August 1989 Quaker Thought FRIENDS and Life OURNAL Today Looking at Central America Population as a Friends Concern :I am a Quaker and I am an alcoholic. " Among Friends l!cltor-llen••er Vinton Deming Assoclete Editor Melissa Kay Elliott Art DINCtor Barbara Benton A Deeper Season Advertlsl"- M•ne•er Timothy Back Clrculetlon end Office Coorcllnetor on't get me wrong. I like being a father most of the time. It's Nancy Schoerke just that things occasionally get somewhat out of hand and I Typesettln• Services lose my sense of self. Like the day when I am dashing about James Rice and Gardenia D Secreterlel Services the house trying to get some repairs accomplished. As I speed Jeanne G. Beisel through the living room in search of my hammer and some nails I Bookkeeper James Neveil spy six-year-old Simeon. I can tell he is mad. He is kind of hunkered Yolunt..,. down on the couch with his arms folded tight, elbows pressed to his Jane Burgess, Emily Conlon, Bruce Hunt, and Amy Weber ribs. He has a big scowl on his face, is kicking at the coffee table and doing his best to avoid my eyes. Under his breath, with intensity, Boercl of Men••.,. he is cussing. (The thought occurs to me, where did he learn those 1987-1990: Frank Bjornsgaard, Emily Conlon (Assistant Clerk), Marcia Paullin, words!) I break stride and ask, "What's up?" William D. Strong (Treasurer), Allen Terrell, It takes a long time to sort it all out. It seems that brother Andrew Mary Wood has taken Sim's rope, it is tied too high up in the tree to reach, and 1988-1991: Nancy Cocks Culleton, Barbara Dinhofer, Sam Legg, Parry Jones, Richard neighbor Joey has lost a piece of one of Sim's favorite toys. By the Moses, Harry Scott, Larry Spears, Judith time all parties have been rounded up, the tree climbed, the piece Randall, Alan Walker, Ellie White found, toy reassembled, hurt feelings soothed, I am too tired to 1989-1992: Jennie Allen (Secretary), James Cavener, Richard Eldridge, Bernard Haviland, complete the repair project. Besides, it's time to start making dinner. Eric Larsen, Janet Norton (Clerk), David And I do myself proud. I stuff and roast a chicken, make some Samuel, Wilmer Tjossem, Elizabeth S. Williams popovers, steam a vegetable. I pick fresh flowers and set the table. Dinner is announced. Michele requests some time to finish writing up Honorery llen•••rs Eleanor Stabler Clarke, Mildred Binns Young her reports, which are due tomorrow. She suggests we go ahead and start eating without her. The boys ignore my calls. They finally arrive FluENDS JOURNAL (ISSN 0016-1322) was in the house, dirty and sullen, eyeing the food as if it were the established in 1955 as the successor to The Friend (1827-1955) and Friends Intelligencer warmed over scrapings of the neighbor's garbage can. Sim tells me he (1844- 1955). It is associated with the Religious hates the dinner. Why can't he have "shwimps" with noodles (his Society of Friends, and is a member of the Associated Church Press. favorite)? Andrew is raiding the shelf for snack food and is trying to open a different bottle of juice than the one I have placed on the • FluENos JoURNAL is published monthly by Friends Publishing Corporation, 1501 Cherry table. They begin to quarrel over where to sit. Suddenly I am fed up St., Philadelphia, PA 19102-1497. Telephone with the bickering. I stop serving the dinner and exit the house in (215) 241-7277. Accepted as second-class disgust. postage paid at Hanover, PA 17331. • Subscriptions: one year $18, two years $34. At such moments I want to chuck the whole thing. I feel like I'm Add $6 per year for postage outside the United living with hostile strangers. Who are these people anyway who live States. Foreign remittances should be in U.S. in this house with me, walk on my bath towels, lead assaults on my dollars or adjusted for currency differential. Sample copies $1 each; back issues $2 each. refrigerator, remove my doorknobs, step on my snapdragons! I want • Information on and assistance with to be far away. advertising is available on request. Appearance I settle for a few deep breaths, a brief walk in the yard to admire of any advertisement does not imply endorsement by FluENos JoURNAL. my garden and count the buds on the resurrection lily (spared, by some miracle, from the crushing blows of the wayward soccer ball Copyright © 1989 by Friends Publishing which flattened the snaps), and finally a few moments on. the porch Corporation. Reprints of articles available at swing. An understanding spouse finds me and presents a tall, cold nominal cost. Permission should he received before reprinting excerpts longer than 200 lemonade. A small boy (with chicken on his face) finds my lap. words. Available in microfilm from University "Great dinner, Dad!" Microfilms International. At this moment I understand the meaning of the word grace. Later I recall the wisdom of e.e. cummings: love is a deeper season Postmesten than reason send ....... chllntles to Friends Joumel, 1101 Cherry St., PIIMedelphle,PA 18102-1487. 