Resource Information

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You agree to pay for the killing of one person. Just one.

The Committee on Conscientious Objection to Paying for War of New York Yearly Meeting is bringing this query before New York Yearly Meeting:

If I promised you a life of comfort, a good family, membership in a wonderful church, meaningful work, college education for your children and energetic defense of your human rights in exchange for one small thing:

You agree to pay for the killing of one person. Just one. Nobody you know.
And you won’t be the only one. Everybody is chipping in.
You don’t actually have to do it yourself, just make a small contribution.
Would you do it?

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The Pentagon is starting to get nervous

Author: Wilmer Rutt, Kevin Brubaker
Brad Ogilivie, Tom Simpson

Dear Friends,
As your ILYM General Committee members to FCNL, we urge you to prayerfully consider speaking Truth to Power. Please share with your Meeting if possible. And please hold us in the Light as we attend the National Lobby Day and the Annual Meeting starting Nov. 3 in Washington.

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The Pentagon is starting to get nervous.

Last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was on Capitol Hill telling Congress that the Pentagon can’t afford deep budget cuts by the congressional supercommittee. He found a receptive audience with the House Armed Services Committee, whose chair is also dismayed that curtailing federal spending would require cuts to the Pentagon. Military contractors have hundreds of paid lobbyists working against deficit reduction measures that would affect their financial interests.

What does all this mean? It means your lobbying is making a difference. Members of Congress are hearing from people like you that the Pentagon budget is too big, too bloated and too unaccountable to leave off the table when budgets need to be cut back. Some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters throughout the country are also vocal on these issues.

Next week, the Senate is out of session, and many senators will be back home for the break. This week, please make a plan to get in touch with your senators, or their offices, while they are home.

Protests covered in the media can help, but your lobbying as a constituent for cuts to Pentagon spending continues to be crucial. The congressional supercommittee will make its report to Congress by November 23, and then the full Congress will need to vote on this proposal by December 23. If the Pentagon budget is to be cut significantly, your members of Congress need to continue to see the support this issue has from you and others in your community.

Here are the steps we’d like you to take:

Print out a copy of the Sustainable Defense Task Force report.

Write a personal note that tells your senator why you want to give her or him a copy of this report.

Look up the location of your senator’s nearest office to you on our website. Put in your calendar a date and time you could drop by this office with the copy of the report.

When you visit the office, let the receptionist know that you are a constituent. Ask for a couple of minutes of time from a staff member who will carry your concern to the elected member and leave the report, along with your note.

Let us know how your visit went!

If you have the time, please consider trying to organize an appointment with your senator over the recess. We have advice and fact sheets on how to make your visit and what specific points you might use on our website or contact the FCNL office for more information.

Your emails and letters are important and can be influential, but surveys of congressional staff consistently show that the most effective way to influence your member of Congress is through an in person visit to his or her office.

Together we can convince Congress to cut $1 trillion from the Pentagon budget over the next ten years.

Sincerely,

Diane Randall
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation
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Travel to Burundi, Kenya & Rwanda with AGLI

Author: Dawn Rubbert


2012 African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) Workcamps:
BURUNDI, KENYA & RWANDA
Saturday, June 23 to Saturday, July 28

• AGLI accepts volunteers of all ages: workcampers have been as young as 8, as old as 84.
• Workcampers have included an entire family of five (the Amoses) and one with four from NY state; you can travel as an individual or with friends.
• The goal is for each team to include 6 international (non-African) and 6 local workcampers plus professional builders.
• Physical & Skill requirements: Good health and willingness to do manual labor.
• Construction skills and experience are not necessary.

1) Burundi Workcamp – Mutaho

Host Partner: REMA – A group of about 50 women (Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa) from Mutaho Friends Church led by Pastor Sara Gakobwa. The name means be comforted, do not get discouraged. Click here for more…
Location: Mutaho, Burundi – Northeast of Bujumbura near Gitega
(the second largest city in Burundi)
Objective:  The Workcamp Peace Team will build guest rooms for the Mutaho Women’s Group Center.
Housing: Workcampers will stay with local host families.

