The 2001 Quaker Peace Roundtable:
Workshop #5: Mary Lord, FCNL, A New Campaign
for the Peaceful Prevention of Armed Conflicts and
Gross Violations of Human Rights
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continued -- 3
Raising as an issue on college campuses the US withdrawal from the Kyoto agreement.
Use websites.
FCNL supplying information to start groups on college campuses. (A response: this is
being started with Quaker colleges. Also work with college faculty because they don�t
graduate in four years).
Using organizers packets for grassroots economic organizing which are available on the
web.
We (the US) get power in military crises; is this true of peace? For example, from
health
care, a terminal cancer case can be seen as an economic benefit for society.
The US Institute of Peace tries to make cost estimates but finds this hard to do. They
work with the executive branch but outside of it.
What is needed is a cadre of trained civilians who can go into an area soon after a
conflict,
people who have had experience in (re)building a civil society.
FCNL has long term goals but congress people say, "I get elected every 2 (6) years."
There is a health analogy: surgical intervention versus prevention (as with early HMOs).
Can we show profitability? For example in landmine removal.
The most lucrative disaster was the Exxon Valdes oil spill.
In organizing against the death penalty
we found an important group, usually overlooked, was women of color.
In conclusion:
The consensus of the workshop seemed to be that the Quadrennial Defense Review would
be useful for organizing purposes.
The session ended with a quotation from E. Raymond Wilson: "When a toolbox
contains
only a hammer, everything looks like a nail."