Dear QUIT Conferees, The Quaker Initiative to End Torture is gaining momentum through the good works of many and Friends are taking up the spiritual work to end torture. This message reaching all attenders of the 2006 conference begins our preparation for 2007. I enclose a few reminders- Here is the First QUIT conference report. Please consider offering it to your meetings with a request for spiritual, financial, and representative support for the June 1-3, 2007 2nd QUIT conference at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. There are also instructions for joining the QUIT list server where news of events, actions, and updates can be shared. It is important for us all to have news and encouragement as we go forward. Every action moves us closer and shared news increases awareness and learning. Two new minutes have just arrived showing the growing tide among Friends in Pacific and New England Yearly Meetings. I include them here. I am very happy to announce that our planning team will be joined by- Karen Hanscom, Exec Dir of Advocates for Survivors of Torture & Trauma and Stephen McNeil, Assistant Regional Director for Peacebuilding, Relief and Youth Work in San Francisco AFSC and co-clerk FCNL. Our website has been updated and will soon have new pages of links, resources, and suggested actions. Please share news of this with others. www.quit-torture-now.org <http://www.quit-torture-now.org/> I hope this finds you all well and work is going smoothly. Thanks, John Calvi QUIT convener John Calvi calvij@sover.net 802/387-4789 PO Box 301 Putney VT 05346 USA www.johncalvi.com www.quit-torture-now.org ************************************************** The Quaker Initiative to End Torture- First Conference Report Friends from 18 yearly meetings including Canada, Britain, and Rwanda, gathered on June 2-4, 2006, at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina to learn about United States-sponsored torture and to plan how to end it. Several non-Friends worshipped and worked with us, as well. Sixteen speakers, including three survivors of torture, provided information and inspiration to 126 conference attenders. After a period of welcome and worship, Jennifer Harbury gave a riveting keynote on Friday evening, giving us a brief but comprehensive overview of U.S. torture. She spoke from her personal experiences with CIA-sponsored torture of her deceased Guatemalan activist husband in the 1980s through the May 2006 United Nations hearings on United States compliance with the Convention Against Torture. This was followed by the film, ³Hidden in Plain Sight,² which gave a vivid history of the School of the Americas and the twenty-year struggle to close the school that has trained Latin American military officers since World War II. The film and the question and answer session offered by two survivors brought participants a sense of immediacy and responsibility. On Saturday morning, a panel of three speakers introduced us to the topics of direct action, legislation and executive monitoring, and treatment, which were followed by more intensive workshops providing in-depth information to conference participants on these topics, and on strategic planning. On Saturday afternoon, Hector Aristizibal using the techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed depicted his own experience as a survivor of torture and then engaged the audience in a powerful interactive movement that moved us toward hopeful engagement to end the practice of torture. Chuck Fager and Bal Pinguel then took the stage to exhort us towards the long work ahead to abolish torture, moving us from learning to action. Conferees next joined in a town meeting to brainstorm ideas in the five categories of education, legislation, treatment, prisons, and media/strategy. After supper, work groups in those categories met to plan actions. A hard day¹s work closed with a folk music concert donated by the Short Sisters, an amazing a capella group of three women. Sunday worship was led by our five elders, who held the conference in the Light throughout the weekend and attended every session, workshop, and work group. The conference culminated in a second town meeting in which we heard from each work group and then discussed the future of QUIT. There was a clear sense of the meeting towards the following actions: -educating our meetings and others; -asking for monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting support (minutes, donations, conference attendance); -using the QUIT website as a resource of information and events (http://www.quit-torture-now.org); -joining the QUIT listserv via the website to share news and ideas. Conferees appreciated the QUIT planning team¹s care in creating an excellent conference on a difficult topic presented with a tone of reverence, and they thanked the five elders for their prayerful attention in setting the tone for spiritual work. The planning team was asked to bring in more members and plan a second conference at Guilford College, June 1-3 2007. We ended with worship that was deep in silence and full of gratitude and expectancy. Save the date QUIT 