July 1/ 15, 1973 Quaker Thought and Life Today 12-7Lt- That we could but take to the soul some of the great­ ness and the beau­ ty of the summer! -Richard Jeffries The Growing Edge FRIENDS SARAH RAMBERG ot Southampton Friends Meeting, PA, JOURNAL brings to our attention an opportunity for Friends to work directly toward the relief of the sufferings of politi­ July 1/ 15, 1973 cal prisoners in South Vietnam. Over 200,000 Viet­ Volume 19, Number 12 namese men, women and children remain imprisoned, Friends Journal is published the first and fifteenth of each month usually in subhuman conditions, subjected to torture, star­ (except in June, July, and August, when it is published monthly) by Friends Publishing Corporation at 152-A North Fifteenth Street vation, "tiger cages," and other horrors. Many of these Philadelphia 19102. Telephone: (2 15 ) 564-4779. (Temporary ' civilians are Buddhist pacifists, Catholics, and students office address: 112 South Sixteenth Street, Philadelphia 19102.) who are seeking a "third way" of reconciliation and re­ Friends Journal was established in 1955 as the successor to The Friend (1827-1955) and Friends Intelligencer (1844-1955). construction. They support neither the Communists nor JAMES D. LENHART, Editor Thieu, but because Thieu's government considers them a J OYCE ROLLE ENNIS, Managing Editor NINA I. SULLIVAN. Circulation Mana/ler threat they face continued persecution. Sarah Ramberg JOHN F. HIMM El EIN. MARGUERITE L. HORLANDER, and LOIS F. ONEAL, Office Stafl collected a supply of hospital bracelets, partly donated by Friends Hospital in Philadelphia, and has put on each BOARD OF MANAGERS 1971-1974: Carol P. Brainerd, Miriam E. Brown William Huooen the name of a prisoner. She is offering them to people Margaret B. Richie, Daniel D. Test, Jr. (Chairma'n), ' Eleanor B. Webb, Elizabeth Wells, Mildred Binns Young (Secretary). who want to "adopt" a prisoner and accepting donations 1972:1975: Paul Blanshard. Jr., Charles J. Cooper (Treasurer), for the AFSC Make Your Own Peace program. Adopt­ Barnngton Dunbar, Walter Kahoe, Patricia McBee Sheeks, Ada C. Rose, James B. Shuman, Eileen B. Waring, Go rdon D. Whitcrafl. ing a prisoner means wearing the bracelet until he/ she IS 197.1-1976: Laura Lou Brookman, Helen Buckler, released, writing letters and sending aid to the prisoner Mary Roberts Calhoun, Richard J. Crohn, A. Alexander Morisey, and writing letters to prison authorities, the Saigon gov­ Eleanor Stabler Clarke, Opal Gooden, Francis Hortenstine, William B. Kriebel, Walter H . Partymiller. ernment, and the American government to urge the pris­ CONTRIBUTING EDITORS; Alfred Stefferud, Frances Williams Browin. oners' release. Friends who wish to begin similar projects William Hubben, Richard R. Wood. may write to: Nora Booth, AFSC, 112 S. I 6th St. , Phila. Subscription: United States, possessions: one year $7 .SO. two years 19 I $14, three years $20. Foreign countries (including Canada and 02, or to: Working Group on Prisoners, Third Way in Mexico): add $1 for postage. Single copies: 35 cents; Vietnam, Birmingham Peace Centre. I R Moor St., Ring­ samples sent on request. way. Birmingham B57UH, England. Information on and assistance with advertising is available on request. Appearance of any advertisement does not imply en­ Eight North Camlinians, some Friends among them, dorsement by Friends Journal. were arrested the morning of April 16 for blocking a Second Class Postage paid at Philadelphia, P A and additional offices. military truck carrying munitions into the Military Ocean Copyright © 1973 by Friends Publishing Corporation. Reprints of Terminal at Sunny Point (MOTSU), a relatively un­ any article are available at nominal cost. Permission should be received before reprinting excerpts longer than 200 words. known port, which ships over one third of the munitions used in Indochina. The action was the culmination of over four months of research, educational and organizing Contents work by the MOTSU Project, a coalition of peace action groups that includes the Southeast Regional AFSC. Proj­ ect participants had attempted to present to MOTSU Quaker Sociology- Robert F. Tatman ... .............. 356 officials an alternative shipment of blankets, clothing and A Tribute to Howard H. Brinton-Elizabeth Gray Vining. first aid supplies donated from all over the state. When Dan Wilson, Phillip H. Wells, Elizabeth Brin;o11. the shipment was refused-"Relief supplies do not meet Edwin B. Bronner and Douglas Steere .. ...... ... 357 Department of Defense criteria"-an all-night vigil was Bicentennial of Luke Howard- Now a11d The11 ...... .. .. 365 undertaken which led to the blockade action. Those ar­ rested were found guilty, fined court costs, and released. There Was an Old Man with a Beard- Noah Vail . 365 The MOTSU Project continues with regular weekend On the Essential Differences Between Friends- R. W. Tucker. vigils at the gate entrance over the summer and an on­ Tom Abrams ..... .. ............. ........ .. .. ..... 366 going campaign that includes lobbying for the conver­ Poetry by Richard 1-:. Tirk. lack Toote/1 and sion of MOTSU to lifegiving purposes and the develop­ Pollyanna Sedziol ment of alternatives for those employed by the port. While weekly vigils have been laid down at some Reviews of Books . 369 places, several continue in protest to the escalating "non­ Letters to the Editor .. ..... .. .. .. .. ..... .. .. .... 370 war" in Indochina. The every day, 24-hour-a-day Vigil for Peace in front of the White House began its third year Friends Around the World .................. ..... .... 373 Reports by Rosemary M. Ellioll and Robert A. Martin, Jr. on June 2, with participation increasing. A judge re­ cently told Bob Walsh of Quaker House: "If you're Announcements and Coming Events . 376 connected to that Quaker Vigil, I must commend you on your persistence." Other weekly vigi ls in which Friends THE PHOTOGRAPH ON THE COVER was taken by Steve participate continue in Durham, Greensboro and Chapel Anderson, a member of Haddonfield, NJ, Meeting. Hill, NC. 354 July 1 I 15, 1973 FRIENDS JOURNAL The First Word service is much more common. The basic power of our national policy is negative, not positive, and with few ~x­ The Darkness of Watergate; ceptions, it is the worst in man, not the best,. ~o whic? America appeals. When these appeals not surpnsmgly fall The Light of Howard Brinton to meet the needs of developing peoples, external pressure is applied through political, economic and, if need be, military forces. MY READING MATERIAL and therefore my thoughts have And religion essentially has absolutely nothmg to do been dominated recently by two Quakers. One of them, with the process by which national decisions are made. Howard Brinton, is physically dead but spiritually he will That is how far we have come from the days when live forever through the impact of his light-filled, illum­ America was founded by persons "who did not distinguish inating life. Some reflections by others about that life are between their religion and their democracy." shared with readers in this issue of the Journal. And we can't blame Richard Nixon for that. Instead, To me, some of the clearest of Howard Brinton's in­ [ suggest that we Americans, especi?lly we "religious" sights are in Quaker Education in Theory and Practice, Americans and particularly we Amencan Quakers, .take a Pendle Hill pamphlet first published in 1940, and re­ a long look at ourselves and ask some hard questiOns. printed every nine years since. Particularly t~ely .are How sacred do we consider each human personality? How some of his views on democracy. "A democratic society capable are we of genuine self-sacrifice? How closely ?o in order to function," he said, "must respect human per­ we relate religion to not just democracy but our entire sonality as sacred, inviolable and capable of genuine self­ way of life? And do we indeed "appeal to the best that sacrifice. These are Christian doctrines. Democracy can­ is in man?" not work merely on a basis of sweet reasonableness and If even a few of us would consistently ask these ques­ a general pooling of self-interests. There is no such thing tions of ourselves and then try to honestly answer them as a successful secular democracy. English democracy was in and through our own lives, religion would begin. to b~ ­ born out of the struggle for religious freedom in the seven­ come alive and well in America, rather than contmue 10 teenth century. The American democracy was founded by its insipid and irrelevant way. But b~cause we are not persons who came out of that struggle and who did not consistent and honest, we must share m the darkness of distinguish between their religion and their democracy." Watergate even as we share in the light of Howard Brin­ I came across those words while reading and thinking ton that continues to point toward a better way. JDL about another, even more immortal Quaker, Richard Nixon. As Watergate deepened and became murkier, Shortly after the above was ,w ritten, Martha Da~~ Howard Brinton's words, written more than three decades shared with us what she called ' a poem-prayer-hymn earlier, continued to shed light on this latest example of by G. K. Chesterton that had been read at the General just how far America has come since it was founded. Conference of Friends in India in early May. It seems, "As long," Howard had said, "as we can draw on the Martha said, "to speak very clearly to the United States accumulated reserve of Christian power stored up during at the moment." It does, indeed. an intensely religious era, so long will our American democracy prove workable. Only religion can overcome 0 God of earth and altar, selfishness sufficiently to enable men and women to work Bow down and hear our cry; together without compulsion ..