Letter from Buffalo Monthly Meeting
to Buffalo News, President Bush, and New York's U.S. Senators
approved December 16, 2001
As members of the Religious Society of Friends, we renounce the use of
violence for ourselves and deplore its use by political factions. We
concur with the ancient wisdom that the best way to get rid of enemies is
to turn them into friends. Such a strategy leads to a stable and mutually
satisfying future.
The Friends School in Ramallah, on the West Bank, operated for over 100
years by the Friends United Meeting (of which we are members), is an
example of practical Quaker efforts toward fomenting peace. It is also a
symbol of peace and a site for interfaith and interethnic dialogue.
Israeli bombs damaged it the second week of December, bombs delivered by
planes supplied by the U.S. and with the tacit approval of the U.S.
government.
It is appropriate for us Friends to suffer along with others. Every
violent act is an occasion for another call for peace. The bombing of the
Quaker school, this symbol of long-standing efforts toward peaceful
alternatives, is one more reason to seek to rein in the forces of
violence and war. We call on the President and our Senators, as well as
Palestinians and Israelis, to cease military and other terrorist activity
and to re-establish mutually respectful dialogue.
Buffalo Monthly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends
Thadeus Dziekonski, Clerk