2nd Conference June 1-3 2007 www.quit-torture-now.org <http://www.quit-torture-now.org/> ******************************************************************* The listserver of The Quaker Initiative to End Torture QUIT is up and running! This will offer all an opportunity to share information, news of actions and events. To subscribe, send a message to the listserver manager software at listserv@mtsac.edu In the body of the message type SUBSCRIBE QUIT-L firstname lastname replacing "firstname" with your first name and "lastname" with your last name (no quotes). If you've been successful you will get a confirmation request email in return with the subject heading COMMAND CONFIRMATION REQUEST Then simply type "ok" in that message (without the quotes) and hit your reply button. You will then hopefully be subscribed to the list and both of us will receive a confirmation that you've subscribed. Every confirmation also comes to me. That way I'll keep track of who's on the listserver. I decided to add the confirmation feature so that no one can subscribe someone else. You must reply to the message to join the list. If you fail to reply with an ok, the request will be deleted within 24 hours. After you're subscribed, try sending a message and we'll see if it goes out to everyone. Once you're subscribed, messages are sent to the list at QUIT-L@mtsac.edu Joe Franko, QUIT Webmaster ************************************************************* New England Quaker Initiative to End Torture- QUIT- Minute Minute Approved by New England Yearly Meeting at annual sessions August 9, 2006 New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends finds torture immoral, illegal, and abhorrent. Torture- in wars, in prisons, and in homes steals the humanity of the tortured, the torturer, and those who have knowledge of it. We believe in the sanctity of life, a faith that arises from our experience that there is that of God in everyone. This Light helps us to see our face in the stranger¹s face. Fear and denial cause us to forget our deep connections with one another. Only when we are willing to surrender to the Light, individually and corporately, can we eliminate the roots of torture. New England Yearly Meeting calls upon members and monthly meetings to seek Light and act to end torture. ************************************************************ AUGUST 5, 2006 PACIFIC YEARLY MEETING OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS MINUTE AGAINST TORTURE Thirty years ago, the Friends World Committee for Consultation stated: Both tortured and torturer are victims of the evil from which no human being is immune. Friends, however, believe that the life and power of God are greater than evil, and in that life and power declare their opposition to all torture. The Society calls on all its members, as well as those of all religious and other organizations, to create a force of public opinion which will oblige those responsible to dismantle everywhere the administrative apparatus which permits or encourages torture, and to observe effectively those international agreements under which its use is strictly forbidden. (FWCC, 1976) Pacific Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends was moved by the March 2006 Santa Monica Monthly Meeting minute that notes that ³our Quaker faith is based on the conviction that Œthere is that of God in everyone.¹ We are therefore convinced that everyone is entitled to humane treatment and due process of law. We utterly oppose any form of torture and illegal detention, whether perpetrated by our government or by any other power or group.² We call on our elected representatives to hold the executive branch of the U.S. government accountable for any actions that violate the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Protocols, or the United Nations Convention Against Torture, or any other treaties binding upon the United States. Pacific Yearly Meeting, joining with Humboldt Friends, San Jose and Palo Alto Meetings, supports the leadings of the six Humboldt Friends to travel with a concern for the condition of all who are involved in the conflict at the Guantanamo Bay Prison. Fred Adler, Andrea Armin-Hoiland, Carol Cruickshank, Margaret Kelso, Richard Ricklefs, and Karin Salzmann are called to journey to the prison to meet with and witness to both prisoners and prison personnel. The concern for the well-being of both prisoners and military personnel at Guantanamo Bay is one shared by many Friends in our Yearly Meeting. Further, we ask that members, Monthly Meetings and Worship Groups familiarize themselves with the work of the Quaker Initiative to End Torture (www.quit-torture-now.org <http://www.quit-torture-now.org/> ), considering both minutes of support and encouragement of participants in the next conference in June 2007 at Guilford College, North Carolina. As people of faith, we believe that the United States must set a high moral and ethical standard in its treatment of its captives, whether foreign or domestic. As William Penn wrote: ³A good end cannot sanctify evil means: nor must we ever do evil, that good might come of it.²