December 2002/
January 2003

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Short Takes

Nothing in Congress is over until it is over. There are yet more developments in the muddled situation regarding Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Both the House and the Senate have now approved a Continuing Resolution that funds most of the government through January 11, 2003. An exception is TANF, which is funded through March 31.

This has the advantage of giving states clear authority to spend money and carry on program activities for the first quarter of the next year. It also gives Congress three months in which to hold hearings, draft legislation, and pass a bill. Given the latest extension, the advocacy community thinks the most likely course of events is that Congress will decide in March 2003 either to extend the current TANF program for multiple years (probably two or three) with few changes or to carry out a full reauthorization for five years, making substantial changes.

President Bush indicated some time ago that he would prefer a one-year extension, giving Congress time to make the changes that he wants within his first term in office. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who will take over as Chair of the Finance Committee in January, has recently called for increased work requirements, part of the Bush plan. These two factors, combined with Republican control of both the House and the Senate, would indicate that a full reauthorization is still a possibility, unless other issues such as war, national security, and tax cuts are given priority.

Unless the President vetoes the Continuing Resolution, which seems unlikely at this point, the funding for TANF is now safe through March 31. However, TANF needs secure funding and program authority for a multi-year period in order for states to operate it effectively. It is crucial that Congress get to work on the issue as soon as it reconvenes in January.

--Mary Cooper, National Council of Churches

From Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director, The Shalom Center <www.shalomctr.org>

What do we mean by a fast? Traditionally, in Muslim practice for the whole month of Ramadan and in Jewish practice for fasts in times of impending calamity, we mean refraining from eating or drinking from dawn to sunset of the day(s) named. But not just ‘not eating.' On the fast day of Yom Kippur itself, Isaiah called out, on behalf of God:

What is the fast I demand of you? --
What is a day to press down your ego?
Is it bending down your head like a bulrush? Sitting on sack-cloth and ashes?
No!
This is the fast that I have chosen:
Break the handcuffs put on by wicked power; Undo the yoke of heavy burden;
Let the oppressed go free.
Share your bread with the hungry;
Bring the homeless to your own house.
When you see the naked, clothe them;
Don't hide yourself; they are your flesh and blood!

From an article by Lynette Clemetson, NYT, 11/26/02

Many programs intended to lift people out of poverty by promoting marriage and mandating work do not address the realities of poor immigrants, a study released by the Urban Institute has found. The study showed that low-income immigrant families were more likely than their native counterparts to have two parents in the household and that poverty often persisted in these families despite the fact that both parents worked.

"It shows that policies that assume low incomes are a result of not engaging in the work force, or not having stable families, are wide of the mark," said Michael Fix of the Urban Institute. "Since it is wages, not lack of employment or work ethic, that is at issue, what these families seem to need are work supports to enable them to boost their wages."

Such supports, according to immigrant advocacy groups, include language and job skills training and improved access to health care, child care, and low-cost housing programs. Immigrant advocates say programs focusing on marriage promotion and work requirements divert attention and money from efforts to restore access to services for newer immigrants.

Dear Colleagues in Faith,

Here at the Applied Research Center, we have been attempting for several years to bring the racial dimensions of welfare reform into the political and public debate about welfare policy. I suspect that most if not all of you agree with ARC that the re-authorization legislation currently on the table is likely both to become law and to mean even more trouble for poor people. Our new book, From Poverty to Punishment: How Welfare Reform Punishes the Poor, traces the history of a welfare system that began as social support for poor white women and deteriorated into social control for poor women of color. It goes on to describe the impact of welfare reform and to suggest policies that would result in a decrease in poverty, not an increase in the burden of being poor.

However we express institutionally our ongoing commitment to structural and systemic changes that will benefit and empower, rather than punish, poor people once we are faced with Welfare Reform Part 2, it is crucial that people of faith acknowledge and confront the racial aspects of public policy. I hope you will use this new educational resource in your own work and pass the information about the book along to as many people across the country as you can.

