The Minutes of the Peace & Justice Committee are available to the public after one year, as a witness to our concerns and work in the world. What follows are the Minutes that were recorded at least one year ago and are currently available online. For more information please contact us.
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Peace and Justice Committee, July 25, 2010
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk).
0. The Meeting opened with Silence a few minutes after Adrian F gave her update (see 5 below)
1. NRCAT
Kelly M. informed us that Meeting for Business has approved our recommendation that we become endorsing members of NRCAT. Kelly notified NRCAT, and she received a welcome letter from NRCAT acknowledging our status as endorsing members. This letter also encouraged us to urge members in the Meeting to endorse the statement as individuals as well, and refers them to www.nrcat.org/COI. We agreed we will announce this at the next Business Meeting as a recommended action. Kelly agreed to create a Peace and Justice hard copy file and keep the letter in this archive.
2. FCNL Actions
We further discussed the suggestion from last month concerning adding the FCNL Action Alert Link to the OPFM webpage. We agreed that it is a highly appropriate and potentially useful link. Judy E will add it to the webpage.
3. Guantanamo Bay/Thomson Prison
Following up on our discussion of the past two cmte. meetings, Kelly presented the new information that the US Senate Appropriations cmte. has approved buying the Thomson Correctional Center for use as a federal prison, with the same amendment prohibiting its use to house former Gitmo inmates as the House Appropriations cmte. has. Since both branches of Congress have agreed, the purchase of Thomson Correctional Center from IL to the Federal Gov is likely to happen in 2011. Although we are saddened by the US government’s commitment to increasing the number of federal inmates, at this point no clear action has been discerned in regard to the Thomson Correctional Center.
Kelly also presented the most recent updates about Gitmo inmates. 5 men have been released in the past month bringing the number of people illegally detained at Guantanamo Bay down to 176. Kelly also explained that journalists recently visited and the remaining prisoners are all classified and housed in 7 different camps, each with a different set of permissions. The men who are compliant and accept that the US needs to be holding them prisoners have the most privileges including watching satellite tv, spending four hours a day outside, and gardening, on the other hand there are 15-20 men staying on year-long hunger strikes, being forced fed to keep them alive with no privileges. Also, one of them men released last month had requested he not be sent back to his home country of Algeria because he feared torture there, but his request was denied, and he has already been disappeared.
After discussion we decided we would like to know who, if anyone is taking responsibility for keeping track of the released prisoners. We also feel that taking some action on this is a seasoned idea given our several month progress and new affiliation with NRCAT. We decided Helen D and Kelly will work on a statement concerning Guatanamo Bay and the fate of the prisoners, to be vetted at the next P and J meeting, and then recommend to Bus. Mtng. for approval and then sent to the press. AS one helpful and concrete action we can take is to keep this issue in the public arena.
4. AVP
After reviewing the history and purpose of AVP, we agreed that OPFM was not ready to train others in Non-violence, and that a one-off AVP workshop day was not going to train us to be practitioners of peace. Instead we think it would be beneficial to plan and implement an ongoing short duration peace training conflict resolution exercise program. We examined some of our library’s literature and took home reading material in order to study and gather ideas for a plan of sustained short practice/exercise for our Meeting. Judy has several useful Mennonite pamphlets she will bring to share.
5. New Business
During the week, Adrian Fisher asked us to put the following on the agenda: QEW is encouraging meetings to take part in 350.org's 10/10/10 climate change work party day. The website is here. Prior to our cmte meeting starting, Adrian gave a brief update informing us that she 1) emailed Karen Rasmus of the Oak Park Public Works suggesting that Oak Park advertise a village wide campaign and 2) emailed people at QEW suggesting they ask 350.org to be one of the sponsor members (someone replied and said they were already working on it).
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Peace and Justice Committee, June 27, 2010
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Patricia McMillen.
1) Kelly distributed last month’s minutes:
Re: procedures set up last month and noted in the minutes, Patty requested to be added to the list of people to whom Kelly sends the minutes directly. All felt this highly appropriate.
2) Kelly distributed this month’s agenda:
After in depth discussion on the pros and cons of posting the Peace and Justice Minutes online, we came to a consensus that the minutes represent a historic document and should be available to the public, however posting current minutes describing our plans for actions makes us vulnerable. Therefore we agreed that we want to post the Peace and Justice minutes on the OPFM webpage, but password protect them [using the same password as B.M. minutes] for one year. We also agreed that we want to start an online archive of past minutes that anyone can view (i.e. not password protected).
All read through the proposed P and J webpage description from Judy. We approved it, but added a few words (in Italics).
This Committee supports Quaker testimonies through events, letter writing, educational opportunities, and witnessing in the wider community. For example, we compiled the list of Recycling Resources (see The Green Pages) and Fair Trade Coffee Resources (see Chicago Fair Trade Congregations pages).
Here is a link to the current Minutes of P&J Committee meetings. They are working documents for internal use and have been password protected; please contact the Clerk of Oak Park Friends Meeting for access to these pages. Here is the link to the archive of older P&J minutes.
3) Kelly provided more background on FCNL Stickers:
After coming to a better understanding of what these are, we agreed that most of the stickers were not appropriate for our webpage, the exception is the FCNL alert sticker. We agreed to each go and look at this online and decide at a later meeting if we want to add it.
