Peace and Social Concerns 2010 Report

also available as a Word file

The phrase “thinking globally, acting locally” seems to accurately describe the work of the Peace and Social Concerns committee during the past year.

Members of our committee were deeply involved in the creation of “Amherst 350,” an organization which planned and implemented the International Day of Climate Action (a/k/a “350”) event in Amherst. Others of us helped to created the events happening that day in Montague Center and Greenfield. We made a contribution from our committee budget to help support the Amherst event. The Amherst 350 group continues to be active.

Peace & Social Concerns continued to offer monthly letter-writing opportunities to the Meeting. This year’s topics included opposition to troop expansion in Afghanistan and casino gambling in Massachusetts, and support for a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a treaty to ban land mines, and meaningful climate change legislation. In the last instance, the letters were actually hand-carried to our Congresspeople in Washington by the Amherst 350 group, including two members of our committee.

Since November, the committee has been running an ongoing food drive for the Amherst Survival Center and the Franklin County Survival Center. Non-perishable food can be dropped off at the meetinghouse at any time, and is delivered to the Survival Centers once a month. Though the quantity of food delivered has been fairly modest, especially in relationship to the need, we value this opportunity to address a social concern in our local communities.

Biennially, FCNL invites all Friends meetings to offer suggestions about what its “legislative priorities” should be for the next two years. P&SC organized Mt. Toby’s participation, creating both written and spoken opportunities for Friends to make suggestions. Working from the many thoughtful suggestions of the meeting, our committee distilled the following list of priorities from Mt. Toby to send on to FCNL:

Our Meeting sees the need to restore civility within our own government (particularly Congress) as a crucial overarching issue. Without it, Congress cannot work efficiently – or at all – on any of the huge national and global challenges that must be addressed. We appreciate and encourage FCNL's efforts to promote conflict resolution skills among those who govern us.

-Reduce funding for the military/increase funding for education

- Enact immigration reform

-Combat climate change, particularly through development of sustainable energy sources and systems; reduce CO2 to no more than 350ppm.

-Repeal/reverse/or otherwise eliminate the impact of the recent Supreme Court opinion allowing unlimited corporate money for political campaigns and affirming the rights of corporations as "persons."

In addition to these legislative priorities, we hope FCNL can devote some attention to the problems associated with our national expectation of and demand for perpetual economic growth.

Our committee requested that Meeting for Business support a resolution that was slated for Leverett Town Meeting. The Town Meeting resolution stated that the Town would welcome cleared Guantanamo detainees to take up residence within its borders. Meeting for Business supported the resolution, and Leverett Town Meeting subsequently passed it.

Our committee also proposed a minute in opposition to casino gambling in Massachusetts. This minute was approved by the Meeting and subsequently published in at least four local papers.

In May, P&SC held a tag sale, inviting all Mt. Toby households to contribute items and/or to patronize the sale. A number of folks found it a helpful opportunity to divest themselves of some “stuff,” perhaps thereby simplifying their lives just a bit. From the funds raised, we contributed $150 to Mt. Toby, and $30 each to Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), the national office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Quaker Bolivia Link, Right Sharing of World Resources, and the Quaker Inner City Schools Endowment Fund.

It’s not easy to discern what effect our efforts may have on the global challenges of our time. Most of the issues we address are quite daunting! But we can see and do appreciate that our work together deepens our connections to one another.