2)  Rwanda Workcamp – Gisenyi

Host Partner: Gisenyi Friends Church
Location: Gisenyi, Rwanda
(on the northern edge of Lake Kivu, just across the border from Goma, Congo)
Objective: Workcampers will complete work on the offices and bathroom.
Housing: Workcampers will stay in the Peace Center dormitory.

3)  Kenya Workcamp – Lugari

Host Partner: Lugari Yearly Meeting
Location: Lugari District is close to the Uganda border with Kenya with a perfect view of Mt Elgon. This is a 350 acre farm owned by Lugari Yearly Meeting and a former Farmers Training Center.
Objective: Workcampers will rehabilitate one or more buildings; cleaning, painting, minor repairs.
Housing: Workcampers will stay at the site which is much like camping. It is cold at night so there is usually a nightly campfire.

For More Info: contact Dawn Rubbert via dawn@aglifpt.org or go to www.aglifpt.org
Help spread the word!  Download AGLI 2012 Workcamps flyer here

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Sitting with my Muslim neighbors

Author: Michael Batinski

The light that illumines our lives sometimes comes upon us by surprise.  I have felt such moments while sitting with my Muslim neighbors in an Islam Study Group.  After discussing the prophets including Mohammed and Jesus, we seemed led to an essential concern.  What, we asked, is prayer?  The question quickly moved us from a description of Muslim practice to a discussion of its significance in the believer’s life.

As I listened and as we shared our thoughts—Muslim and non-Muslim alike–I could not but think of Friends practice that seemed at first so different.  And as I listened I wondered at what seemed to be shared experiential groundings.  I could hear echoes of Thomas Kelly’s Testament of Devotion, especially his discussion of “The Light Within.”  I inquired cautiously by offering these observations in the hope that my thoughts would lead to thoughts on the significance of prescribed times for prayer in one’s daily life.  The answers, in turn, led me to return to Quaker practice, this time with a quickened awareness of the universalist voice among Friends.

Each Wednesday, we have been gathering—Muslim and non-Muslim together.  With each week’s passing I became aware that good work was being done in this circle.  The work hinged in part on raising understanding of the message of Islam.  Certainly, I came to this circle aware of my ignorance.  Christians like myself acquired an education that ignored and still does ignore the Muslim world, its historical experiences and its religious traditions.  Perhaps most of us knew in one way or another that Muslims, Christians, and Jews share a common tradition under the tent of Abraham that Karen Armstrong explores so well.  The study group provides opportunity to stand on that common ground.  With each week that understanding has been growing in different ways among us.  I sensed that deeper understanding grows for Christians like myself not simply from acquiring more information.  Understanding becomes deeper sometimes with a smile of recognition, sometimes with a humorous comment.

As  I reflect on the past year, I am encouraged by the continuous good work undertaken by my neighbors.  This study group emerged out of the twenty-four hour Quran reading held last fall at the Carbondale Interfaith Center.  That experience had led neighbors from both the Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic faith traditions to seek for ways to move from a single event to continuous programs for developing interfaith understandings.  Among the several interfaith activities that have been emerging—communal dinners, for example—were discussion groups such as the one led by teachers from the local mosque.   Christian and Muslim, African, Middle Eastern, and American Muslims, a Christian preparing to convert to Islam, students from the campus Reserve Officer Training program were listening, probing, and pondering.

With each meeting, the group has explored new territory.  One day while we were talking about the Quran as foundation text, I wondered about mysticism in Islam.  The African teacher beamed at once and began to talk about the great Muslim mystics.  While he talked, I felt the circle gather closer.  The closeness emerges from the simple joyful excitement that the Muslim teachers shared with their Christian friends.  At the end of each meeting I walk away confirmed that Quaker traditions of universalism have been revealed in quiet practice.

I am encouraged.