4) Kelly reported what Sarah S. had sent to her about IL prisons:
The Obama administration wants to close Guantanamo Bay prison and relocate its remaining prisoners to the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson IL. In order to do this they need Congressional approval. Based on June 25 NYT article it was reported that Congress has not agreed to either closing Gitmo or giving money to purchase Thomson Correction Center. [However, on Tuesday June 29, 2010, it was reported in the press that the Dept of Justice agreed to purchase the Thomson Center in 2011, but the same budget has an amendment prohibiting the transfer of former Gitmo Prisoners]. The upshot is we do not know if or when Guantanamo prisoners will be transferred to Thomson. There are currently still 181 prisoners remaining at Gitmo, 55 of these are slated for release, 48 will never be tried and never be released, and we think the remaining 78 will eventually have trials.
Sarah reported that it does not appear to be the case that IL prison officials are receiving 20% pay raises, so we don’t need to worry about that.
A report from 2006 shows that prison reformers are currently focusing on lifting the mandatory sentences for non-violent (non-DUI) drug offenders. Instead it is cheaper and more effective to monitor these criminal with electronic devices and give them drug treatment and counseling.
We decided we need to season this information.
4) Other Items
Ceasefire, AVP, and the budget were informally discussed. No decisions were made and these items will be held over.
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Peace and Justice Committee, May 23, 2010
In Attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, and Sarah Shirk.
0. We Opened in Silence
1. Announcements
1.a Donna Cech has laid down her work being the Convener of the Oak Park Peace and Justice Committee. We thank her for her year and half of faith-filled service.
1.b Kelly Maynard has agreed to be the new Convener of the Oak Park Peace and Justice Committee. She will continue as Recording Clerk.
1.c We established the following procedures. Kelly will send the minutes she types to Wil and Judy by the end of the first week after the P and J Meeting. Wil will then send out the minutes on the weekly Calendar during second week. Kelly will also prepare a list of action items in time for the Business Meeting which meets on the Second First Day of each month. Kelly will send a short Agenda during third week so items can be added.
2. Decisions
2.a.i In Nov 2009, P and J discussed their interest in AVP which led to the question that perhaps Ceasefire is doing similar work with students. We agreed to contact and get more information. Kelly will contact Donna and see what contacts she has made. Kelly will then contact them. It was confirmed that Ceasefire, which is funded via the University of Illinois at Chicago, has taken large budget cuts recently.
2.a.ii AVP works in the prisons mostly so the aforementioned discussion led to the question of what is the status on Guantanamo Bay prisoners coming to Illinois prisons and what reforms to the Illinois Penal system are likely. Sarah Shirk agreed to research this and send us the information.
2.b In Nov. 2009, we decided we would consider reading together Palestine: Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter. Wil agreed to read the book within the next 6 months (that is by November 2010) and present a summary and/or recommendation that we should read it together.
2.c In March 2010, a member of our Meeting asked us to consider the NRCAT Statement of Conscience against torture and whether we would endorse it. After procuring and reading through their Statement we decided that Peace and Justice will recommend to Meeting that we become an endorsing member. An endorsing member means we sign the statement and allow our name (OPFM) to be listed as an endorser. Being an endorsing member does not require us to send them money. Here is our response.
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The National Religious Campaign against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization, formed in 2006, committed to ending U.S.-sponsored and U.S.-enabled torture. It is an interfaith group, the executive director is Rev. Richard Killmer (a Presbyterian minister), and many monthly meetings (including 57th Street Meeting and Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting) have joined as endorsing members as have some Yearly Meetings. Since its founding NRCAT has focused on gathering endorsement of their Statement of Conscience, available below.
Peace and Justice recommends to Meeting that we become an endorsing member. An endorsing member means we sign the statement and allow our name (OPFM) to be listed as an endorser. Being an endorsing member does not require us to send them money.
A Model Resolution for Religious Institutions for Endorsing U.S.-Sponsored Torture: A Call for a Commission of Inquiry
WHEREAS one of our core principles as Friends is our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all persons; and
Whereas torture violates the basic dignity of the human person, degrades everyone involved -- from policy-makers to perpetrators to victims -- and contradicts our nation’s most cherished values; and
Whereas torture is inherently wrong and immoral, because it is designed to break the human soul and the human body; and
Whereas reliable evidence available to the public has shown that the United States has engaged in torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in response to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, including a report produced by the International Committee of the Red Cross and made known to the public in February of 2009 that concluded: “[T]he ill-treatment to which [detainees] were subjected while held in the CIA[Central Intelligence Agency of the United States]program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture.”; and
Whereas the full story on the scope, breadth and depth of U.S. sponsored torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment has yet to be fully revealed; and
Whereas public awareness, acknowledgement, and understanding of what the United States has done with respect to the use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are necessary in order to make sure that our nation never again engages in this conduct;
Therefore, be it resolved that the Oak Park Friends Meeting endorses the following statement “U.S.-sponsored Torture Now: A Call for a Commission of Inquiry”:
The United States must never again engage in torture. Torture is immoral, illegal and counterproductive. It causes profound and lasting harm, especially to its victims but also to its perpetrators. It contradicts our nation’s deepest values and corrupts the moral fabric of our society.
We call for an impartial, nonpartisan, and independent Commission of Inquiry. Its purpose should be to gather all the facts and make recommendations. It should ascertain the extent to which our interrogation practices have constituted torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment". Understanding the causes, nature and scope of U.S.-sponsored torture is essential for preventing it in the future and eliminating it from our system without loopholes. U.S. law will determine the extent of any criminal culpability.