Sincerely, Rev. Susan L. Starr, Applied Research Center

Contributions by John Avalos, Deepak Bhargava, Bill Berkowitz, S. Xochitl Bervera, Linda Burnham, Hunter Cutting, Martha F. Davis, Vanessa Daniel, Gary Delgado, Peter Edelman, Rebecca Gordon, Jean Hardisty, LeeAnn Hall, Menachem Krajcer, Gwendolyn Mink, Diana M. Pearce, Frances Fox Piven, Sanford F. Schram, Carson Strege-Flora, Maya Wiley, and Lucy A. Williams.

To order From Poverty to Punishment, click on www.arc.org/welfare/fp2p.html or contact Applied Research Center, Oakland CA; 510-653-3415 <sstarr@arc.org>

This list comes from the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). It's not exhaustive, but a sampling of organizations and news sources that are reliable for people seeking to prevent war in Iraq.

• AlterNet.org -- Anti-War Movement
  Excellent site with a vast array of links and articles containing numerous perspectives on Iraq; includes discussion forum and other features, updated weekly-highly recommended www.alternet.org/waroniraq

• American Friends Service Committee -- Iraq Peacebuilding Program
  Another good listing of articles, links, and resources, particularly on the humanitarian crisis in Iraq
  www.afsc.org/iraq/Default.htm

• CommonDreams Progressive Newswire -- News and analysis
  www.commondreams.org

• Education for Peace in Iraq Center -- News and analysis, listing of speakers with good background on the topic.
  www.epic-usa.org

• The Iraq Journal.org -- New website launched to provide grassroots media information directly from Iraq. Includes regularly updated print, audio, and video reports. www.iraqjournal.org

• Moveon.org -- A web site with ideas for citizen actions to take in a campaign against war in Iraq; valuable news and resources included. www.moveon.org

• National Network to End the War Against Iraq, web page for US student coalition with reports on activities and links to background information
  www.endthewar.org

• Voices in the Wilderness -- A campaign to end the economic sanctions against Iraq and initiator of new Iraq Peace Team campaign. www.vitw.org

Bill Thompson, University of Michigan

The recent announcement that the American taxpayer has been asked to supply an extra $10 billion dollars to the Pentagon and an extra $4 billion to Israel reflects the bizarre and obscene priorities of the current American government, which is this respect is not that dissimilar to previous administrations. For $14 billion we could put 14 teachers or social wokers into every public middle and hight school in the United States. Would that make a real difference in our society? That we think so much of war and so little of education is a tragic commentary on our priorities. This nonsense will never end until the American public is advised of these (and similar) expenditures, and we allow the public to vent their righteous anger on those officials who choose to bankrupt our nation in the vain pursuit of American hegemony throughout the world. So get to work and insist that the media begin to carry this message.

Pamela Dow, Goldsboro, NC

I was totally appalled and completely angered after reading "Searching for a Nonviolent Future" (interview with Michael Nagler reprinted in Peacework, September 2002).

I'll begin with the question "What do your three decades of involvement with nonviolence suggest should be our response to September 11?" The question is not even answered here. It is suggested that we should just understand that we were attacked because of a widespread resentment against us. I find it hard to believe that you would think that all we would have to do is say we were wrong and that alone would ‘completely change' the atmosphere.

Without bomb-sniffing dogs and spy satellites, bombings would go on endlessly. There is a fine line between being peaceful, and stupidity. What would you tell all the potential bombing victims throughout the world, that human relationships take time?!

Michael Nagler responds:

Thank you for fowarding to me the letter of Pamela Dow from Goldsboro, NC who was "totally appalled and completely angered" by the interview with me that you published. The most telling remark Ms. Dow shares is her opening sentence, a comment on my answer to the question "What do your three decades of involvement with nonviolence suggest should be our response to September 11?" My answer was that we should understand why we were attacked. I said, "To understand these things is not weakness: it is wisdom. To think . . . that these are irrational fanatics who envy us because we are prosperous and democratic is a dangerous puerility."

