U.S. Quaker activism against war

The Friends Committee on National Legislation is a public interest lobby founded by American members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), that for more than 60 years has sought to “[connect] historic Quaker testimonies on peace, equality, simplicity and truth with peace and social justice issues which the United States government is or should be addressing.”
On November 14, FCNL’s governing committee adopted two important documents. The first sets out the “Legislatve Priorities ” on which FCNL will focus during the term of the upcoming (109th) U.S. Congress. The second is a Minute on Moral Values. You can find both texts here.
The Legislative Priorities build directly on the historical testimonies of Quakers– against war, and for a radical commitment to human equality and human wellbeing. So here, after all the deliberation that the FCNL decisionmakers engaged in, are the five top priorities that they identify:

* Remove all U.S. military forces and bases from Iraq, and fulfill U.S. moral and legal obligations to reconstruct Iraq through appropriate multinational, national, and Iraqi agencies.
* Promote a framework for national and international security that includes peaceful prevention and resolution of deadly conflicts, active pursuit of arms control and disarmament, adherence to international law, support for the United Nations, and participation in multilateral efforts to address the root causes of war and of terrorism.
* Restore and assure full civil liberties for all persons in the United States or under its jurisdiction, and promote human rights around the world through international institutions and treaties.
* Change federal budget, tax, and fiscal policies to reduce military spending, meet pressing human needs, and address structural economic violence.
* Promote long-term protection of the environment and eliminate a critical cause of violent conflict by reducing oil consumption and accelerating development and use of renewable energy sources.

I am so happy and energized by the clarity of this listing! Quakers may be small in number, but throughout the 350-year-long life of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), they– we– have often played a crucial catalytic role in bringing about real structural change in the societies in which we live.
And now, we are all citizens of the world…

Modern economic and technological changes have tied the fates of all the peoples of the world more closely together than ever before (and the US government’s violent insertion of American soldiers into countries halfway around the globe has only accelerated that process.) So it strikes me that we all, US citizens and the other 96% of the world’s people, have to start taking real responsibility for each other’s wellbeing…
Getting all US military forces and bases out of Iraq is the first step towards that. (I might have added Afghanistan, though I realize there is a thicker cover of UN-sanctioned “legitimacy” for that presence.) Envisioning what a world system that truly reflects the value of human equality might look like, and how we can work towards it, is the crucial next step.
Human equality is a far, far better basis on which to build a world that offers real human security to all of us– Americans and non-Americans– than the continued pursuit of “manifest destiny” or any other assertion of “special rights” for Americans in the conduct of world affairs. But how can we be effective in persuading the 58 million Americans who voted for George Bush of this? I guess that’s our next challenge.
… Well, I’m sitting here in Beirut, awaiting news of a hoped-for visa to Iran. This morning I went running along the Corniche here and reveled in the high, stormy seas battering the foundations of the corniche beside me. Every so often a particularly high swell would fling a plume of water 40 or 50 feet into the air… Luckily, only one of those soakers caught me as I ran.
The world is such a beautiful place. Why on earth do we sully it with violence, hatred, and killing when there are so many other, better ways to resolve our differences??