Report 2007

PEACE AND SOCIAL CONCERNS COMMITTEE REPORT 2007

“Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them. Then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you. Then to the Lord God you will be a sweet savour and a blessing.” -George Fox

As Friends, we strive to create God's Kingdom on Earth and to be faithful to our Quaker Testimonies. The above words of George Fox guide us as we endeavor to live our faith. We have become more and more painfully aware that a way of life that covets mindless growth and is centered around unlimited consumption also threatens our existence if allowed to continue unabated. It causes suffering for others. It causes suffering for ourselves.

Members throughout the yearly meeting continue to do much good work in many areas of peace and social concerns. After careful discernment during this past year, we are led to bring the following three areas of concern before the yearly meeting for special consideration.

1. “This is my commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

The occupation of Iraq is a violation of our religious faith and our hopes for all humanity. Each and every one of us, as an expression our our faith, must do whatever we can to bring an end to all acts of war and destruction done in our name.

We ask the yearly meeting to endorse the following minute:

In the midst of the calls of many causes for our attention, Iowa Yearly Meeting(Conservative) holds as a matter of primary concern the ending of the occupation of Iraq and the withdrawal of United States troops as promptly as possible. While we are most anxious that the killing and maiming of U.S. troops and the people of Iraq should cease, we are also aware that the continuation of this conflict is a great drain on the internal resources of our country and also brings desolation to the cities of Iraq. Rather than bringing peace, our use of military might threatens to grow and further spread violence and destruction across the borders and to more people and lands. Uncontrolled military spending deprives the poor and needy of our county of material and medical care.

2. “...Which commandment is the first of all?

...You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mark 12:28-30

Humans are but one animal species within all of God's creation. Love of God is to love God's creation. We are called to live in a way that does not exploit our home, the Earth. We are mindful that if our continued way of life results in the destruction of our environment, all else will cease to be of any importance. There are too many costs for the inexpensive fuel that allows us to live in comfort and the freedom to travel with ease. There are too many costs for wasteful way in which we live. The price is too high to just continue on the way we are. We seek an earth restored.

The interest group that met during this session of yearly meeting to discuss Earthcare Witness and concerns about the environment had a strong feeling that a committee of the yearly meeting focused solely on earthcare issues would be of value. The Iowa Yearly Meeting(Conservative) Peace and Social Concerns Committee has formed an Earthcare subcommittee to explore this concern and to teach us how to address this issue with all the attention it needs.

We offer the following suggestions as a small beginning for each of us to discover ways to live more responsibly:

Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends (Conservative) is composed of meetings whose members have to drive cars because of inadequate or non-existent public transportation. Each of us contributes to climate change. Each of us needs to be mindful in our use of private automobiles. We recommend the following practices:

--Use public transportation where possible.

--Walk or ride a bicycle.

--Carpool whenever possible.

--Keep cars well maintained. Check regularly that the tires are properly inflated.

--Drive at or below the speed limit. Look ahead to anticipate stops to avoid hard braking. Accelerate slowly. This can significantly improve gas mileage.

--Be mindful that there may be some occasions where telephone or e-mail could substitute for face-to-face gatherings.

Another potential way to address global climate change is carbon offsetting. There are arguments against it; it can be seen as a way to soothe our consciences without changing our own personal behavior. A regional example of a carbon offsetting organization is Native Energy, which has representatives from nine tribes in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. It provides carbon offsetting services by disbursing funds for projects such as building electric generating wind turbines on native American lands and methane projects on family farms. These projects will reduce the need to burn fossil fuels to generate electricity and will save on energy bills.

We hope Friends will consider keeping track of miles driven, and making an appropriate contribution to a monthly meeting carbon offsetting fund, or directly to Native Energy. The suggested payment would be 12 cents per gallon of gas burned. For a car that averages 24 MPG, that would be ½ cent per mile. More information on how these figures are arrived at and how the money is used can be found on the Native Energy website (www.nativeenergy.com). Native Energy’s address is: 823 Ferry Rd., P.O. Box 539, Charlotte, VT 05445.

3. “The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31

Who is my neighbor?

This was one of the many queries used by our monthly meetings this past year to aid discussion and learn about immigration. The inexpensive food and clothing we eat and wear, the many items and activities that we enjoy each day come at too great a cost to people invisible to many in American society. The same system that allows us to live in abundance and comfort necessitates others be deprived of the ability to care adequately for themselves and their loved ones. We are grieved by these inequities.

The legal and political systems that form the foundation of our country must guarantee fairness and equality for all. Our work calls us to bear witness and advocate when those who have no voice are treated unjustly. This has increasingly come to be the immigrant in our country.

We seek to change the discussion currently happening throughout our country regarding immigrants and immigration. As Friends, this speaks not only to our Testimony of Equality, but to our deeper call to “love one another.”

We ask the yearly meeting to endorse the following minute and that it be referenced in our general epistle to other yearly meetings with a copy of the minute attached.

(Minute:)

There once was a frame of reference in this country that said, “Slavery is a reality. The best we can do is hope to regulate it and work for the just treatment of slaves.”

John Woolman stepped out of that frame of reference and said, “Slavery is wrong.”

His vision was the end of slavery.

Today there is a frame of reference that says, “Illegal immigration is a reality. The best we can do is regulate immigration.”

We step out of that frame of reference to say, “All are worthy of a decent life.”

A discussion of immigration must include a tremendous range of topics. We recognize that our way of life forces the involuntary migration of people from their homelands. Our vision is that life in the United States of America not depend upon the exploiting of others' labor for our own comfort. Our vision is that we insist our country treat all people, both in and outside of its borders, with fairness and justice. Our vision is that our country develop trade policies that do not cause the suffering of other people.

The effect of our country's economic, foreign and military policies on people all over the world are not contained by our borders. It is our vision these policies come to reflect a national will to always consider what constitutes the greater good of all.

Iowa Yearly Meeting Conservative urges other yearly meetings to join us in this vision. We open ourselves to discuss God's way of achieving that goal.

PEACE AND SOCIAL CONCERNS COMMITTEE BUDGET

Our budget of $1,100 included no carryover from the previous year. These are the requested disbursements for this coming fiscal year:

Alternatives to Violence Project (split evenly between the IA and NE programs) $100

AFSC (earmarked Immigrant Voices, Central Region) $50

No More Deaths (earmarked Agua Prieta Migrant Center) $50

Friends Peace Teams (earmarked Latin America/Caribbean work) $100

Iowans Against the Death Penalty $35

Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty $35

Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty $35

Conscientious Objection/Counter Recruitment training $100

Monteverde Friends School $50

Ramallah Friends School $50

National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund $100

New Covenant Peace Center $95

Quaker Earthcare Witness $100

Quaker Initiative to Abolish Torture $100

Contingency Fund for legal fees incurred from engaging in civil disobedience

against our military occupation of Iraq $100

$1,100

This past year, Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative)Friends have tried to do our best to carry on the vision given to us by George Fox. We aimed to be “patterns and examples” in our homes, our meeting houses, in soup kitchens, in the offices of our elected representatives, on picket lines, and in jail cells. Together we worked to make our “carriage and life preach” a better world “among all sorts of people”.

Let us continue to encourage each other in the upcoming year to find ways “to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone”, in hopes to be a “sweet savour and a blessing”.