2 August 1989 FRIENDs JoURNA August 1989 FRIENDS Volume 35, No. 8 JOURNAL Features Departments 7 George School Revisited 2 Among Friends Anne Thompson Lee Thirty years after graduation, certain memories and values 4 Forum abide. 5 VIewpoint 10 Wherever One or More Is Gathered 27 Witness Rick Seifert, Starshine 28 Reports Worship groups fill a valuable need for increasing numbers of Friends. 30 News of Friends 12 "I am a Quaker, and I am an 32 Bulletin Board alcoholic." 33 Young Friends Anonymous How may meetings be most supportive? 34 Books 35 Nonsense 14 Looking at Central America of the Meeting Anonymous, Donald Laitin, Don Irish Three Friends share their impressions of life in El Salvador 40 Milestones and Nicaragua. 40 Calendar 20 Population as a Friends Concem 41 Classified Stan Becker 200,000 more of us each day: What are the implications? 42 Meetings 23 The Miracle We Need Poetry Christopher Crow Sometimes the clearest answers come at unexpected 9 Codicils moments. Alice Mackenzie Swaim 24 Hearts of Palm John Schoonbeck A Wisiratu leader and the vicar exchange their stories of Creation. Cover photograph of Nicaraguan children by Doug Hostetter, courtesy of American Friends Service Committee lruENos JoURNAL August 1989 3 Foftlm By way of example, I recently spent Absolutely Bananas two weeks in Panama in a small If the "personal response" of Tom community between Santiago and David Gates ("A Scruple Concerning Bananas," as part of Volunteers in Mission (a FJ March) is a leading from God, as he United Methodist undertaking). The local hints, then I can only express my currency is the Balboa. However, admiration for his acting on principle. Panama issues no paper money; instead No one can gainsay the conscience of the U.S. dollar circulates. As is well another. known, the Reagan and Bush administra­ But if I can draw him into the world tions have imposed currency restrictions of cot:tsequences, I would like to suggest there. My evidence is only anecdotal, but two differences between bananas today campesinos, Indians, and church officials and John Woolman's conviction on overwhelmingly reported serious if not slavery. debilitating effects on the poor. The First, a slave was not a slave because wealthy all have dollar accounts outside he chose to be. But a banana picker can the country; the poor get poorer. quit whenever he wants to. Therefore, if A well-known (but edited) aphorism is he remains a picker, it is because the that "feces rolls downhill." Too true, for $2.50 a day that he earns, however the best intentioned policies all too often meager, is better than anything else he have the worst impact upon those whom can get. His alternative is to earn less or one wishes to help. We as Friends must nothing. He might even starve. think through the implications for all, no Second, a slaveowner had to feed and matter the pain to our conscience. I agree house his slaves. If Woolman's (and that something needs be done in others') refusal to buy slave goods meant Honduras (and a lot of other places) but that every master had no more use for bananas ain't the way. his slaves, his only alternative would be A "worship note": there are no emancipation, in which case the ex-slaves meetings in Puerto Rico. However a could go north and look for jobs. The small group of Friends and "fellow banana company has no responsibility for travelers" have recently begun a biweekly its workers. It can only "emancipate" other than green manure, these worship group. Por fin! them by firing them. campesinos were topping all previous In sum, if slavery ended because slave records. At a cost to World Neighbors of Wallace C. Koehler, Jr. goods would not sell, the slave would be only $212 per family, 1,200 families in San Juan, Puerto Rico better off. If banana picking ends that location have permanently tripled because bananas are no longer bought, their corn production. the picker might starve. World Neighbors is a private On Discipline So what can one do, Tom asks? We development agency headquartered in can actively seek alternative opportunities Oklahoma City. Governments and other Thank you very much for Lloyd for the picker. If one can go to Central private groups imitate its methods. All Swift's helpful article "On Discipline" America and impart skills, so much the workers on the project are Central (FJ March).