Bad language
How are we being affected by the language of the media? I was prompted to ask this question after recently reading a daily tabloid.
Here are fifteen of the sixty different divisive terms that featured in its headlines: confrontation; scourge; oppression; exploitation; intimidation; violating; abuse; scandal; complicity; weaponised; attack; strife; crisis; chaos; catastrophic.
Were I a regular reader of its columns, I wondered, was there a risk I might become paranoid and trigger-happy?
So, for relief and refreshment, I turned to the Friend. Across many pages the wording was warm and soothing: silence; listening; simplicity; gentleness; love; trust; forgiveness; caring; upholding; sharing; peacemaking; gratitude; joy; celebration; community.
But might such language also present a risk? Are we in danger of using it as a comfort blanket; as a licence to live in an untroubled mental Shangri-La? After all, is not such positivity consistent with George Fox’s ‘Standing in the Light’? Please tell me my misgivings are misplaced.
Don Jameson
Making a statement
Minute 30 of Yearly Meeting 2025, on Gaza, is a welcome step in recognising the urgency of the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including Gaza.
To reach – and hopefully influence – decision-makers, such statements need to be visible beyond Quaker communities. This minute was published on www.quaker.org.uk,
which is unlikely to be read by anyone who is not a Quaker.
A mechanism does exist to engage with decision-makers! Accredited Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) can send a written statement to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). This needs to address a particular agenda item.
In this way, NGOs can participate in HRC meetings with all UN member states, thereby speaking truth to power. Such NGOs include Friends World Committee for Consultation, a Quaker body.
Several NGOs, none of them Quaker, have joined in submitting previous statements, which have been drafted by Quaker Peacebuilding Perspectives, of which I am a member. We are now working on the updated statement for joint submission to the next Session (8 September – 3 October) of the HRC.
NGOs wishing to join in submitting the next statement may register at:
https://forms.gle/DuLjdrWRk2f6QgCDA.
Now that Quakers in Britain have acknowledged the genocidal nature of the current conflict, action that matches the recognised urgency of this catastrophe is vital. The more support for the next statement the better.
According to Isaac Penington, this would ‘help us grow from Inward Light to deeds’.
Jane Mactaggart