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AVP Soars with Youth in Turbo Division – Report from Kenya – August 23, 2011

Author: David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams

Dear Friends,

Yesterday Getry Agizah, coordinator for Friends Church Peace Teams (FCPT), Gladys Kamonya, my wife, and I met with thirty-one youth apprentice AVP facilitators who are conducting workshops in Turbo Division. Here in Africa “youth” means anyone under thirty-five years of age.

Hot-spot Turbo Division is where AGLI and FCPT have been putting a lot of effort since the 2008 post election violence. Our goal now is to prevent renewed violence during the August 2012 election campaign. There are seven locations in Turbo Division and we started by doing two basic AVP workshops in each location. This was followed by one advanced workshop in each location. Lastly, there was a three day Training for Facilitators at the newly renovated Lugari Yearly Meeting Peace House for forty-five of the best participants who are now apprentice AVP Facilitators.

Then the apprentice AVP facilitators – with the help of a lead facilitator – conducted four basic apprentice workshops in each location. Altogether over 1400 youth in Turbo Division have now participated in an AVP workshop.

What did we learn about these apprentice workshops with the new youth facilitators during our visit?

In each location the first apprentice workshops were difficult. The apprentice facilitators had to recruit participants to attend the workshops with a goal of 25 participants. Since AVP does not pay the customary sitting allowance for attending a workshop, potential participants were reluctant to come. The first workshop usually then had only sixteen to twenty participants. The inexperienced facilitators were naturally quite nervous.

Over time word got out so that by the third and fourth workshop, the facilitators were having too many participants. Those who were invited would bring along a friend or two and soon there were up to sixty youth wanting to participate. The new facilitators did not want to send people away, but doing an experiential workshop with so many participants destroys some of the essence of the workshop. In Rwanda, AVP facilitators once thought that they could put thirty participants in a workshop, but soon realized that AVP lost some of its effectiveness — they returned to workshops with twenty participants.

So what did they do? In some cases, they were able to send some of the youth home with the understanding that they could come to the next workshop. In the case where there were sixty participants, they divided into two workshops — but there was only the same food for the twenty-five that were planned. The food budget had to be stretched, but as with the loaves and fishes this seemed to work. In another case, when the fourth workshop had too many participants, those who were invited agreed to donate food for an extra workshop for those who were unable to attend. When Getry visited this extra workshop on the last day, she found that at 5:00 PM they were still going strong (and wanting more) even though they had not eaten for the whole day! Getry provided a soda and some bread for the participants.

They have called these additional workshops “voluntary workshops” in that the participants bring the food, obtain the meeting space, and home stays for the facilitators (who meet each night to debrief and plan for the next day’s activities). AGLI/FCPT only provides the lead facilitator and the materials for a cost of about $50 per workshop. Already by the time of our meeting, the apprentice facilitators had conducted two voluntary workshops and had eleven more planned. I expect that they will arrange for even more after this.

I asked them if they were getting only youth who had not participated in the violence. There answer was a resounding “no.” A good number of the participants had confessed that they had participated in the violence and at least one admitted to killing someone. One basic AVP workshop turns these violent youth around and they have committed themselves to being peaceful during the upcoming election cycle.

A number of older people thought that there should be workshops for older people. They felt that they also needed AVP. At least one older person thought that he should be trained as an AVP facilitator.

Roughly half the facilitators and half of the participants were women — a difficult goal to reach in the African context.

September 21 is World Peace Day as proclaimed by the United Nations. In Turbo Division there is going to be a celebration with a walk from each direction. The AVP youth leaders have been asked to participate and organize those youth who have taken AVP. We will see how they respond and what activities they will plan.

In summary, AGLI/FCPT took a most difficult area to work on violence prevention. When we began, many people were negative about the response we would receive in Turbo Division. On the contrary, the response has exceeded even my usually optimistic forecast. My conclusion is: “People are often violent because peacemakers have not made the necessary effort to reach and teach them.”