As people of faith, we know that brokenness can be healed – both in individual lives and in the life of the nation. All religions believe that redemption is possible. Learning the truth can set us on a path toward national healing and renewal.
The United States must never again allow itself to be driven by blinding fears and bitter resentments in responding to national tragedy. The use of torture only serves to undermine our security in a dangerous world.
Nothing less than the soul of our nation is at stake in confronting U.S.-sponsored torture and completely renouncing its use. Let the U.S. reaffirm its values by establishing a Commission of Inquiry.
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2.d In March 2010, several members from Meeting asked Peace and Justice to consider working with United Power for Action and Justice. Kelly investigated what being a member organization with them means. She met with Amy Totsch and learned they are looking for a core group of people in a congregation working on a specific issue who need help organizing. Since that is not our situation we decided we would not become a member organization at this time.
3. New Business
During the month, Wil had sent out a link to some of us of short video clips about the Military industrial complex which a college-aged Quaker had made. Several of us had watched and commented on them. The question is what , if anything, do we do with them. We decided they were not appropriate for our Webpage since one of the main interviewees advocates secession of Vermont from the Union and none of us thought we wanted to back that idea. Instead we suggested that a prominent FCNL link (from which you can get the same information) be put on the webpage. Wil can also send out the clips via the online newsletter
Finally we decided that Quaker Earthcare Witness ought to be treated by us on par with AFSC and FCNL. A link to them will be added to the webpage.
Since we are adding so many things to the webpage we suggested Wil announce he is doing these changes under our guidance.
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Peace and Justice Committee, April 25, 2010
In Attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Clerk, Recording Clerk), Dean Peerman, and Wil Rutt.
NOTE: We had a very brief meeting as we were interrupted and circumstances forced us to end the meeting.
0) Friends opened with silence.
1) Kelly distributed last month’s minutes and an agenda. The agenda listed our committee’s accomplishments since November 209 and our holdovers.
1a) Actions since November we have accomplished:
Submitted and had published Fair Trade Resources, Recycling Resources, articles on AFSC, ICADP, AGLI. Arranged several FCNL letters and worked out our FCNL priorities.
Judy suggested we send her the Fair Trade Resources document, our articles on the organizations we fund, and the FCNL letters so she can add them to the webpage. Kelly agreed to send her the FTR and the Organization write ups which she had. Wil agreed with the idea of putting the FCNL letter writing on the webpage which was an idea that had arisen at last month’s P and J Meeting, but not been decided since we had not spoken to Judy yet.
1b) Issues held over:
Nov 2009, AVP > Ceasefire, will contact and get more info.
Nov. 2009, consider reading together Palestine: Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
March 2010, NRCAT Statement of Conscience? endorsing member? participating member?
March 2010, United Power for Action and Justice member organization?
meet with Amy?
March 2010, FCNL letter in 4th week calendar
By and large we have to hold over all the above named issues for our May meeting. However some discussion occurred. An important note is that Kelly is meeting with Amy Totsch of United Power on Monday May 3rd to talk to them about what they as an organization do, and what they would want us to do with them. At least two members of the Meeting had asked us to consider joining them, but it is difficult for us (P and J) to assess the level of support and involvement for our congregation to actually join with them. Our membership is shrinking and many of our own posts are left unfilled so it may not be the best time to commit to other activities.
Another discussion concerned the proposed reading of Carter’s book. Here there are several issues we need to decide. 1) Do we want to organize a Meeting wide event of some type to learn about recent development sin Israel? If so what is the best way to do this? Wil mentioned that the University of Chicago has available online a series of talks about the situation that they held a few weeks ago. Judy pointed out that the Oak Park Library frequently has educational events on the subject. So the members of meeting already have many ways to educate themselves. 2) Do we want to start a Meeting bookclub? This would not be part of Religious education as it’s not about Religion but about Current events. If so, who will run it and what will we read? Judy pointed out the Oak Park Library runs a similar bookclub.
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Peace and Justice Committee Report, Minutes of Meeting on March 28, 2010
In Attendance: Kelly Maynard (Clerk, Recording Clerk), George McCoy, Patricia McMillen, Wil Rutt, and Burke Shipley
We opened our meeting in Silence.
1. Patricia gave a short presentation on the National Religious Campaign against Torture (NRCAT). NRCAT is a membership organization, formed in 2006, committed to ending U.S.-sponsored and U.S.-enabled torture. It is an interfaith group, the executive director is Rev. Richard Killmer (a Presbyterian minister), and many monthly meetings (including 57th Street Meeting and Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting) have joined as endorsing members as have some Yearly Meetings. Since its founding NRCAT has focused on gathering endorsement of their Statement of Conscience, titled “Torture is a Moral Issue” and available online here. In 2010 NRCAT is working to 1. Secure an independent Commission of Inquiry that will investigate the torture policies and practices of the U.S. government since September 11, 2001 and make recommendations about safeguards that are needed to assure that it will not happen again. 2. Close Guatanamo Bay. And, 3. Codify the elements of the Executive Order (issued by Pres. Obama in January of 2009) and other important anti-torture provisions into law. OPFM have been asked to join as an endorsing member. This means we as a Meeting sign/endorse the Statement of Conscience and agree to consider promoting NRCAT programs. We have also been asked that we encourage individuals in our Meeting to contact Members of Congress to support Legislation to make permanent the policy of allowing the International Red Cross access to all detainees.
