Pages tagged "War"

Dear Western Friend: In the time since I wrote the article about my frivolous filing penalty with the IRS, there have been some new developments. I would like to share the end of the story. I thought it had ended in August of 2012 when I agreed to pay a $500 penalty instead of the $5000 penalty. I was blue about this, but did feel that it was the best decision considering the situation. It turned out that the $500 had already been taken along with an extra $200 from our daughter's college fund. So the IRS owed me $200. I kept looking in the mailbox for it, and my partner Tim kept laughing.

Dear Friends: Britain Yearly Meeting has just published an amazing statement encouraging the recognition of Palestine as a state and an arms embargo on all sides. Can Friends in the US do something similar? We could start by supporting AFSC’s work in this area. (See: http://afsc.org/resource/gaza-under-siege.) Here are excerpts from BYM’s call to recognize Palestine:

 

I once lived with a cat named Francis. If he needed something, Francis would find me and invite me to help him. Regularly this invitation would come in the middle of the night when I was otherwise asleep in my bed. I would stir from my slumber to feel what would best be described as a gentle yet forceful kneading of my eyeballs by Francis’ paws.

Dedicated to Laurie Seymour, who has spurred my creativity, February 3, 2016.

Dear Friends:  Please consider this article I wrote for Epoch Times, September 10, 2015 on “children as soldiers.” UNICEF estimates that about 300,000 children under 18 are currently involved in more than thirty conflicts across the globe. Although there are no exact figures, the average age is 16 in government forces, younger in armed rebel groups. Some soldiers are as young as eight years old. Please consider this issue, and let your conscience be your guide. Read the article here.

Collaborators by Deborah Wheeler

Dear Friends: The introduction to the Western Friend issue “On Captivity” reminds us that Friends practice a method for discerning Truth that we believe can transcend secular notions. At best, we measure ourselves against eternal values, transmitted and purified by a fierce and searching inward Light, rather than by personal standards, contemporary norms, or social movements.

 

Josephine Duveneck loved adventure. She loved justice, too. In 1936, just a few years before the start of World War Two, Josephine took a trip to Germany with her family. They rented bikes and rode through the German countryside. The travelers were Josephine, her husband Frank, and three of their four children.