Ms. Dow's reply is, "The question is not even answered here." I think this is the problem in a nutshell: the answer of nonviolence is no answer at all for her. In other words, nonviolence does not exist.

I'm afraid millions of people share this tragic blindness. Just as the ‘news' tells us that the only events are violent, or at the very least competitive events; just as standard ‘history' is war history--Gandhi warned against both these biases a hundred years ago, when they were still much less pronounced--so the only answer to an act of violence must be another act of violence. We who advocate nonviolence have to grapple with this selective blindness, and to do so we have to realize that it is deeply embedded in our culture. Of course the dependent media (if I may coin that term to distinguish the mainstream, corporate press from the burgeoning independent media) underreport everything from protests to alternative projects; but underneath that political bias is the cultural bias which sees the political process as a fight and every vote as a win/lose rather than a decision, and in countless other ways emphasizes the alienation and separateness--and ultimately the meaninglessness--of the human person. As long as this cultural background cannot be replaced, millions of well-meaning people will be, like Pamela Dow, "totally appalled and completely angered" whenever they hear about nonviolence, because they will not ‘hear' nonviolence but non-activity.

We must find ways to reach people who have no knowledge whatever of nonviolence. Recently I've been putting forward a five-part strategy that nonviolence advocates might consider adopting as our personal contribution to this enormous task, and much of it deals with just this question of convincing the appalled and angered, especially these two points:

• Media discrimination. It is essential not to patronize the dependent media. I urge total abstention. One learns nothing (the independent media and emails from participants are much more informative) and loses much by watching television, etc. It is immensely helpful to add some form of spiritual practice in our lives. The damage wrought to our minds and value systems by industrial civilization and commercial culture will not go away just because we see through it; we need to find some systematic discipline to reestablish peace in our minds.

• Nonviolence awareness. This is the most important, and most neglected form of cultural literacy in the present age: to know the theory and practice of nonviolence well and be able to describe it articulately, citing historical examples and explaining the dynamic behind them. The rest becomes a matter of compassionate listening--and speaking. Those who oppose nonviolence do not understand that we are as eager for security as they are--and they may also be much more guilt-ridden, under the surface, than we realize. For both these reasons it's good to lead with concrete positive alternatives and only later, if then, talk about our nation's responsibility (which is not the same thing as culpability) for horrors that led to the one inflicted on us on September 11, 2001. Will this work? Will we be able to reach people in states of high agitation? That may not be in our hands; but as Gandhi would say, "full effort is full victory."

Along with concern about a possible war on Iraq comes consideration of our own beliefs about such a war and about war in general. Men and women of all ages are thinking at a deep level whether, and to what degree, they may "conscientiously object" to war. Young men are wondering about the implications of their registering or not registering with Selective Service. They, and others, worry that a military draft may be reinstituted. Older men and women are reexamining commitments they have made to the military; many are looking for ways to be released from those commitments. Listed below are some sources of information on these issues, and some of the topics covered by each.

Central Committee for Conscientious Objection <www.objector.org>
Draft Registration, Delayed Enlistment Program, "Things to Think About Before You Enlist" and more information about military recruitment

GI Rights Hotline <www.girights.org> 800/FYI-95GI or 800/394-9544
Information for GI's, including reservists and those enlisted in delayed entry programs, on the website. Individual counseling and assistance in response to phone calls.