After some discussion, we decided that Kelly would prepare a short summary (given above) and that we would all look at some of the material online and make a decision next month as to whether we recommend to Business Meeting that OPFM join as an endorsing member. We can also choose to be participating members which is the same thing as endorsing members except it includes an annual monetary commitment (of an amount of our own choosing).
2. Kelly presented about a group called United Power for Action and Justice. This is a Cook County group formed in 1997 and made up of about 250 local congregations, neighborhood organizations, and health institutions. They are a grassroots activist community, affiliated with IAF, that helps smaller member groups unite on an action. “United Power engages in non-violent and democratic action in the public arena.” In particular they have focused on healthcare, housing and guns laws. They have helped get All Kids passed and closed down a notorious gun shop. They are currently working on getting an amendment on the November ballot that would change the way administrative districts are drawn. For more info go to their website. We need to consider whether we want to recommend to Business Meeting that we become a membership organization. The smallest annual dues listed on their webpage is for a congregation size 50-100 persons and is $600. Our Meeting has about 25 members so we might be able to half that to $300. Kelly will call and see. [Note this dollar amount is new info Kelly looked up after the cmte. meeting.] We will make a decision at the next Peace and Justice Committee meeting.
3.a Wil announced that he and Kevin Brubaker will be giving a workshop about FCNL at this summer’s ILYM annual meeting. He gave us a practice run with an extensive handout explaining the new and improved FCNL webpage. In particular Wil explained their very easy to use mechanism to make an email letter and send it your elected representative on their weekly actions. We thank Wil for the information.
3.b. This month’s FCNL action letter is to write your reps thanking them for voting ‘yes’ for Healthcare Reform or telling them you are disappointed that they voted ‘no’. Go to the FCNL website for more information.
3.c. We decided that a good way to gently encourage FCNL letter writing is for Wil to add a notice point in the 4th week calendar which he sends out reminding Friends to look for the action we are promoting on the Webpage (and putting said link on our new webpage).
4. Patricia spoke to us about the Rosenberg Fund for Children. This is a foundation that makes grants to U.S. children of persecuted activists. It was founded by Robert Meeropol who is that son Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were executed for espionage in the early 1950’s, basically because they were Communists. As a result their children were orphaned. The fund seeks to make life a little bit easier financially for similar kids. Patricia was going to give this information to Donna so we can consider adding them to our list the next time the Monthly Meeting’s budget comes up and P and J has to make funding recommendations.
5. We reviewed our decision about writing a monthly blurb for the Newsletter on a selected organization we donate money to. So far we have written up AFSC, ICADP and AGLI. Wil took responsibility to write the next one on FCNL.
5b. We think it is a good idea to create a link on our new webpage which has all our organizations listed and then our blurbs can be hyperlinked to them as we create them. Patty will contact Judy about this.
6. We closed with a brief silence.
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On MARCH 14, 2010: Peace and Justice Committee: The committee brings recommendations on the FCNL legislative priorities for the next 2 years (report attached). Each priority proposed by Peace and Justice was considered by the OPFM. Discussion resulted in approval of:
Final recommendation was to add North Korea and Iran to list provided in bullet 2
Insert “take positions against use of torture by the federal government and the federal death penalty, …..” into the first bullet.
Group approved the five priorities, as amended.
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PEACE & JUSTICE COMMITTEE MINUTES by Donna Cech
February 28, 2010
In Attendance: Donna Cech (convener), Helen Dickinson, George McCoy, and Wilmer Rutt.
FCNL Legislative Priorities: The 5 priorities suggested at the 1/17/2010 meeting were reviewed and after reflection were further seasoned by the Peace and Justice Committee. The Peace and Justice Committee forwards the following suggestion for Legislative Priority areas to the OPFM for seasoning and/or approval. The OPFM should then decide if the meeting will contribute these suggestions to FCNL as they slate their legislative priorities.
The Peace and Justice committee did not weight or prioritize these issues/suggestions.
It is crucial FCNL speak to Congress and encourage them to protect civil and human rights, take positions against use of torture by the federal government and the federal death penalty and show them that condoning violation of privacy, unconstitutional search and seizure, and illegal detainment ultimately hurts our way of life and does not protect it.
FCNL must remind Congress that dialogue with our perceived enemies is the best way to resolve conflict, therefore we feel FCNL should encourage dialogue and mediation between the US, Al Qaida, the Taliban, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
The US should pursue a policy that would enable Haiti to become more self-sufficient, not just supply emergency aid. The focus should be on infrastructure, economy and trade status.
FCNL should continue to focus on making sure there is affordable access to quality healthcare for all Americans and also globally.
FCNL should continue to investigate and dismantle the root of racism in large financial institutions such as life insurance.
2. Kelly has written a description of the African Great Lakes Initiative that will be submitted to the newsletter by the Peace and Justice Committee, continuing on presenting information about organizations who have received donations from OPFM.
3. Peace and Justice committee recommends that the recycling resource list and the fair trade coffee information be posted on the OPFM website. Donna will work with website committee to post the information.
4. Wil will follow up with IlYM regarding the Commission of Inquiry statement presented by Kent Busse, related to the National Religious Campaign against Torture. A recent e-mail from Kent suggested the topic was “remanded” to monthly meetings for seasoning.
