Western Friend logo and header image

Today

Articles

Water Camp

Author(s): Quaker Oaks Farm
On January 12, 2019, Western Friend conducted an interview with several members of the Quaker Oaks Farm (QOF) community. Located in the Central Valley of California, Quaker Oaks Farm is an environmental and cultural learning center that is supported by Visalia Friends Meeting. Since 2013, QOF has hosted annual service-learning camps, which have brought together youth and adults from Wukchumni, Mexican-American, and Quaker communities in the Central Valley and beyond.
Issue: On Water (March 2019)

Universal Access to All Knowledge

Author(s): Jesse Bell
Thanks to a grant from San Diego Friends Meeting, Western Friend was able to hire the Internet Archive to produce electronic copies of virtually all issues of Western Friend and its predecessor publication, Friends Bulletin, going back to 1929. Those documents can now be found at: archive.org/details/westernfriend, and they will also be available on the Western Friend website soon.
Issue: On Media (September 2016)

Right Sharing - An Interview with Jackie Stillwell

Author(s): Jackie Stillwell
Jacqueline Stillwell became the general secretary of Right Sharing of World Resources in January 2015. She is a life-long Friend with many years’ experience working with not-for-profit organizations and Quaker organizations, including twenty-two years as Head of School for The Meeting School in Rindge, New Hampshire, and four years service as the presiding clerk of New England Yearly Meeting. Jackie spoke by phone with Western Friend on April 5, 2016. The following text is an edited transcript of portions of that interview. A more complete depiction of the interview can be found in the Western Friend online library.
Issue: On Limits (May 2016)

Withdrawing our Support

Author(s): Dalit Baum, Greg Elliott
Dalit Baum is the Director of Economic Activism for the American Friends Service Committee. In the following interview, she describes her involvement with the “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” movement -- a campaign of nonviolent actions that seek to transform corporate practices in Palestine and in U.S. prisons. She was interviewed in October 2015 by Greg Elliott, who is the Friends Relations Associate with the AFSC in Philadelphia. Dalit has worked in AFSC’s San Francisco office since 2013. She is a feminist scholar and teacher who co-founded the organizations Who Profits from the Occupation and the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel. The following text is an edited transcript of portions of Greg’s interview with Dalit.
Issue: On Money (November 2015)

All Against the Haul

Author(s): Susan Estep
Susan Estep is a founding member of All Against the Haul, an environmental action coalition supported by Friends in Montana. It was formed to stop the construction of a permanent industrial corridor for massively oversized loads of oil production equipment – longer-than-a-football-field megaloads – through Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana to the Alberta Tar Sands mine. Susan spoke by phone with Western Friend on October 23, 2014. Following are edited excerpts from a transcript of that interview.
Issue: On Temptation (November 2014)

Making Something of Myself

Author(s): Gary Miller
Gary Miller helped found the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club in 1971 and served as its president in 1975. He was the first openly gay person to serve as the chair of the Sacramento Democratic Party and was Sacramento’s first openly gay human rights commissioner. As a staff person in the 1970s with Friends Committee on Legislation in California, Miller worked to defeat Proposition 6, the Briggs Initiative, which would have banned gays, lesbians, and their supporters from working in California public schools. Miller is a member of Sacramento Friends Meeting (PYM). He spoke to Western Friend by phone on June 18, 2014. Following are edited excerpts from a transcript of that interview.
Issue: On Pride (July 2014)

A Simple Quaker Business

Author(s): Rick Seifert
The rain has swept in from the Pacific, drenching bike-crazy Portland’s inner eastside industrial district. A rainbow arches over the airy Islabikes warehouse, where twenty-six-year-old Tim Goodall assembles and sells children’s bikes. It’s the British company’s only outlet in the United States.
Issue: On Production (May 2014)

Charting Our Way

Author(s): Tockhwock, Geoffrey Kaiser
Tockhwock (AKA Geoffrey Kaiser) produced “The Chart” that hangs as a poster in many Quaker meetinghouses, depicting Quaker history as a tree. Beginning in the late 1960s, he revised and updated The Chart continually until 2010. During that time, he and his husband Bruce traveled widely among Friends in North America and gave lectures about Friends’ 350 years of schisms and associations. Tockhwock is a member of Appleseed Meeting in Sebastopol, CA (PYM), grew up in Gwynedd Meeting in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and was a founding member of Friends for Lesbian and Gay Concerns in 1970. He spoke with Western Friend by phone on January 23, 2014. Following are edited excerpts from a transcript of that interview.
Issue: On Time (March 2014)

Patriotism and the Goal of Global Peace

Author(s): Diane Randall
Diane Randall has served as the Executive Secretary of Friends Committee on National Legislation since March 2011. Before joining FCNL, Diane spent nine years in Connecticut as Executive Director of Partnership for Strong Communities, a non-profit working for solutions to homelessness. She is a member of Hartford Monthly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting. Diane spoke by phone with Western Friend on December 10, 2013. The following text was drawn from a transcript of that interview.
Issue: On Patriotism (January 2014)

The Estranged Family of Friends

Author(s): Andrew Bruce Secrest
Andrew Secrest was a member of both Lake County Worship Group of Redwood Forest Friends Meeting and of Berkeley Friends Church. He was a husband and father, a hospice nurse, and he followed a calling his whole adult life to bridge the gap between evangelical Friends and liberal Friends. He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in his home in Lakeport, CA, on June 25, 2013. The text below was excerpted from the transcript of an interview that Western Friend conducted with Andrew on May 16 and May 17, 2013. Thanks to Solomon Smilack for helping with the transcription.
Issue: On Love (September 2013)

Not Just Intense, Alive

Author(s): Joan Steinwachs
Joanne Steinwachs has practiced psychotherapy as a clinical social worker since 1985 and runs a private practice in Denver. She works primarily with adults, addressing a wide range of issues, including chronic mental illness, addictions, eating disorders, and bipolar disorder.  Joanne is a friend of Friends, and she spoke with Western Friend by phone on March 14, 2013. 
Issue: On Power (March 2013)

U.S. Combat Drones – Immoral and Illegal

Author(s): Leah Bolger
Leah Bolger is a former National Board President of Veterans For Peace and continues to serve on the VFP board.  She is currently touring the U.S. to promote the work of VFP’s “Drones, Robots, and Future Weapons Working Group.”  Leah has worked with Quakers on many common causes over the years, and she spoke with Western Friend by phone on January 25, 2013.
Issue: On War (January 2013)