Center on Conscience and War <www.NISBCO.org>
Draft Registration and Enlistment; Conscientious Objection; Constitutional Protection of Freedom of Conscience; Health Care Professionals and the Draft; FEAT (financial aid for non-registrants)

War Resisters' League <www.warresisters.org>
Information on various forms of war resistance

Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft <www.COMDSC.org>
Court ruling on equal access in schools for non-military counselors; acts in state legislatures to enforce draft registration

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends <www.neym.org/pandsc/military.html>
Links to many websites, including Fellowship of Reconciliation, American Friends Service Committee, and other religious organizations

Selective Service information on alternative service <www.sss.gov/FSconsobj.html>

Information on Selective Service's potential "Health Care Personnel Delivery System" <www.sss.gov/FSmedical.htm>

The Right to Refuse to Kill Project <www.wri-irg.org/en/index.html>
Website and list-serve from War Resisters International informs about conscientious objectors world-wide

Background on the last decade's Gulf War resisters <http://jeff.paterson.net>

Information for those considering not paying all or part of their federal taxes because of their conscientious objection to paying for war <http://nonviolence.org/issues/taxes.htm>

--Prepared by Marguerite Helen

Attributed to Stephen Rohde, President of the ACLU of Southern California

First they came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.

Then they came to detain immigrants indefinitely solely upon the certification of the Attorney General, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an immigrant.

Then they came to eavesdrop on suspects consulting with their attorneys, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a suspect.

Then they came to prosecute non-citizens before secret military commissions, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a non-citizen.

Then they came to enter homes and offices for unannounced "sneak and peek" searches, and I didn't speak up because I had nothing to hide.

Then they came to reinstate Cointelpro and resume the infiltration and surveillance of domestic religious and political groups, and I didn't speak up because I had stopped participating in any groups.

Then they came for anyone who objected to government policy because it aided the terrorists and gave ammunition to America's enemies, and I didn't speak up because. . . I didn't speak up.

Then they came for me. . .and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Folk singer John McCutcheon wrote this song about an incident widely held to have occurred during WW I. Ted Glick of IPPN forwarded it to his list serve last Christmas time with the following message: "As I re-read these verses, I thought of the words of two firefighters who have been working at Ground Zero in New York City: 'Bush and bin Laden have the same banker,' and that what's going on is 'rich people fighting over oil with all of us caught in the middle.'"

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool. /Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school. /To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here /I fought for King and country I love dear. /‘Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung, /The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung /Our families back in England were toasting us that day /Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground /When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound /Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!'' each soldier strained to hear /As one young German voice sang out so clear. /"He's singing bloody well, you know!'' my partner says to me /Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony /The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more /As Christmas brought us respite from the war.

As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent /"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen'' struck up some lads from Kent /The next they sang was "Stille Nacht.'' "‘Tis ‘Silent Night','' says I /And in two tongues one song filled up that sky /'There's someone coming toward us!'' the front line sentry cried /All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side /His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright /As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night.

Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land /With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand /We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well /And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave ‘em hell /We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home /These sons and fathers far away from families of their own /Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin /This curious and unlikely band of men.

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more /With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war /But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night /"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?'' /'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung /The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung /For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war /Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore.

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell /Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well /That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame /And on each end of the rifle we're the same.

Quaker Humanitarian Service in Postwar Germany

"Quiet Helpers" exhibit at the Boston Public Library, Jan - Feb 2003

Three times during the last hundred years, Quakers served as "Quiet Helpers" in Germany, mending the wounds of war and helping the victims of violence. The Quiet Helpers exhibit traces Quaker work from the 1920s, when one million children were fed each day, through the Hitler era, when Friends aided Jews and other persecuted people, to the months and years following WW II, when Quakers carried out broad-scale rebuilding and reconciliation programs that are still remembered today.

From the Quiet Helpers exhibit. AFSC file photo

Through period photos and news articles, ration tickets from the Quakerspeisung (child feeding program), and Gestapo file documents, Quiet Helpers puts a human face on the aid work and the people involved--the helpers and the helped.

It also gives a glimpse of the Quaker faith since its beginnings in the seventeenth century and the contribution of Friends to peace work and the abolition of slavery. Included in the documents on display is a copy of the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to Quakers worldwide for their "silent help from the name-less to the nameless..."

Quiet Helpers, sponsored by AFSC, is currently touring the US. In New England, the exhibit is co-sponsored by the Salem Quarterly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

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