If you would like to sponsor a voluntary AVP workshop, send $50 to Friends Peace Team/AGLI, 1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 with a notation of “AVP in Turbo, Kenya.”

Thanks,
Dave

—
David Zarembka, Coordinator
African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams
P. O. Box 189, Kipkarren River 50241 Kenya
Phone in Kenya: 254 (0)726 590 783 in US: 301/765-4098
Office in US:1001 Park Avenue, St Louis, MO 63104 USA 314/647-1287
Webpage: www.aglifpt.org Email: dave@aglifpt.org

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Finding my way: reading historical texts for present day meaning

Author: Breeze Richardson

I have always been drawn to Pendle Hill pamphlets. I still remember the first time I visited Pendle Hill and came upon a long hallway mounted with display racks and pamphlets as far as the eye could see (or so it seemed).  Title after title intrigued me, and many of the selections I picked up that day remain on my bookshelf.

So after years of pondering how to bring Pendle Hill pamphlets more regularly back into my life, I took a moment to visit their website today hoping to discover a few titles I might order as summer reading.  To my delight, I actually found something even better: PDF downloads available for immediate consumption!  How wonderful.

And so I think I will begin a new task as part of my commitment to writing here on this blog, selecting pamphlets of interest and linking to them here, hoping Friends will indulge me in reading along and offering their thoughts.

“The Nature of Quakerism” was written by Howard Brinton in 1949. After clicking the PDF button it took about 15 minutes to read (with interruption – let’s be honest, with two children ages 2 & 4 it’s pretty hard to approach much of anything without interruption).  The reason this title compelled me to log here and share was how eloquently it communicated nearly everything I would include in my summary of the faith tradition I have experienced for nearly my entire life.  With so many interpretations and leadings, seekers and differing spiritual foundations, there are many ways Friends present Quakerism today. And lately, I have found myself in the position to better explain why I define Quakerism in the way I do.

My first smile emerged with Brinton’s explanation Friends’ primary doctrine: “the Presence of God is felt at the apex of the human soul and that man can therefore know and heed God directly, without any intermediary in the form of church, priest, sacrament, or sacred book.”

He then went on to state a flexibility of language that resonated with me: “Many figures of speech are used to designate this Divine Presence which, as immanent in man, is personal and, as transcendent, is super-personal. It is “Light,” “Power,” “Word,” “Seed of the Kingdom,” “Christ Within.” … Man’s endeavor should be to merge his will with the Divine Will, as far as he is able to comprehend it, and by obedience to become an instrument through which God’s power works upon the world.”

As Brinton elaborates on Quakerism’s primary, secondary and tertiary doctrines, I read a text that could have just as easily been written today, and it is the contemporary resonance with a document authored over sixty years ago that really compelled me to share it.

Lastly, I found Brinton’s discourse on meeting for worship and meeting for business quite aspirational (something I really need in my present moment) and his thoughts on harmony (peace making) and simplicity (absence of superfluity) clear and compelling.  Perhaps what most spoke to my current condition was the notion that peace making is in part an effort not “to constrain an individual to express feelings which he does not experience.”  While I fully recognize the Christianity present in both historic and contemporary Quakerism, I appreciate and strongly identity with Brinton’s focus on the commonalities of our primary doctrine in “various forms in all the great religions of the world.” It is this universalism and his notions of “an eternal gospel not exclusively related to particular historical events” that provided me language I did not so clearly have before.

Friends, what is your reaction to Brinton’s historic text? Does it relate to your experience?

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Quaker Havana Work Camp 2011

Author: Hope Bastian Martinez (reprinted by Dawn Rubbert with permission)

Curious about Cuba? Want to meet a group of progressive semi-programmed friends in Havana? Interested in learning about Quakerism in Cuba and sharing wider Quaker perspectives in Havana Monthly Meeting’s first ever Work Camp?!

