Peace is the only way to peace. SJ Dodgson 2014 v8n2 p0715
For a month we watched a war that was not destructive: the 2014 World Cup. I would love to see the energy in Gaza and Israel diverted to playing football. There is no way to peace, peace is the way and the American Friends Service Committee reaches out to communities all around the world, in peace.
Quakers have run a school in Ramallah since 1869. Friends in AFSC spoke with colleagues in Gaza on July 14, and report these quotes Some quotes
from staff members there: "This is not a war. It's like they are trying
to remove Gaza from existing", "The
youth are frustrated and angry, but what is hopeful is how they are
committed to each other and check in with each other every day." "I feel
frustrated that no one is hearing or paying attention."
Quakers are not denying Israel the right to exist, in fact, Quakers from AFSC were involved in the birth of Israel. What I want, as a Quaker, is to have all thousand or so children at the Ramallah Friends School get a good education and learn peaceful and productive co-existence.
And then today we hear that Jose Antonio Vargas, a prominent undocumented child, now an adult, journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, was detained by immigration authorities inside Texas. He was brought from the Philippines by his grandparents in 1991, and no-one ever got him papers for legal residency. He now faces deportation after a purpose-filled life of over 2 decades in the United States.
This comes amidst the stories we are hearing of children streaming into the United States from central and southern nations, and cries that they need to be deported. No. These children are children, they do what their adults tell them. We need to care for them. Send them back to families who out of desperation or stupidity (and I am sure most fall into one of these categories) sent the children off by themselves to the US? No. That should not be considered. I would like to see Quaker communities, and other communities, offer to take in children. I would.
