Peace and Social Concerns, 2/21/2019

Present: Frank G, Diane C, Roger C, Jane J, Ruth H, Claude T.

We opened with a time of silence.

1.Diane agreed to be the Clerk of the committee for the year, and Jane agreed to be her assistant.

2.Ruth proposed that we suggest Soul Fire Farm (http://www.soulfirefarm.org/) for the Friends Concerns: Other Organizations (FC:OO) section of MtToby’s budget. She passed out a document detailing how it operates. Johnny, Sandi, Adele, Ruth, and Andy have been involved as volunteers and/or have attended the program within the last year. Jane spoke of a meeting in Amherst by Leah Penniman, the co-director and program manager of the Farm, which was well attended by MtToby people among others, telling of the Farm. It was thought to be a good topic for an 11:40 hour. We agreed to propose Soul Fire Farm for FC:OO. Diane will ask the Clerk to put it on the March agenda. Ruth will make the presentation.

3.MA flag and seal issue. Ruth brought the actual flag and explained its history and its Latin inscription, obviously objectionable to Friends. She brought a copy of the legislation (https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/SD1495), sponsored by Jo Comerford and Lindsay Sabadosa of our area, to review and revise the flag and seal. The bill has a lot of support. Cambridge Meeting’ Peace and Social Justice Committee has done a lot of work in considering it and proposed a minute to their Meeting, not yet approved. We have their excellent though lengthy text. We agreed that a proposal in favor of SD1495 should be brought to our meeting. Ruth said that an 11:40 on April 7 is available and we might use it for this. The Race and Class group wants to cosponsor this effort. Ruth will request the 11:40 hour. Lindsay will be invited, and the Northampton Friends should also be invited. Ruth will arrange the 11:40 hour. Jane will help. (and they presumably will invite Lindsay and the Northampton Meeting to attend.)

4.Funding the Resistance Center . Our proposal was not adopted, with the February minutes saying “We are not yet clear that we want that support to include financial support, and we want more information about the Center's work and how its structure and process is in keeping with Quaker values.” For one thing, the Center seems to be the only local organization working on peace issues. Some Friends feel that the connection between us and the Center is not strong. Further discussion was postponed until next month. It would be good if Avery, who presented the proposal, could be present to explain further.

5. Statement of concern for the Jewish community. Andrea was invited, since she says she has strong feelings about the issue, but she could not attend this meeting. The statement was not taken up in the February meeting for business despite being on the agenda. Andrea will be invited to attend next time. Jane suggested a sharing with Jewish groups about anti-Semitism and how we can be helpful might be more useful than continuing to work on the statement. Friends agreed.

6.David A wants us to consider MtToby participating in the Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons.  Northampton Meeting has already done this and we have been asked by the Quarter to investigate the topic.  Diane will invite him to our March meeting. David will be encouraged to continue in this work and we hope to find a way we can move the issue forward at MtToby.

7.On March 21, which would normally be the date of our next meeting, there is a celebration in honor of Frances Crowe’s 100^th birthday. Consequently, in March we will meet on the 28th.

8.Letters: For March, Kathleen suggests that she will organize sign-making for the Frances Crowe celebration. In April, the Climate Witness Committee will take charge of letter writing. In May, Race and Class will take it, since the date they took in January was snowed out. Roger will contact Kathleen to affirm the March 17 agreement.

9.The report Roger wrote summarizing peace, social and environmental concerns at MtToby has been sent to Cat and will be on the March agenda as the “annual” report of the committee.

We closed with a time of silence.