help compile Posts

Update from yesterday's post. The new FGC Quakeryouth site is now effusively thanking QuakerQuaker for development of the "quaker.youth" tag and for extensive use of content on the site that was compiled by yours truly.

For the record: everyone that wants to share QuakerQuaker material is warmly encouraged to do so. I really want this to be an open standard and a way for us to easily share content. But please do the courtesy of contacting me first and please make sure that every page that includes materials compiled by QuakerQuaker says so and has a link.

I'm archiving yesterday's post (those wondering what the fuss was about can read it here) but I'll copy a few paragraphs below since they talk about how Quaker institutions have been working cooperatively with QuakerQuaker. I'm happy to add FGC to the list.

QuakerQuaker co-editor C. Wess Daniels and I worked with the staff of Britain Yearly Meeting to cover May's annual sessions and support their official sessions blog (Wess himself wrote for it). BYM helped publicize the QuakerQuaker tagging system ("quaker.britain-ym" in that instance) and we re-wrote the system to pull in their blog.

I'm currently working closely with staff of Friends World Committee for Consultation to cover their upcoming Triennial in Dublin. This has included my programming a custom feed with javascript support so that they can pull the QuakerQuaker material into a special page on the FWCC site itself. I've done this publicity work for Britain Yearly Meeting and FWCC for free, in the interest of sharing Friends' good news with the world.

All this work is more than just whipping up a computer-generated feed. I have a sophisticated series of searches that allows me to scan the internet daily for Quaker posts and I watch what items are being added to the feed (by trouble-makers, spammers or automation) and take out inappropriate links.

If you think of the Quaker blogosphere as a garden, I'm nurturing new plants by finding new bloggers, encouraging them with links, attention and a lot of behind-the-scenes friendly emails. I'm also weeding out the latest spam attacks and bringing human intelligence to a semi-automated process so that the material is focused, relevant and interesting. Computers don't create communities: caring, thoughtful and selfless people do. And it's not just me, it's the half dozen QuakerQuaker co-editors and the extended family of Quaker bloggers who routinely gather together from our separate traditions to swap stories, visions and faith around the metaphorical campfire that is QuakerQuaker.

On Saturday, November 26, 2005 four members of Christian peacemakers Teams were abducted in iraq. On March 20th the body of American Quaker Tom Fox was found; on March 23rd, the remaining three hostages were freed by U.S. and British military forces.

Here at Nonviolence.org, we have always been impressed and highly supportive of the deep witness of the Christian peacemakers Teams. Their members have represented the best in both the peace and Christian movements, consistently putting themselves in danger to witness the gospel of peace. Not content to write letters or stand on pickett lines in safe western capitals, they go to the frontlines of violence and proclaim a radical alternative.

While we can be grateful for the release of the three remaining hostages, we should continue to remember the 43 foreign hostages still being held in iraq and the 10-30 iraqis reportedly taken hostage each and every day. As iraq slips into full-scale civil war we must also organize against the war-mongerers, both foreign and internal and finde ways of standing alongside those iraqis who want nothing more than peace and freedom.

Here's links to recent articles on the situation.

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Resources

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And a personal note from Nonviolence.org's Martin Kelley: I myself am a Christian and Quaker and one of our folks, Tom Fox, of Langley Hill (Virginia) Friends Meeting is among the hostages. I don't know Tom personally but over the last few days I've learned we have many Friends in common and they have all testified to his deep committment to peace. Some of the links above are more explicitly Quaker than most things I post to Nonviolence.org, but they give perspective on why Tom and his companions would see putting themselves in danger as an act of religious service. I am grateful for Tom's current witness in iraq--yes, even as a hostage--but I certainly hope he soon comes back to his family and community and that the attention and witness of these four men's ordeal helps to bring the news of peace to streets and halls of Baghdad, Washington, London and Ottawa.

Action Step:
If you have a blog or website, you can add a feed of that will include the latest Nonviolence.org-compiled links. Simply add this javascript to the sidebar of your site:

(An earlier problem with the javascript not working properly has been repaired).

John Paul Stephens has asked if I could help compile a list of online tributes to our Tom Fox, the fallen Christian Peacemaker for FreetheCaptivesNow.org'sTom Fox Memorials page. I've started a list, now up on QuakerQuaker.org, that I'll keep up for a few months. Any readers who know of something that should be included should either email me at martink-at-nonviolence-dot-org or tag it "for:martin_kelley" in Del.icio.us. Thanks. Here's my list so far:

See also:

• FreetheCaptivesNow.org
• Christian Peacemaker Watch over at Quakerquaker.org
• My posts on the Christian Peacemaker witness
• A really nice page on Tom over at Electronic Iraq

Quaker Storytelling as Religious Ed: how do you teach a religion that can't be defined?

Howard Brinton's Quaker Journals: Varieties of Religious Experience Among Friends

In honor of Income Tax Day here in the U.S., here are some links to sites on war tax resistance.

There are many ways to participate in militarism. The most obvious is to personally fight in a war, but another way is in financing its deeds. The United States military makes up a huge portion of the federal budget. It is estimated that 53 percent of income taxes go to pay for past, present and future wars. Nothing else comes close to this expenditure, and budget-cutting in education, environmental protection and the social safety net is a direct result of decisions to put the money into preparation for war. For more on the reasons for this form of protest, check out Nonviolence.org's own guide to war tax resistance and the very excellent Philosophy of Nonviolence.

The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is a coalition of local groups, alternative funds, contacts and counselors working to support, coordinate, and publicize conscientious objection to the payment of taxes for war. The NWTRCC coalition protests a tax system that supports war, and it redirects tax dollars to fund life-affirming efforts.

The War Tax Resistance Penalty Fund is an organization that ties together war tax resisters and their supports. When penalties are levied, all the contributors pay a small amount to help defray the resister's costs. This is a way for to support the principle of war tax resistance for those who don't feel ready to resist themselves.

Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes is a popular flyer from the War Resisters League.

The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund advocates for legislation enabling conscientious objection to war and to have the military portion of objectors' federal income taxes directed to a special fund for projects that enhance peace.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation and the War Resisters League both regularly compile statistics about military spending as a percentage of income tax.

Hang up on War is a campaign launched in October 2003 by a coalition including WRL and NWTRCC.