An interview with Carol Urner
by Natalie Ramsland
Carol Urner has spent most of her nearly 90 years as an activist for peace and nonviolent social change. Having volunteered in developing countries that include the Philippines, Egypt, Bangladesh, and Lesotho, she has a unique perspective on the work of nonviolence.
The following note was excerpted from a longer message. The original is published here in Western Friend’s online library.
Ultimate Peace, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that runs a summer sports camp, teaching ultimate frisbee to Muslim and Jewish teenagers near Ashkelon, at the edge of the Negev Desert in Israel, about eight miles from the Gaza Strip.
Val Liveoak recently shared with Western Friend the text of her keynote presentation to 2018 PeaceQuest, which is online at: westernfriend.org/media/friends-peace-teams-our-history. The following is a compilation of some excerpts from that text.
A reflection on words as weapons.
Tex of Val Liveoak's keynote presentation to 2018 PeaceQuest, describing the nearly twenty-five-year history of Friends Peace Teams.
The creatures in the ocean were dying. An old woman sneaked up to the shoreline and quietly picked up a few emaciated fish – red ones and blue ones. She put them in her pockets and took them away. She nurtured them back to health in a clean pond where they thrived and propagated. When she had a large number of each, she took them back to the sea.
I want to start by distancing myself from the concept of objectivity, as any good feminist would – that is, I want to start by naming my point of view. I choose to focus on certain themes, movements, and social actors because I come from a working class background in the United States. I began developing an anarchist, anti-capitalist philosophy at an early age.
A tale wherein our Methodist-Quaker Hermanas confront a would-be attacker in their Honduran monastery and receive assistance from a character found in a novel about twelfth-century England.
Each day during the week leading up to the U.S. presidential inauguration of 2017, the Center for Courage and Renewal
