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Torture is a Moral Issue

Torture is not just a national security issue. It's a moral issue.

FCNL has embarked on a campaign with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) to end US-sponsored torture forever. Because we're not just talking about national security, we're talking about human lives and human dignity.

Torture dehumanizes both perpetrators and victims. We, as members of a society whose government has tortured, are also caught up in this web. We are called to take a stand.

Now, we're asking you to take one step to join us.

Ask your meeting or church to endorse a Commission of Inquiry. A Commission of Inquiry would be independent. It would gather the facts and make recommendations about how to ensure that the United States never again engages in torture.

In order to educate your community about the importance of eradicating US-sponsored torture, you could show them the Campaign's 20-minute video, "Ending US-Sponsored Torture Forever." I've included the trailer here.

Torture is a moral issue, and it is always wrong. Help us to spread the word.

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Bi-partisan bill introduced to reauthorize special diabetes program for Indians!

Just a few days ago, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) introduced a bill to reauthorize a special diabetes program for Indians (SDPI) for another five years. Nearly one in five American Indians and Alaska Natives has diabetes and it is a leading cause of illness and death. I've heard the words "diabetes" and "epidemic" used in the same sentence in reference to Indian Country more times than I can count since coming to work at FCNL.

The proposed legislation, S. 3058, would also increase funding from $150 million per year to $200 million per year for the SDPI. This would be an important step in the right direction of providing increased funding for Indian health care, which currently lags far behind the health care most people in this country experience.

Another thing that makes this bill exciting is that it was introduced with a very bipartisan set of consponsors, including 8 Democrats and 8 Republicans. According to the National Indian Health Board press release, "The SDPI supported programs have resulted in a decrease of 13% in the mean blood sugar level (AIC), which translates to a 40% reduction in diabetes-complications.

Please consider writing to your senators asking them to co-sponsor this bill. You can also write your representative regarding the corresponding House bill.


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Climate Induced Migration: Don't Overreact

On Monday, I attended an event at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on the global implications of climate induced migration. For the past several months, I have been researching the intersection between climate change and preventing deadly conflict, an interdisciplinary area in its infancy. The panel at this event included a representative from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) office, an Oxfam representative, and a migration specialist. I was impressed at the diversity of perspectives represented and that finally many of these issues (conflict prevention, humanitarian assistance, and migration) are being brought together into one conversation with a collaborative goal of presenting a nuanced and perceptive picture of how climate change will affect social dynamics across the globe.

Climate change advocates and migration experts have long been skeptical of one another. Migration scholars resent that many environmental groups have used a dramatized threat of “climate migration” to drum up support for their cause, while inadvertently demonizing migrants. Conversely, environmental groups often feel that migration studies discount the effects of climate and environmental change and that it would be possible to attribute much of the migration in the past several decades (at least partially) to climate change. Thankfully, some of this animosity seems to be thawing as people realize that all these issues are interconnected and action is dependent on understanding how.

Susan Martin, the climate specialist, mentioned four ways that climate change and migration interact:

1. Desertification and increasingly long drought seasons push people out of their homelands (a relatively slow migratory pattern).
2. Rising seal levels will force people to relocate (slow).
3. More frequent and intense natural disasters induce displacement and people often never return to their original homes (this results in quick, mass migration-- we are seeing more of it already).
4. Competition over resources leads to conflicts, displacement (this could be large scale, and is the scariest option in many ways).

She also provided a lot of hope, though. She mentioned that remittances from migrants back to their home countries far outweighs any government or foreign commitments and that if that resource stream could be tied to adaptation projects it would be a tremendous resource. The entire panel also reiterated that often the very necessity of sharing resources means that there is increased cooperation about things like water rights. Cooperating on environmental issues can then begin to break down other barriers, such as ethnic, religious or political differences. Perhaps the very direness of the situation will force humanity to become more peaceful and cooperative.

I was also heartened to hear that both Oxfam and USAID are building a consciousness of environmental change into their projects and that everyone is taking this issue seriously. The common wisdom on the connection between climate change and conflict is that a changing climate multiplies other factors that lead to fragile and failing states, such as poverty, weak governance, and economic instability. Therefore it is essential that climate change be part of any conversation happening in the State Department, USAID, and even the military. It also means that FCNL’s climate and peaceful prevention of deadly conflict programs are more closely linked that we often think.

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One of the many things that sets FCNL apart from the rest

I think I could go on for a while about all the things that sets FCNL apart. FCNL's beautiful, green building, its location just four blocks from the Capitol, the wonderful and energetic FCNL Staff, and of course, the historic, powerful witness FCNL provides in Washington.

Something less well known but equally as impressive is the process in which FCNL decides what legislative priorities to work on. This biannual process involves asking Quaker meetings and churches all over the country to engage in worshipful discernment to determine what they feel are the most important legislative priorities for FCNL to focus on in the coming session of Congress. These priorities are within the wider context of FCNL's policy statement and the four "we seeks".

All of the responses are worshipfully considered by FCNL's policy committee, a smaller body of twelve members appointed from FCNL's General Committee. Out of the responses, the policy committee, takes the "sense of the responses" and put them into a document that is presented to FCNL's governing body, the General Committee. This body meets in November where they also examine and worshipfully consider the statement created by the policy committee. The approved document becomes FCNL's legislative priorities for the coming congress. See FCNL's legislative priorities for the current congress.

Yes, this is somewhat of a slow and complicated process for an organization to decide what legislation priorities to focus on, as the process goes from one body of Quakers, to another body of Quakers to another body, and happens over the course of almost a year….however, partly due to this long, and laborious process, I believe it is an incredibly powerful and unique experience.

It can be a powerful process for the individual, for the Friends community, and for FCNL. The process presents a unique opportunity for Friends to ask themselves deep questions within the context of the wider world of Friends. What do I believe are the most pressing national legislative issues? What issues do I feel called to work on? As a community, what local or national issues do we feel called to work on? What is our group's role within the wider world of Friends?

The opportunity lies in engaging in serious discernment as a meeting, which helps individual and collective witness to grow. Often Friends feel a call to further work as a community, whether at a local or national level. Overall, Friends have the opportunity to feel more connected to each other, to become more connected with FCNL's work and feel more connected with the wider world of Friends.

Not only is it beneficial on the local level, but FCNL's work finds increased grounding and spiritual depth through this process. The more diverse responses FCNL's receives the richer FCNL's work becomes. There is no other process like this among Friends. It is corporate discernment on a large scale, connecting Friends of all branches and theological backgrounds for a common purpose. How is the Religious Society of Friends called to witness in Washington? How is the Religious Society of Friends called to change federal policy for the common good?

If you belong to a Quaker meeting or church, and your community has not engaged in the priority process this year, I strongly encourage you to do so.

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