Minute on War and Peace

Minute on War and Peace

It is with tears that we mourn the deaths of soldiers, freedom-fighters, babies, mothers and fathers, children, victims of endless wars.

It is with sadness that we welcome home our war-shocked veterans who take their own lives when they find a future without hope.

We live in a world of wars without end.

The longest war in the history of our nation,

in a mountainous land that has never been subdued,

A seven-year war of torture and destruction in the cradle of civilization,

Now a desert war of “humanitarian intervention” to save lives by killing,

And a half-war by unmanned drones that kill whole families of tribal peoples.

With all life, we suffer the pains of our precious Earth from wounds by careless missiles, tanks and bombs.

We decry the wasteful destruction of finite resources that are desperately needed at home;

to house the homeless,

to cure the sick,

and to tutor our children in ways of peace.

We vision a world which embraces peaceful means of resolving conflict with equality with justice,

…where before the idea of violence is entertained, grievances are addressed with concrete steps,

…where conciliation, mediation, arbitration, fact-finding, and adjudication are codified international laws and practices of international organizations like the United Nations.

The Society of Friends, born in the chaos of the English Civil War, has offered its testimony of peace and nonviolence.

William Penn, former warrior and statesman taught us how to meet violence:

 We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by Love and Information. And yet we could hurt no Man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: And he that forgives first, wins the Laurel. If I am even with my Enemy, the Debt is paid; but if I forgive it, I oblige him for ever.

Fruits of Solitude, 1693, 542 – 547.

Penn put this truth to test, achieving peace with the Leni Lenape, Susquehannocks and the Delaware Indians, instituting what was known in Indian terminology as a "chain of friendship."

Let us then try what a chain of friendship, try what Love will do.

Approved April 3, 2011 by Barnstable Friends Meeting,

a Preparative Meeting of Mattapoisett Monthly Meeting

Rachel Carey-Harper, clerk