A worthwhile contribution
I was late in renewing my subscription to the Friend in June, and consequently missed several copies. I missed the magazine very much, particularly the letters page, which I always read first.
Meanwhile, making the best of a bad job, a letter in the newspaper caught my eye. Like me, the writer is a pensioner. She and many of our fellow pensioners have been writing letters and emails, and signing petitions, in support of Palestinians, over a lifetime. We have marched, visited Gaza and the West Bank, tried hard to learn some Arabic, and witnessed injustices, torture, cruelty, and the blood shed by Palestinians year after year. The writer asks, ‘What good have we done?’, ‘Has it had any impact at all?’, ‘Why did we bother?’
Neither of us, it seems, can understand how nonviolent direct action can now be labelled as terrorism. Is it a crime to disagree? How else can any caring person get a cry for justice for Palestinians heard, other than in music, poetry and the written word, and the occasional pot of red paint? My MP certainly shows no interest in foreign affairs.
I understand that during the time when Quakers were protesting about the slave trade, many, especially women, endlessly wrote to government, quietly and unnoticed. It was called ‘texting’ in those days; times change and dreadful situations abound, and methods of protest have changed as well.
We are, sadly, creating a world where people protesting peacefully are now thought to be a threat to society; whereas those who are the real threat continue unchallenged in their unhinged behaviour, protected by their superior might.
And then my magazine arrived. I read the letters printed in that week’s Friend, and an article or two, and felt a whole lot better.
Rome was not built in a day. Everything we are doing or saying as Friends, in the name of truth and fair play, however small and insignificant, remains worthwhile and valuable.
When we call for peace and justice tor Palestinian children that does not mean we do not equally wish the same for every Israeli child – and for children everywhere in the world for that matter.
Peace one day.
Jennifer Bell
What must be done
I appreciated John Lampen’s reminder (Thought for the week, 11 July) to hold aggressors in the light as well as victims. I am often concerned that Quakers have a tendency to hold only one side of any situation in the Light according to their beliefs: this is undoubtedly the difficult aspect of the Christian and Quaker way, but it must be done!
As prison chaplain, I hope to encourage Friends to hold prison officers and governors in the Light as well as prisoners and victims.
Emma Roberts