Potential hosts: Martin Luther King Center and Havana Monthly Meeting (Quakers)

There’s lots of interest in Cuba in the US, especially among progressive young people and I would like to create an experience for US Quakers to learn about Cuba and participate in meaningful exchange and service with members of the Quaker community in Havana. At this point this project is a “wouldn’t it be cool if…” dream being worked out between myself and the young pastor of Havana Monthly Meeting. We are starting from the idea that Quakers in the US have a lot to learn and a lot to share with folks in Cuba, and the Meeting there is excited about the possibility of receiving a group.

Luckily, due to very recent changes, US religious groups may now freely visit religious communities in Cuba without going through onerous licensing procedures. As a group of Friends we would spend 1-2 weeks getting to know Cuba and Quakers in Havana through shared worship, workshops, and service. This work camp is being planned collaboratively with members of Havana Monthly Meeting and will be designed around the skills and interests of US and Cuban participants.

We will try to keep the cost of the trip as low as possible to cover airfare, lodging and meals in a simple and inexpensive dorm/church housing, local travel, interpreters (if participants don’t speak Spanish), etc. We would also each do fund-raising through our Monthly and Yearly Meetings to cover the cost of whatever service projects we would do with Havana Monthly Meeting friends.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in please get in touch with me! (Editor’s Note: or leave a comment here on “How Do You See Peace?” and we’ll be sure to pass it on!) In your e-mail please let me know little bit about yourself, your interests in visiting Cuba, etc.

Name:
E-Mail:
Phone:

1. Please tell us about your Quaker connections: Are you a member/attender of a Quaker meeting or church? Where?

2. What makes you interested in visiting Cuba?
 
3. Have you traveled internationally before? Where to? Tell us more about the purpose of the trip(s).
 
4. What experiences, knowledge, skills, etc. do you have that you would be willing to share with Friends in Havana? Could you lead workshops on Quaker topics, or topics of interest to Friends?
 
5. On the other hand, what would you like to learn about from Havana Friends?
 
6. Complete the sentence: My trip to Cuba would not be complete without…
 
7. Do you speak Spanish? Would you need an interpreter to participate fully in the exchange?
 
8. When would you be available/interested in traveling? Please list several times when you might be available for example: “any time in the summer” or “during my winter break December 21-January 6” Preference for one or two week trip?
 
For more info or to send in an application: havanaquake2011@gmail.com.

More about us: My name is Hope Bastian Martinez. I’m a graduate student in cultural anthropology at American University and a member of Tallahassee Monthly Meeting (Southeastern YM). I visited Cuba for the first time in 2000 with a group of young people from SEYM. In 2004-2005, I lived in Havana where I collaborated with the Martin Luther King Center and a US NGO hosting study delegations to show US citizens first-hand the effects of US foreign policy in Cuba. From 2008-2009, I worked in Cuba as an editor for a public-health journal and next fall I will be in Havana again as the resident director of American University’s undergraduate study abroad program. Since 2004 I have worshiped with members of a small but vibrant Monthly Meeting in Havana and want to help create connections between Quakers in the US and Havana.

Kirenia Criado Pérez, is the Pastor of Havana Monthly Meeting, a theologian and coordinator of the Theological and Pastoral Reflection and Training Program of the Martin Luther King Center in Havana. Originally from Puerto Padre, Las Tunas she studied at the Evangelical Seminary of Theology in Matanzas, Cuba before settling in Havana. Kirenia is a trained AVP facilitator and has led workshops for young people in Brazil.

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Dyeing Eggs with Natural Colors

Earlier this month, the children of 57th Street Meeting heard a wonderful story about the origin of easter eggs & learned what traditional colors, patterns and shapes are meant to symbolize.  This week, we completed the lesson by making our own easter eggs with natural dyes.  For our young Friends, this was an exploration of reuse, repurposing, and surprising beauty.

