CINDY SHEEHAN

Des Moines activists are reviving the Iowa peace movement with Cindy Sheehan’s visit.  Since losing her son in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan has confronted the military machine bravely and consistently.  She will speak in Des Moines and participate in the Iowa Component of the Peaceable Assembly Campaign‑ Nonviolent Direct Action against War Funding. 

      She will speak at Drake University on Sunday, February 21, as seen in the calendar. 

      Earlier on Sunday, at 3:00 PM, at Chet Guinn’s Fire House at 1041 8 th Street in Des Moines, Sheehan will meet with local activists to plan nonviolent direct actions the next day at the Des Moines offices of Iowa’s Senators. 

     On Monday, February 22, at a time to be determined by the group at Sunday’s meeting, there will be both a legal vigil outside and possible nonviolent civil resistance inside the offices of Senators Grassley and Harkin at the Federal Building, 210 Walnut Street, Des Moines. Anyone interested in risking arrest at the campaign on Monday is expected to be at Sunday’s meeting to participate in nonviolence training and planning. 

    See Deb if you would like a ride for Sunday evening. 

SILENT SCREAMS

Be sure to come to the Ames Public Library on March 3 at 7 for a showing of “Silent Screams,” produced and directed by Des Moines Quaker Karla Hansen, who will be present for discussion.   Ames Friends, Darul Arquum Mosque and Alliance for Global Justice will be cosponsoring. 

REMINDER: Look at the Quaker Glossary that Betty has forwarded by e-mail and forward your comments to Gordon.  The Discipline Revision Committee has labored long and hard on our behalf, and this will confirm and aid their work. 

Ames Friends Meeting

121 South Maple

Ames, Iowa 50010

515-232-4610

Deborah Fink, Newsletter Editor

FCNL PRIORITIES

Friends Committee on National Legislation is in the process of setting its working priorities for the 2011-12 Congress.  We are part of this process.

FCNL Mission and Policy are fairly firmly in place and are not under review at present.  Go to the FCNL website to find these eloquent statements.  (www.fcnl.org)

     The current task is to select concrete priorities for the next legislative sessions.  Should FCNL be focussing on health care, migrant workers, AIDS in Africa, fair elections, climate, marriage equality, or a host of other legislative issues?  We are part of making these decisions.

     Ames Friends will discuss legislative priorities at the February midweek potluck at Betty’s on Friday, February 26, at 6:15.  We will forward our best wisdom for the discernment of the FCNL Policy Committee.  FCNL’s work comes out of broad consensus.

     FCNL staff is our eyes, ears, legs and mouth in Washington.  Their faithful work brings Friends testimonies into reality.  The effectiveness of FCNL comes from coordination of local and Washington work. 

MS. FINK GOES TO WASHINGTON

I was privileged to meet with Senator Grassley in Washington on behalf of the FCNL Our Nation’s Checkbook campaign.  Recall that Ames Friends were among those who endorsed a letter to Senator Grassley, as second ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, asking that he lend his weight to holding hearings on the meaning of national security.  We asked that he consider diplomacy and development, human needs and the environment as elements of national security. 

     Two FCNL staff members, Ruth Flower and Stephen Donahoe, accompanied me to Grassley’s office in the Hart Senate Office Building on February 4.  Although the visit was short, I was able to present him with the letter with many names attached and to express some of my concerns. 

      Grassley accepted and agreed to read my copy of the January Report by Carl Conetta of the Project on Defense Alternatives called “An Undisciplined Defense.”                                     Deb