Peace and Justice Committee, July 25, 2010
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk).
0. The Meeting opened with Silence a few minutes after Adrian F gave her update (see 5 below)
1. NRCAT
Kelly M. informed us that Meeting for Business has approved our recommendation that we become endorsing members of NRCAT. Kelly notified NRCAT, and she received a welcome letter from NRCAT acknowledging our status as endorsing members. This letter also encouraged us to urge members in the Meeting to endorse the statement as individuals as well, and refers them to www.nrcat.org/COI. We agreed we will announce this at the next Business Meeting as a recommended action. Kelly agreed to create a Peace and Justice hard copy file and keep the letter in this archive.
2. FCNL Actions
We further discussed the suggestion from last month concerning adding the FCNL Action Alert Link to the OPFM webpage. We agreed that it is a highly appropriate and potentially useful link. Judy E will add it to the webpage.
3. Guantanamo Bay/Thomson Prison
Following up on our discussion of the past two cmte. meetings, Kelly presented the new information that the US Senate Appropriations cmte. has approved buying the Thomson Correctional Center for use as a federal prison, with the same amendment prohibiting its use to house former Gitmo inmates as the House Appropriations cmte. has. Since both branches of Congress have agreed, the purchase of Thomson Correctional Center from IL to the Federal Gov is likely to happen in 2011. Although we are saddened by the US government’s commitment to increasing the number of federal inmates, at this point no clear action has been discerned in regard to the Thomson Correctional Center.
Kelly also presented the most recent updates about Gitmo inmates. 5 men have been released in the past month bringing the number of people illegally detained at Guantanamo Bay down to 176. Kelly also explained that journalists recently visited and the remaining prisoners are all classified and housed in 7 different camps, each with a different set of permissions. The men who are compliant and accept that the US needs to be holding them prisoners have the most privileges including watching satellite tv, spending four hours a day outside, and gardening, on the other hand there are 15-20 men staying on year-long hunger strikes, being forced fed to keep them alive with no privileges. Also, one of them men released last month had requested he not be sent back to his home country of Algeria because he feared torture there, but his request was denied, and he has already been disappeared.
After discussion we decided we would like to know who, if anyone is taking responsibility for keeping track of the released prisoners. We also feel that taking some action on this is a seasoned idea given our several month progress and new affiliation with NRCAT. We decided Helen D and Kelly will work on a statement concerning Guatanamo Bay and the fate of the prisoners, to be vetted at the next P and J meeting, and then recommend to Bus. Mtng. for approval and then sent to the press. AS one helpful and concrete action we can take is to keep this issue in the public arena.
4. AVP
After reviewing the history and purpose of AVP, we agreed that OPFM was not ready to train others in Non-violence, and that a one-off AVP workshop day was not going to train us to be practitioners of peace. Instead we think it would be beneficial to plan and implement an ongoing short duration peace training conflict resolution exercise program. We examined some of our library’s literature and took home reading material in order to study and gather ideas for a plan of sustained short practice/exercise for our Meeting. Judy has several useful Mennonite pamphlets she will bring to share.
5. New Business
During the week, Adrian Fisher asked us to put the following on the agenda: QEW is encouraging meetings to take part in 350.org's 10/10/10 climate change work party day. The website is here. Prior to our cmte meeting starting, Adrian gave a brief update informing us that she 1) emailed Karen Rasmus of the Oak Park Public Works suggesting that Oak Park advertise a village wide campaign and 2) emailed people at QEW suggesting they ask 350.org to be one of the sponsor members (someone replied and said they were already working on it).
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Peace and Justice Committee, June 27, 2010
In Attendance: Helen Dickinson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Patricia McMillen.
1) Kelly distributed last month’s minutes:
Re: procedures set up last month and noted in the minutes, Patty requested to be added to the list of people to whom Kelly sends the minutes directly. All felt this highly appropriate.
2) Kelly distributed this month’s agenda:
After in depth discussion on the pros and cons of posting the Peace and Justice Minutes online, we came to a consensus that the minutes represent a historic document and should be available to the public, however posting current minutes describing our plans for actions makes us vulnerable. Therefore we agreed that we want to post the Peace and Justice minutes on the OPFM webpage, but password protect them [using the same password as B.M. minutes] for one year. We also agreed that we want to start an online archive of past minutes that anyone can view (i.e. not password protected).
All read through the proposed P and J webpage description from Judy. We approved it, but added a few words (in Italics).
This Committee supports Quaker testimonies through events, letter writing, educational opportunities, and witnessing in the wider community. For example, we compiled the list of Recycling Resources (see The Green Pages) and Fair Trade Coffee Resources (see Chicago Fair Trade Congregations pages).
Here is a link to the current Minutes of P&J Committee meetings. They are working documents for internal use and have been password protected; please contact the Clerk of Oak Park Friends Meeting for access to these pages. Here is the link to the archive of older P&J minutes.
3) Kelly provided more background on FCNL Stickers:
After coming to a better understanding of what these are, we agreed that most of the stickers were not appropriate for our webpage, the exception is the FCNL alert sticker. We agreed to each go and look at this online and decide at a later meeting if we want to add it.
