its banks and levees in 1927, flooding millions of acres, governors of six states asked for Herbert Hoover to direct the relief. With help from the Rockefeller Foundation, he set up health units to stamp out malaria, pellagra, and typhoid fever. He gained renewed praise as a humanitarian. John Steele Gordon describes him, in 1932, as “dour, diffident, and beaten down by four years of ever-growing economic disaster.” His public image changed beyond his control. He is remembered as ordering the destruction of the Bonus Marchers’ camp in Washington. But it was General MacArthur who ordered the attack on the Marchers’ camp, defying Hoover ’s orders. And Rexford Tugwell, one of Roosevelt’s aides, said that “practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs Hoover started. . . [He] had wanted – and said clearly enough that he wanted – nearly all the changes now brought under the New Deal label.” He was unable to achieve more. His attempt to help struggling homeowners took seven months to pass Congress in limited form. After WWII, Harry Truman asked Hoover to make recommendations on Germany. As a result a school meals program , serving 3.5 million children. In a more benevolent use of his name, the meals became known as Hooverspeisung. So, perhaps in 1932 he just wasn’t a new broom nor ebullient, charming, and optimistic enough? Partly quoted from John Steele Gordon’s review of Adam Cohen’s book, Nothing to Fear, NYT, January 22.
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Time TravelA young Friend took his first trip on a train. As the car swayed and the engine rounded curves, everything he saw passing the window seemed wonderful and amazing.After some time the train entered a tunnel and everything outside was pitch black; only a dim glow came from the car’s small ceiling lamps. The lad still peered out of the window, holding his breath. Then the train swept out of the other end of the tunnel and light flooded the car. The boy turned to his mother, eyes shining, “Look, Mama,” he said breathlessly, “it’s tomorrow!” Quaker House Newsletter
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Vocal MinistryThe theory of vocal ministry is simple. As the worshipers sit together in silence to wait upon the Lord, anyone among them may find arising in his consciousness a message which he feels is intended for more than himself alone. It is then his obligation to deliver that message and to cease speaking when he has delivered it. He must learn to recognize the unique sense of urgency which is evidence of a divine requirement. If a thought comes to him with peculiar life and power, he may be justified in assuming that this is a sign from God to speak. He may sometimes be mistaken. . .Howard Brinton, Friends for 300 Years
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Bric A BracSasha and Malia Obama have started at their new school, Sidwell Friends School, going from their hotel by motorcade to a “media stakeout” at the school.“Some of the school's Quaker traditions might require getting used to. There are periods of silence observed at the start of the day, and at the start of lunch. ‘Each school day begins with silence as students gather by homerooms, and meals and assemblies incorporate silence as we gather,’ the school's handbook says. The length is ‘up to the person who's asked for the moment of silence’ . . . At the middle school, it customarily runs from 8 to 8:05 a.m. according to parents. All students also are required to participate in the Quaker tradition of the weekly ‘Meeting for Worship,’ a period of quiet reflection and discussion. . . What precisely happened in the girls' classrooms was not publicly announced -- the school, parents and students are trying to maintain a news blackout -- but we assume that some sort of teaching took place. Also, discreet gawking. ‘We were told to act normally,’ said one student, who declined to be identified for fear of violating school omerta. ‘But people were looking out the windows anyway.’” Washington Post, January 6. You know about omerta, right? It’s “the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime.” (Paoli, Mafia Brotherhoods). From those Sicilian Quakers. That student must have been terrified of reprisals from school authorities. Charlie Gibson of ABC News is a Sidwell graduate. Singapore has one of the best healthcare systems in the world. While it spends a considerably smaller proportion of its GDP on this, its record is much better than that of the USA . Tom Eliot, British/Singaporean Quaker would be so happy to know this. He was a pharmacologist in the university who raised his department to the level of a School. His life’s mission was to make as sure as he could that the people of Singapore would have first rate pharmaceutical services. He died in 1977.
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GAZAThe war in Gaza has produced calls for peaceful initiatives. TIKKUN, a “Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society,” (www.tikkun.org) took out a full-page ad in the New York Times. Briefly, it called for:
*acceptance of the pre-1967 Israel-Palestine borders, It argues that all sides would embrace a peace which provided for genuine security and acknowledgment of the wrongs done to each side. It calls for a stop to the demeaning of others and the launching of a Peace and Reconciliation Commission. From the G-8 countries it calls (www.spiritualprogressives.org) for a global Marshall Plan. “Israel’s security,” it says, “would be greatly enhanced if the money spent on enforcing an occupation and protecting West Bank settlements went instead toward building a prosperous Palestinian economy,” and that the fundamental rethinking of the global economy can shift funds from military spending toward a “sustainable global reality.” “Our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet.” An International Middle East Peace Conference should have an “explicit psychological and spiritual dimension.” “The path to peace must be a path of peace.” Among organizations for which it urges support for working for peace in the Middle East it lists the American Friends Service Committee. In the same NYT issue Jeffrey Goldberg says, “The moderate Arab states, Europe, the United States and, mainly, Israel, must help Hamas’s enemy, Fatah, prepare the West Bank for real freedom, and then hope that the people of Gaza . . . see the West Bank as an alternative to the squalid vision of [Hamas leaders] Hassan Nasrallah and Nizar Rayyan.” We have just learned of “what may turn out to be one of the most important (though as yet little-known) developments in contemporary Muslim thought to emerge since the emergence of Muslim fundamentalism itself:” the ideological evolution of the (in)famous Gama'ah Islamiyah of Egypt and its move from terrorism to persuasion.
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MichaelTwo years ago Michael F sent us this poem. We were concerned, not being sure if he wished to have it published in the newsletter, so we wrote and asked him. He did not reply. We lost touch with him and we know that he and Julie are divorced. He is a Vietnam veteran, scarred in many ways by his experience. We publish it now, remembering him, and hoping that his life has improved, somewhere.
I am the dead timepiece
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Prayer for PeaceFrom Rabbi Steve Gutow, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, National Council of Churches, USA, and Dr. Sayyid Syeed, Islamic Society of North America:"The three of us come from different religions and have different views regarding how best to solve the problems faced in the confrontation between Israel and Hamas. In many arenas we have found ways to work together but not yet in this situation. We look to the power that is greater than any of us can even contemplate and ask that power to help us find peace among the nations. Below is our unified prayer:
Dear Lover of humanity and all creation, we come to you because we trust in your power and take comfort in your compassion.
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A Peculiar ConscienceJoseph Rowntree (1836-1925), the Quaker philanthropist and cocoa manufacturer, once, by mistake, traveled in a first class rail coach having bought a second class ticket.Stricken by his conscience, the next time he traveled he bought a first class ticket and traveled second class. Steven Burkeman, quoted in Barmy Britain by Jack Crossley. Barmy – loony. Loony Joseph!
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Advice for FebruaryRejoice in the presence of children and young people in your meeting and recognize the gifts they bring. Remember that the meeting as a whole shares responsibility for every child in its care.
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