Peace and Social Concerns Committee annual report, September 2012

This year Peace & Social Concerns continued to offer monthly letter-writing opportunities to the Meeting. Topics were usually taken from FCNL suggestions for the month. To facilitate more rapid delivery to Congress, we continued to use a fax option on most occasions.

Mount Toby people, including many PSC members, were an important factor in the planning and implementation of Moving Planet Day, September 24, 2011 (see http://amherst350.org)

We hosted an overnight stay for Walk for a New Spring at Mt Toby Monday, March 19, 2012. Mt Toby folks were invited to attend a potluck meal and conversation that evening.

Dan Grubbs became the Meeting’s FCNL liaison, agreeing to bring whatever seems important to Mt Toby to the attention of the Meeting.

An outgrowth of last year’s PSC’s 11:40 hour on climate change has been the Climate Action Group, which met first in October 2011 and has continued meeting at 8:45 am on the fourth Sunday of the month. An 11:40 hour on April 22. 2012 that was assigned to PSC and the Climate Action Group was presented by Climate Action and was well attended.

We continued collection of food for local shelters, with donations going to both the Amherst Survival Center and Franklin County Survival Center.

We completed a process to provide Mt Toby input to FCNL on priorities, which are summarized as follows: (1) Support efforts for a constitutional amendment that ends corporate personhood; (2) Support legislation that would reduce the risk of wars, especially in the mid-East, and support peace building efforts; (3) Oppose laws that are being put in place to disenfranchise the poor and people of color; (4) Support legislation that addresses climate change, e.g. ending subsidies for fossil fuels and increasing incentives for renewable energy and energy conservation/efficiency; (5) Support legislation that shifts the justice system away from punishment and retribution, towards rehabilitation, healing, recovery, and restoration of relationships.

We brought to meeting for Business reports from the groups that Mt Toby supports financially.

Peace and Social Concerns again sponsored a film series focusing on films offering positive news or events.  Discussions followed the showings. Attendance probably averaged around 15. The showings were:

2/9/12 Saints Misbehaving

3/8/12 18 short documentaries about Occupy.
4/12 Peace Pilgrim

5/10/12 Taking Root

A Dime-a-Gallon proposal, based on an idea from the climate action group, was initiated by PSC and accepted by the Meeting for Business in June, as a measure to raise consciousness of our meeting’s carbon footprint . A coin receptacle for members’ contributions to this project has been placed in the fellowship room with a sign.

We cosponsored a lecture by Bill McKibben, climate change activist, on September 7, 2012. Our cosponsorship included a contribution of $50 to 350.org earmarked for this event. Over 30 Mt Toby-ites attended the talk.