4) Kelly reported what Sarah S. had sent to her about IL prisons:
The Obama administration wants to close Guantanamo Bay prison and relocate its remaining prisoners to the Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson IL. In order to do this they need Congressional approval. Based on June 25 NYT article it was reported that Congress has not agreed to either closing Gitmo or giving money to purchase Thomson Correction Center. [However, on Tuesday June 29, 2010, it was reported in the press that the Dept of Justice agreed to purchase the Thomson Center in 2011, but the same budget has an amendment prohibiting the transfer of former Gitmo Prisoners]. The upshot is we do not know if or when Guantanamo prisoners will be transferred to Thomson. There are currently still 181 prisoners remaining at Gitmo, 55 of these are slated for release, 48 will never be tried and never be released, and we think the remaining 78 will eventually have trials.
Sarah reported that it does not appear to be the case that IL prison officials are receiving 20% pay raises, so we don’t need to worry about that.
A report from 2006 shows that prison reformers are currently focusing on lifting the mandatory sentences for non-violent (non-DUI) drug offenders. Instead it is cheaper and more effective to monitor these criminal with electronic devices and give them drug treatment and counseling.
We decided we need to season this information.
4) Other Items
Ceasefire, AVP, and the budget were informally discussed. No decisions were made and these items will be held over.
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Peace and Justice Committee, May 23, 2010
In Attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Convener, Recording Clerk), Wil Rutt, and Sarah Shirk.
0. We Opened in Silence
1. Announcements
1.a Donna Cech has laid down her work being the Convener of the Oak Park Peace and Justice Committee. We thank her for her year and half of faith-filled service.
1.b Kelly Maynard has agreed to be the new Convener of the Oak Park Peace and Justice Committee. She will continue as Recording Clerk.
1.c We established the following procedures. Kelly will send the minutes she types to Wil and Judy by the end of the first week after the P and J Meeting. Wil will then send out the minutes on the weekly Calendar during second week. Kelly will also prepare a list of action items in time for the Business Meeting which meets on the Second First Day of each month. Kelly will send a short Agenda during third week so items can be added.
2. Decisions
2.a.i In Nov 2009, P and J discussed their interest in AVP which led to the question that perhaps Ceasefire is doing similar work with students. We agreed to contact and get more information. Kelly will contact Donna and see what contacts she has made. Kelly will then contact them. It was confirmed that Ceasefire, which is funded via the University of Illinois at Chicago, has taken large budget cuts recently.
2.a.ii AVP works in the prisons mostly so the aforementioned discussion led to the question of what is the status on Guantanamo Bay prisoners coming to Illinois prisons and what reforms to the Illinois Penal system are likely. Sarah Shirk agreed to research this and send us the information.
2.b In Nov. 2009, we decided we would consider reading together Palestine: Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter. Wil agreed to read the book within the next 6 months (that is by November 2010) and present a summary and/or recommendation that we should read it together.
2.c In March 2010, a member of our Meeting asked us to consider the NRCAT Statement of Conscience against torture and whether we would endorse it. After procuring and reading through their Statement we decided that Peace and Justice will recommend to Meeting that we become an endorsing member. An endorsing member means we sign the statement and allow our name (OPFM) to be listed as an endorser. Being an endorsing member does not require us to send them money. Here is our response.
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The National Religious Campaign against Torture (NRCAT) is a membership organization, formed in 2006, committed to ending U.S.-sponsored and U.S.-enabled torture. It is an interfaith group, the executive director is Rev. Richard Killmer (a Presbyterian minister), and many monthly meetings (including 57th Street Meeting and Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting) have joined as endorsing members as have some Yearly Meetings. Since its founding NRCAT has focused on gathering endorsement of their Statement of Conscience, available below.
Peace and Justice recommends to Meeting that we become an endorsing member. An endorsing member means we sign the statement and allow our name (OPFM) to be listed as an endorser. Being an endorsing member does not require us to send them money.
A Model Resolution for Religious Institutions for Endorsing U.S.-Sponsored Torture: A Call for a Commission of Inquiry
WHEREAS one of our core principles as Friends is our belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all persons; and
Whereas torture violates the basic dignity of the human person, degrades everyone involved -- from policy-makers to perpetrators to victims -- and contradicts our nation’s most cherished values; and
Whereas torture is inherently wrong and immoral, because it is designed to break the human soul and the human body; and
Whereas reliable evidence available to the public has shown that the United States has engaged in torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in response to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, including a report produced by the International Committee of the Red Cross and made known to the public in February of 2009 that concluded: “[T]he ill-treatment to which [detainees] were subjected while held in the CIA[Central Intelligence Agency of the United States]program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture.”; and
Whereas the full story on the scope, breadth and depth of U.S. sponsored torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment has yet to be fully revealed; and
Whereas public awareness, acknowledgement, and understanding of what the United States has done with respect to the use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are necessary in order to make sure that our nation never again engages in this conduct;
Therefore, be it resolved that the Oak Park Friends Meeting endorses the following statement “U.S.-sponsored Torture Now: A Call for a Commission of Inquiry”:
The United States must never again engage in torture. Torture is immoral, illegal and counterproductive. It causes profound and lasting harm, especially to its victims but also to its perpetrators. It contradicts our nation’s deepest values and corrupts the moral fabric of our society.
We call for an impartial, nonpartisan, and independent Commission of Inquiry. Its purpose should be to gather all the facts and make recommendations. It should ascertain the extent to which our interrogation practices have constituted torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment". Understanding the causes, nature and scope of U.S.-sponsored torture is essential for preventing it in the future and eliminating it from our system without loopholes. U.S. law will determine the extent of any criminal culpability.
