survivors - Quaker Ranter https://www.quakerranter.org A Weekly Newsletter and Blog from Martin Kelley Sat, 17 Nov 2018 19:21:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://i0.wp.com/www.quakerranter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/cropped-qr-512.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 survivors - Quaker Ranter https://www.quakerranter.org 32 32 16720591 Kindertransport survivors call for routes to sanctuary for child refugees https://www.quakerranter.org/kindertransport-survivors-call-for-routes-to-sanctuary-for-child-refugees/ https://www.quakerranter.org/kindertransport-survivors-call-for-routes-to-sanctuary-for-child-refugees/#respond Sat, 17 Nov 2018 18:53:00 +0000 https://www.quakerranter.org/?p=61594 At an 80th anniversary of the UK kindertransport program (which we read about a few days ago), survivors and Friends call for wider support for today’s refugees and asylum seekers:

Helen Drewery, Head of Witness and Worship for Quakers in Britain, welcoming all to Friends House, said, “We are pleased to be hosting an event which honours all those – including Quakers who put the Kindertransport into effect. Their endeavours are being echoed today by nearly 100 Quaker meetings across Britain which have identified themselves as Sanctuary Meetings and are supporting people who have fled from danger in their home countries. We are glad that these Meetings and the people they are supporting are represented at today’s event. We join them in pressing for more safe passages.”

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/27200

]]> https://www.quakerranter.org/kindertransport-survivors-call-for-routes-to-sanctuary-for-child-refugees/feed/ 0 61594 Words and reason fail when faced with such horror https://www.quakerranter.org/words_and_reason_fail_when_fac/ https://www.quakerranter.org/words_and_reason_fail_when_fac/#respond Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:09:47 +0000 http://www.quakerranter.org/?p=630 It’s hard to know what to say about yesterday’s horrific massacre at Virginia Tech, where a gunman killed 32 people (at latest count) in two separate incidents. Is this an indictment of an American culture of violence? Virginia Tech has a strong military tradition, so is our war mentality to blame? Guns?, can we blame guns? Or how about the alienation of so many young people in our society?
Any answer seems glib and besides the point. This isn’t the time to be a pundit. People snap for all sorts of reasons and usually for multiple reasons that can never really be untangled.
Like all humans, I’m shocked and saddened. I’ve spent time on the campus and the students and faculty I met were always warm and hospitable, gracious and open. What must they be going through? Think of the fear of the trapped students, the fear of parents turning on the news, the fear of survivors who will have to live with the memories of this nightmare for the rest of their lives. I add my humble words to the millions of prayers that have been murmured these last twenty-four hours. May God comfort the victims alive and dead, including the shooter, who must certainly be a victim of something himself.
How do we stop the violence? How do we show our youth that violence is not the way? And how do we get these damned guns out of their hands?

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