[Redbadbear@yahoogroups.com 3/21/02] How does a Quaker organization that has been working for peace, justice and empowerment of the disenfranchised all around the world for 85 years respond when a police department labels it a "criminal extremist organization?"
At first, it is tempting to celebrate the good company in which we find ourselves (Amnesty International, for example). But the matter is too serious for humor.
The American Friends Service Committee was founded in 1917 to provide opportunities for Quaker and other youth to make a witness against World War I by engaging in relief and reconstruction work with victims on both sides. Rufus Jones, one of the great American spiritual leaders of the 20th century and longtime chair of the AFSC board, called this "a service of love in wartime."
In 1660, Quakers published a declaration that remains the foundation of our peace testimony: "We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fighting with outward weapons to any end and under any pretense whatsoever."
According to the American Civil Liberties Union's Colorado legal director, the Denver Police Department is maintaining illegal files on peaceful protest groups, including the AFSC. The ACLU reported that the files were marked "permanent," although a police spokesman said the information-gathering was a response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The AFSC is proud that we have led or joined in many of the important, nonviolent social movements of the 20th century. From our beginnings, we have grown in scope as we work to transform conditions and relationships that threaten what is precious in human beings. We assisted coal miners in Appalachia in the 1920s; gave moral and social support to Japanese- Americans during World War II; and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the modern civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements. Those were not popular actions in their time and often dismissed as "extremist."
Certainly there have been occasions when Quakers and others have challenged unjust laws in the only way that the American judicial system allows: by breaking the law and being taken to court.
Many Americans defied the Fugitive Slave Act to help African- American slaves escape their bondage. Many broke segregation laws, or refused to serve in the military in the American war in Vietnam. They were called criminals and extremists at the time. Today, many Americans honor their dissent and are proud to claim them as ancestors.
We do not want to suggest anything positive about true criminal extremism. When actions take violent forms, or when they involve suppressing the legal rights of others - that is dangerously extremist. The fact that AFSC's current work with immigrants might be represented as illegal is a frightening reminder of days past in this country, when those who did not support a popularly held position were labeled and attacked as criminals and extremists.
The present mood in the United States is reminiscent of dark times in our history when raising a question was unpatriotic and immigrants were made scapegoats. AFSC is among the groups currently questioning the Bush administration's current war on terrorism. We grieve for the victims and families of those killed on Sept. 11. But we call for justice, not war; peace, not vengeance and retaliation. Letting anger and fear guide our actions will not erase terrorism from the world. Causing more pain and devastation will not bring back our loved ones.
War only escalates the cycle of violence. It is not a lasting solution. A call for peace does not mean we should do nothing in response to terrorist threats to our country.
The AFSC supports following the rule of law to find those who planned the terrible acts of Sept. 11 and bring them to justice under international law.
We must work for true justice for all people. We must uphold the civil rights of all Americans, of immigrants to this country, and indeed of people all over the world. We must work hard to seek social and economic justice all over the world, to change government policies that foster gross inequalities and suffering. Let us not justify government-supported illegal and secret acts - extremism - as a means to deal with dissent.
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[posted 4/22/02]
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