As people of faith, we know that brokenness can be healed – both in individual lives and in the life of the nation. All religions believe that redemption is possible. Learning the truth can set us on a path toward national healing and renewal.
The United States must never again allow itself to be driven by blinding fears and bitter resentments in responding to national tragedy. The use of torture only serves to undermine our security in a dangerous world.
Nothing less than the soul of our nation is at stake in confronting U.S.-sponsored torture and completely renouncing its use. Let the U.S. reaffirm its values by establishing a Commission of Inquiry.
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2.d In March 2010, several members from Meeting asked Peace and Justice to consider working with United Power for Action and Justice. Kelly investigated what being a member organization with them means. She met with Amy Totsch and learned they are looking for a core group of people in a congregation working on a specific issue who need help organizing. Since that is not our situation we decided we would not become a member organization at this time.
3. New Business
During the month, Wil had sent out a link to some of us of short video clips about the Military industrial complex which a college-aged Quaker had made. Several of us had watched and commented on them. The question is what , if anything, do we do with them. We decided they were not appropriate for our Webpage since one of the main interviewees advocates secession of Vermont from the Union and none of us thought we wanted to back that idea. Instead we suggested that a prominent FCNL link (from which you can get the same information) be put on the webpage. Wil can also send out the clips via the online newsletter
Finally we decided that Quaker Earthcare Witness ought to be treated by us on par with AFSC and FCNL. A link to them will be added to the webpage.
Since we are adding so many things to the webpage we suggested Wil announce he is doing these changes under our guidance.
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Peace and Justice Committee, April 25, 2010
In Attendance: Judy Erickson, Kelly Maynard (Clerk, Recording Clerk), Dean Peerman, and Wil Rutt.
NOTE: We had a very brief meeting as we were interrupted and circumstances forced us to end the meeting.
0) Friends opened with silence.
1) Kelly distributed last month’s minutes and an agenda. The agenda listed our committee’s accomplishments since November 209 and our holdovers.
1a) Actions since November we have accomplished:
Submitted and had published Fair Trade Resources, Recycling Resources, articles on AFSC, ICADP, AGLI. Arranged several FCNL letters and worked out our FCNL priorities.
Judy suggested we send her the Fair Trade Resources document, our articles on the organizations we fund, and the FCNL letters so she can add them to the webpage. Kelly agreed to send her the FTR and the Organization write ups which she had. Wil agreed with the idea of putting the FCNL letter writing on the webpage which was an idea that had arisen at last month’s P and J Meeting, but not been decided since we had not spoken to Judy yet.
1b) Issues held over:
Nov 2009, AVP > Ceasefire, will contact and get more info.
Nov. 2009, consider reading together Palestine: Peace not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
March 2010, NRCAT Statement of Conscience? endorsing member? participating member?
March 2010, United Power for Action and Justice member organization?
meet with Amy?
March 2010, FCNL letter in 4th week calendar
By and large we have to hold over all the above named issues for our May meeting. However some discussion occurred. An important note is that Kelly is meeting with Amy Totsch of United Power on Monday May 3rd to talk to them about what they as an organization do, and what they would want us to do with them. At least two members of the Meeting had asked us to consider joining them, but it is difficult for us (P and J) to assess the level of support and involvement for our congregation to actually join with them. Our membership is shrinking and many of our own posts are left unfilled so it may not be the best time to commit to other activities.
Another discussion concerned the proposed reading of Carter’s book. Here there are several issues we need to decide. 1) Do we want to organize a Meeting wide event of some type to learn about recent development sin Israel? If so what is the best way to do this? Wil mentioned that the University of Chicago has available online a series of talks about the situation that they held a few weeks ago. Judy pointed out that the Oak Park Library frequently has educational events on the subject. So the members of meeting already have many ways to educate themselves. 2) Do we want to start a Meeting bookclub? This would not be part of Religious education as it’s not about Religion but about Current events. If so, who will run it and what will we read? Judy pointed out the Oak Park Library runs a similar bookclub.
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Peace and Justice Committee Report, Minutes of Meeting on March 28, 2010
In Attendance: Kelly Maynard (Clerk, Recording Clerk), George McCoy, Patricia McMillen, Wil Rutt, and Burke Shipley
We opened our meeting in Silence.
1. Patricia gave a short presentation on the National Religious Campaign against Torture (NRCAT). NRCAT is a membership organization, formed in 2006, committed to ending U.S.-sponsored and U.S.-enabled torture. It is an interfaith group, the executive director is Rev. Richard Killmer (a Presbyterian minister), and many monthly meetings (including 57th Street Meeting and Urbana-Champaign Friends Meeting) have joined as endorsing members as have some Yearly Meetings. Since its founding NRCAT has focused on gathering endorsement of their Statement of Conscience, titled “Torture is a Moral Issue” and available online here. In 2010 NRCAT is working to 1. Secure an independent Commission of Inquiry that will investigate the torture policies and practices of the U.S. government since September 11, 2001 and make recommendations about safeguards that are needed to assure that it will not happen again. 2. Close Guatanamo Bay. And, 3. Codify the elements of the Executive Order (issued by Pres. Obama in January of 2009) and other important anti-torture provisions into law. OPFM have been asked to join as an endorsing member. This means we as a Meeting sign/endorse the Statement of Conscience and agree to consider promoting NRCAT programs. We have also been asked that we encourage individuals in our Meeting to contact Members of Congress to support Legislation to make permanent the policy of allowing the International Red Cross access to all detainees.
