Dear Friend, Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It is a day to honor Dr. King’s legacy in pursuit of a more just and peaceful world. It is a day of service. A day to reflect on what it means to be part of a beloved community. A day to remember the difference we can make together through courageous nonviolent action grounded in love.
This year, it is also the day Donald Trump will be inaugurated for a second term. The president-elect has promised mass deportations. He has called for a rollback of climate policies and a crackdown on civil liberties. He has proposed tax and spending cuts that will fuel wealth inequalities. And he plans to continue massive military spending and reliance on militarized approaches across the globe.
But none of this is inevitable. History is full of people of many faiths and backgrounds coming together and refusing to participate in violence or give in to oppression. Their courageous action made a difference—and so can ours.
The American Friends Service Committee was founded in 1917. Just weeks after the United States declared war on Germany in World War I, a small group of Quakers gathered in Philadelphia. They grappled with how they might live into their pacifist values in a time of war. They wanted to create the infrastructure for conscientious objectors to serve humanity. Toward that end, they counseled people on how to refuse military service. But they also trained hundreds of volunteers and sent them to Europe to provide relief from the ravages of war and help communities rebuild.
Their ideas were neither popular nor familiar. But they held fast to a simple truth articulated by AFSC founder Rufus Jones: “War ought not to happen. If individual men refused to take part in it, it could not happen.”
Acting from that simple truth, they touched the lives of millions. They fed children and built houses. And they revived and expanded a tradition of conscientious objection. Their efforts played a key role in anti-war movements for decades to come.
More than a century later, we, too, have the opportunity—and the moral imperative—to protect one another from harm. We, too, are called not only to resist injustice, but to build something new.
In the weeks, months, and years ahead, we will be sharing opportunities for action. I hope you will join us! Whether you advocate, donate, protest, or organize, your contribution is needed. Together we can demonstrate that another way of life—grounded in justice, equality, and freedom—is possible. In peace, |