Led by Joy Duncan, the first step was to boil our selected ingredients on the stove:
– red cabbage (color: purple)
– beets (color: red)
– onion skin (color: brown)
– turmeric (color: golden yellow)

…along with several tablespoons of Alum (the mordant Joy chose to use; read here about several alternative mordants you can use, some tips & tricks, as well as other suggested ingredients); 1 tablespoon of mordant for every 4 cups of water.

This is called the hot bath method: after you bring the water, ingredient & alum mixture to a boil, you then added raw eggs to each pot (i.e. color), cook for about 15 minutes and then remove from heat. For us, this timed out perfectly. We had started our morning together sharing “roses & thorns” (“joys & sorrows”) and then discussing the original form of each ingredient: the earthy brown beet, the paper-like onion skin, the aroma of turmeric, and the artisan patterns of the sliced cabbage.  After going into the kitchen and adding the eggs, then playing while they cooked, we let the eggs steep while we headed upstairs to be among Friends for the break of meeting and left the eggs to sit covered (the longer you leave the eggs in the dye, the darker the color).

When we had learned about traditional colors and their meaning, we had discovered that brown meant “happiness”, purple meant “high power”, yellow meant “spirituality” and red meant “love”/pink meant “success” (note: our beets didn’t work very well, so its unsure color you would categorize ours… a pale red or a pink) –

I definitely think the children experienced happiness while making this gift of easter eggs to the Meeting for potluck.  Everyone enjoyed them!

And as our Meeting continues to explore how to teach Quakerism to our children, we will explore the depths of meaning to seek understanding of a higher power (defined in so many different ways);

We are lucky to have each other in this spiritual community;

There is no question: we are teaching peace, practicing love, demonstrating respect (for each other and for our earth), and having enormous success in helping these Quaker children grow.

These were perfect colors for 57th Street Meeting.
Happy Easter.

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Meeting 57th Street Friends: Judy Wolicki

When I asked Friend Judy Wolicki if she would be willing to come to our First Day School class and meet with the children, she agreed without hesitation and already had a book in mind: Thy Friend, Obadiah by Brinton Turkle. Though we’ve talked a lot about Quakerism through the Meeting Meeting Friends program, we haven’t so directly spoken to each other about our identities as Friends – I imagined this would be a perfect opportunity to do so!

Judy read "Thy Friend, Obadiah" aloud

In this story, a young Quaker boy named Obadiah discovers the value of a friendship in an unexpected place.  It led us to explore all the people (and animals) we have as friends, and how you can discover that someone you didn’t know was your friend might be once you realize a commonality or shared experience between you.

After reading the story, we talked with Judy about what it means to her to be a Friend.  Everyone contributed to the conversation & the children made a list –

Being a Quaker, means you believe in:
– peace
– love
– making friends & playing with friends
– loving all the people of the world
– helping people
– helping the world
– being a good listener

I think its wonderful that our children have the Obadiah stories to read about their Quakerism through the experiences of this little boy; they seem so comfortable talking about it in a way I don’t think I did when I was their age.  Obadiah was able to offer help when it was needed, a universal experience that in many ways transcends this faith, but at the same time is so core to understanding it (at least I think so, working daily to help my little boys identify as Friends).

Drawing self-portraits, we're Quakers just like Obadiah!

And Judy was able to speak with those gathered in a way other adults hadn’t yet: she asked them questions, modeled good listening, explored their thinking alongside them, and offered ideas in a way that they genuinely seemed to understand (not an easy thing, remember Tiegan & Riona are just 6 and Gus is only 4).  A special  treat for me: my father – who only has 25+ years teaching First Day School – was in attendance this morning to assist.  Having my children know their grandparents are Quakers, too, is another way I get to demonstrate the importance of community and being connected to those around us, those we love, as practicing Friends.


“Meeting 57th Street Friends” is a special project at 57th Street Meeting (Chicago) that took place Oct 2010 – March 2011 where non-parent adult Friends visit with the Meeting children each month to share their reflections on Quaker life & identity today by exploring something they hold dear. A childhood memory, a story, a life lesson or a life passion – by sharing our experiences across the generations we are living in community.  Learning from each other about our lives is a way to move towards better understanding and our testimony to peace.  