After some discussion, we decided that Kelly would prepare a short summary (given above) and that we would all look at some of the material online and make a decision next month as to whether we recommend to Business Meeting that OPFM join as an endorsing member. We can also choose to be participating members which is the same thing as endorsing members except it includes an annual monetary commitment (of an amount of our own choosing).
2. Kelly presented about a group called United Power for Action and Justice. This is a Cook County group formed in 1997 and made up of about 250 local congregations, neighborhood organizations, and health institutions. They are a grassroots activist community, affiliated with IAF, that helps smaller member groups unite on an action. “United Power engages in non-violent and democratic action in the public arena.” In particular they have focused on healthcare, housing and guns laws. They have helped get All Kids passed and closed down a notorious gun shop. They are currently working on getting an amendment on the November ballot that would change the way administrative districts are drawn. For more info go to their website. We need to consider whether we want to recommend to Business Meeting that we become a membership organization. The smallest annual dues listed on their webpage is for a congregation size 50-100 persons and is $600. Our Meeting has about 25 members so we might be able to half that to $300. Kelly will call and see. [Note this dollar amount is new info Kelly looked up after the cmte. meeting.] We will make a decision at the next Peace and Justice Committee meeting.
3.a Wil announced that he and Kevin Brubaker will be giving a workshop about FCNL at this summer’s ILYM annual meeting. He gave us a practice run with an extensive handout explaining the new and improved FCNL webpage. In particular Wil explained their very easy to use mechanism to make an email letter and send it your elected representative on their weekly actions. We thank Wil for the information.
3.b. This month’s FCNL action letter is to write your reps thanking them for voting ‘yes’ for Healthcare Reform or telling them you are disappointed that they voted ‘no’. Go to the FCNL website for more information.
3.c. We decided that a good way to gently encourage FCNL letter writing is for Wil to add a notice point in the 4th week calendar which he sends out reminding Friends to look for the action we are promoting on the Webpage (and putting said link on our new webpage).
4. Patricia spoke to us about the Rosenberg Fund for Children. This is a foundation that makes grants to U.S. children of persecuted activists. It was founded by Robert Meeropol who is that son Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were executed for espionage in the early 1950’s, basically because they were Communists. As a result their children were orphaned. The fund seeks to make life a little bit easier financially for similar kids. Patricia was going to give this information to Donna so we can consider adding them to our list the next time the Monthly Meeting’s budget comes up and P and J has to make funding recommendations.
5. We reviewed our decision about writing a monthly blurb for the Newsletter on a selected organization we donate money to. So far we have written up AFSC, ICADP and AGLI. Wil took responsibility to write the next one on FCNL.
5b. We think it is a good idea to create a link on our new webpage which has all our organizations listed and then our blurbs can be hyperlinked to them as we create them. Patty will contact Judy about this.
6. We closed with a brief silence.
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On MARCH 14, 2010: Peace and Justice Committee: The committee brings recommendations on the FCNL legislative priorities for the next 2 years (report attached). Each priority proposed by Peace and Justice was considered by the OPFM. Discussion resulted in approval of:
Final recommendation was to add North Korea and Iran to list provided in bullet 2
Insert “take positions against use of torture by the federal government and the federal death penalty, …..” into the first bullet.
Group approved the five priorities, as amended.
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PEACE & JUSTICE COMMITTEE MINUTES by Donna Cech
February 28, 2010
In Attendance: Donna Cech (convener), Helen Dickinson, George McCoy, and Wilmer Rutt.
FCNL Legislative Priorities: The 5 priorities suggested at the 1/17/2010 meeting were reviewed and after reflection were further seasoned by the Peace and Justice Committee. The Peace and Justice Committee forwards the following suggestion for Legislative Priority areas to the OPFM for seasoning and/or approval. The OPFM should then decide if the meeting will contribute these suggestions to FCNL as they slate their legislative priorities.
The Peace and Justice committee did not weight or prioritize these issues/suggestions.
It is crucial FCNL speak to Congress and encourage them to protect civil and human rights, take positions against use of torture by the federal government and the federal death penalty and show them that condoning violation of privacy, unconstitutional search and seizure, and illegal detainment ultimately hurts our way of life and does not protect it.
FCNL must remind Congress that dialogue with our perceived enemies is the best way to resolve conflict, therefore we feel FCNL should encourage dialogue and mediation between the US, Al Qaida, the Taliban, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
The US should pursue a policy that would enable Haiti to become more self-sufficient, not just supply emergency aid. The focus should be on infrastructure, economy and trade status.
FCNL should continue to focus on making sure there is affordable access to quality healthcare for all Americans and also globally.
FCNL should continue to investigate and dismantle the root of racism in large financial institutions such as life insurance.
2. Kelly has written a description of the African Great Lakes Initiative that will be submitted to the newsletter by the Peace and Justice Committee, continuing on presenting information about organizations who have received donations from OPFM.
3. Peace and Justice committee recommends that the recycling resource list and the fair trade coffee information be posted on the OPFM website. Donna will work with website committee to post the information.
4. Wil will follow up with IlYM regarding the Commission of Inquiry statement presented by Kent Busse, related to the National Religious Campaign against Torture. A recent e-mail from Kent suggested the topic was “remanded” to monthly meetings for seasoning.
