This small 2003 collection of essays, now alas out of print, had its origins in two incidents, somewhat related, and which also turned out to be the start of something bigger, at least for me. In the first, I proposed to the Publications Committee of Friends General Conference (FGC), the “liberal” association of U. S. … Continue reading Shaggy Locks & Birkenstocks: wandering through recent Quaker history
In the May 30, 2021 New York Times, there was an Op-Ed on military conscientious objectors, or COs. It was gratifying to see it on the brink of Memorial Day. It showed no disrespect for those who agreed to fight and died in war to recognize that a persistent minority has declined to take the … Continue reading Memorial Day for Those Who Said No
From “Happy Valley” to Supermax? Graham Spanier is going to jail. Spanier was the longtime president of Penn State University (PSU), who was toppled in the notorious Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal in 2011 and 2012. Sandusky was a veteran PSU assistant football coach, and in 2012 he was convicted of 45 counts of sexually … Continue reading Penn State Ex-Pres Headed to Jail: Was PSU’s Secrecy Also a Perp There?
Tom Friedman, longtime NYTimes columnist, treats us to some snippets of diary entries from his first trip to Afghanistan, in early 2002, with then Senator Joe Biden. Friedman opens the piece in the posture of sadder-but-wiser sage: “I was not surprised that Joe Biden decided to finally pull the plug on the U.S. presence in … Continue reading “Nation Building” on the Moon? Smarter than the U.S. in Afghanistan?
My friend Patrick O’Neill is serving a year in a federal prison, for attacking a replica of a nuclear missile at a south Georgia navy base in April of 2018. (A post with more about that protest is here.) It’s part of his peace witness as a member of the Catholic Worker movement. Most of … Continue reading Patrick O’Neill – A Letter from the Hole