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The power of ideas and training: Comic Books for Social Change!

Guest Author: David Finke

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. COMIC BOOK

“Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story” (1958/FOR)

I was thrilled to see the picture of this revived comic book, now translated into Arabic and Farsi. I believe I could still put my hands on my own copy of the original one, issued soon after the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the mid-1950s. As a teenager, I was energized to realize that the peace organization which my parents belonged to (and to whose meetings I’d often been taken along) was once again seeking new ways to promulgate the old lesson of the Power of Love as organized nonviolent social protest which does not dehumanize one’s political opponent. I think I ordered a batch of these for my classmates at Sunday School, at the time.

The next important thing to remember about this particular document is that some of the students who started the Sit-Ins — at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, NC — and thus officially launched “The Sixties” on Feb. 1, 1960, had seen this very book!

A modest investment by Fellowship of Reconciliation has paid immeasurable dividends, now, over half a century.

This is the same organization which — when they saw the young Dr. King suddenly being thrust into the public leadership of the Montgomery Movement (and with very little political experience) — sent one of their staff members, Glenn Smiley, to assist (and tutor) him, very much in the background. A google on his name turns up this telling piece, from the King archives.

Nonviolent action seldom “just happens.” Usually, creative (and courageous!) people have been laying the groundwork for a long time. Rosa Parks, for instance, wasn’t just another random tired black worker who happened not to give up her place on a bus for a white man. No, she had been the Youth Secretary for the local NAACP in Montgomery, and had participated in workshops at the Highlander Institute (now Highlander Research and Educational Center). She also had a tremendous mailing list, and stayed up all night running off leaflets on a mimeograph machine that she knew how to run. Hardly an accident.

The model for all this in my view was Gandhi’s careful preparation for mass protest… which I’ll not try to summarize here, but invite you to explore perhaps starting with his autobiography, “The Story of My Experiments With Truth”.

I first started getting a systematic overview of this when, in the late ’60s, I attended a conference on Nonviolent Training and Action held at Pendle Hill, organized by then-staffers George & Lillian Willoughby, now of beloved memory. One of the speakers who really caught my attention was a retired military General from Canada! As you may know, Canada has over the decades provided lots of peacekeeping troops to various U.N. missions. He spoke of the military virtues that can be put to service (and should not be ignored) by nonviolent social change movements. Discipline and a clear sense of purpose and mission were among them.

But primary was the role and value of TRAINING. Every soldier has this and knows this, and would be dangerous without it. For social change movements to be seriously effective, there have to be those who don’t just show up at the last minute, or treat it as a lark or yet another social event. Not that folks have to be grim — far from it! Songs and “light-and-livelies” are a good part of training programs for nonviolent action. And there have to be ways that activists (I’ll use Gandhi’s term “Satyagrahis”) build trust and commitement with each other — in fact, willing to die for each other.

The AIC's HAMSA initiative - designed to link civil rights groups throughout the Middle East -- undertook in 2008 a project to translate The Montgomery Story into Arabic (and later Farsi). With the endorsement of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Ziada distributed 2,000 copies of the comic throughout the Middle East.

Rather than spin out more of my own stories right now, let me just invite you to give your own reflections on some of these themes. And, to join me in celebrating the unfolding transformative power, seen in recent days in the MidEast, of people finding their voice, asserting their dignity, working together, being creative, being joyous and yet determined — and making the world more hopeful and humane by putting their bodies on the line, modeling what it is to Live Free.

Editors Note: Dalia Ziada is Egypt Director of the American Islamic Congress, a non-profit group founded in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 to confront intolerance against Muslims, and later to promote peace and civil rights throughout the Arabic world. Read more about the AIC’s HAMSA initiative and this story here, plus see photos of The Montgomery Boycott and read more coverage of this comic book’s contribution to the air of peaceful revolution in Egypt.