Seattle FOR 2/16/20 program From Soldier to Peace Activist

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents Dan Gilman on

From Soldier to Peace Activist

Sunday, February 16, 2020, 6:30-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.

All are welcome! Free, an offering will be taken. Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

Dan Gilman, past President of Seattle Veterans for Peace, will talk about his journey from soldier to peace activist, and about his current peace activist work.  He will talk about counter-recruiting, letting young people know the side of military service that the recruiters don’t reveal,  and his recent focus on preventing a U.S. war on Iran.  Dan is one of the organizers of the monthly first Tuesday Antiwar Demonstration at the Seattle Federal Building.

Dan is a retired union organizer with a 30 year career of representing service workers in Seattle. He is a graduate of Franklin High School. Dan was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 and was in the America War in Viet Nam in 1969. After returning from the military he finished his college education and went on to graduate school. He lives in Seattle. He is married and has a daughter in grad school in Chicago.

Join Seattle FOR Contingent on MLK Day March, Jan. 20, 2020

Monday, January 20, 2020, starting a Garfield High School, annual Dr. Martin Luther King celebration and march – 20/20 Vision

Schedule:

8:30 – 11:30 a.m:  Opportunity Fair

9:30 – 10:50 a.m:  Workshops
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m:  Rally in Gymnasium

12:30 – 1:30 p.m:  March to Downtown Rally

(Followed by):   Community Meal

Workshops & speakers will focus on the theme 20/20 Vision and the goals of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – defeating racism, poverty, and war!

More information: see https://www.seattlemlkcoalition.org/

Join the Seattle FOR contingent – look for the big purple banner.

Seattle FOR Program Jan. 19, 2020, on Fair Elections

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents Alice Woldt on

Fair Elections:

Getting Money Out of Politics

Sunday, January 19, 2020, 6:30-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.

All are welcome! Free, an offering will be taken. Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

Alice Woldt will speak about the corruption of money in politics. Alice is the current Education Fund chair and former Executive Director of Fix Democracy First, a statewide nonprofit that works to achieve fair elections and government policies that reflect the will of the people, not the power of money.

In addition to lobbying the legislature and members of Congress on democracy reforms, Alice has served on several initiative steering committees. These included initiatives which made Washington the 17th state calling for a US Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and other Supreme Court decisions that unleashed the influence of money and corporations on elections and government policy and also the initiatives which created the City of Seattle’s voucher program to publicly fund campaigns.  

As the former co-director of Faith Action Network (FAN), and executive director of the Washington Association of Churches and the Church Council of Greater Seattle, she brings a long history of leadership and organizing in the peace and justice, faith and political communities.

Seattle FOR Holiday Party Dec. 15, 2019

Seattle Chapter Fellowship of Reconciliation
Holiday Party

with Fellowship, Festive Potluck Dinner, & Music

Sunday, December 15, 2019, 5 – 8 pm
We will gather at the Sky Lounge of Horizon House, 900 University Street, downtown Seattle,
a block north of Virginia Mason Hospital with hosts Adele, Lynne, and Mary Margaret.

If you can offer rides, please phone the office by Dec 12, leave your phone number and say what neighborhood you are driving from. Street parking is free (but limited). Parking in the HH garage is $8 for 4 hours. Metro Bus #2 from downtown stops at 9th and Seneca; walk one block north to HH. Enter HH on University Street, sign in at the reception desk and ask for directions to the Sky Lounge.

Vegetarian/nonvegetarian dishes welcome. No cooking facility.

Free, a good-will collection will be taken.

Please bring donations of nonperishable food &
new gloves, hats, scarves, & SOCKS for our neighbors in need.

Rosy & Jonathan Betz-Zall, Lynn Graves, and Bob Morgan will lead singing.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

Information (206) 789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

Celebrate our commitment to a just & peaceful world!

Seattle FOR program Nov 17 with author John Repp

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents a book reading and discussion with John Repp, author of “Deep Cooperation Made Us Human”

Sunday, November 17, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.All are welcome! Free, an offering will be taken.
Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

John Repp will talk about and read from his recently released book “Deep Cooperation Made Us Human,” a collection of articles published in Pacific Call, the newsletter of Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation. Spanning the past 6 years, the articles cover everything from an explanation of how prehistoric human society worked, the advantages of public banking, short travelogues of Cuba and of the famous cooperative in Mondragon, Spain, a way to reverse global warming, and more. John will have books for sale.

John grew up in a small Indiana town. He lived in Europe for several years after college, aiding to his understanding of the world. He came to Seattle in 1969 and got active with the Seattle Liberation Front against the Vietnam war. He later dropped out of graduate school and became a journeyman machinist, working at Boeing making parts for commercial airplanes. When it looked like Bush/Cheney were going to invade Iraq, John was part of the group that started Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War in 2002. John was one of the SNOW 12 arrested in a nonviolent sit in trying to prevent that war. He joined WWFOR at that time.

Seattle FOR Fundraiser Oct. 20 Potluck Meal, Concert, and Sing-Along

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents
Eat, Sing, and Be Peaceful

A Potluck Meal, Concert, and Sing-Along

with Members of the Seattle Peace Chorus Action Ensemble
in Performance and Leading Group Singing

Sunday, October 20, 2019, 5:00-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.

Please donate what you are able – no one turned away for lack of funds
Info 206-789-5565 or :wwfor@wwfor.org

                5:00 – 5:30 come early to help set-up and socialize

5:30 – 6:30 potluck meal

6:30 – 7:30 performance and sing-along

7:30 – 8:00 socializing; 8:00 – 8:30 clean up

.We are honored to be joined for our Fundraiser by members of the Seattle Peace Chorus’s Action Ensemble. Seattle Peace Chorus http://seattlepeacechorus.org/ “singing for a just and peaceful world” raises spirits while they raise consciousness singing locally and around the world.

 

Seattle FOR program 9/15/19 on Civil Rights Pilgrimage

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents

Karen Schneider with a
Civil Rights Pilgrimage Presentation

Sunday, September 15, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.

All are welcome! Free, an offering will be taken.
Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

Karen Schneider will recount her experience with Project Pilgrimage in October 2017 as she visited historically significant sites in the Deep South from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. and met and travelled with surviving “foot soldiers” from that era. Project Pilgrimage builds interracial and intergenerational community in Washington and beyond by studying, understanding and gaining inspiration from transformational movements and individuals.

Karen retired from working with families in transitional housing with Compass Housing Alliance and continues to advocate for issues around homelessness and poverty. A long-term FOR member, Karen is active with the Washington Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonPPC/. She is very involved in anti-racist work with the “Breaking White Silence” project which seeks to raise white people’s awareness by facilitating study groups using Robin DiAngelo’s book “What does it mean to be white? Developing white racial literacy.” She is also a member of the Citizens Climate Lobby.

[rescheduled from Feb 2019, postponed due to illness]

Seattle FOR Program June 16 – citizen diplomacy author book reading

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents
an author book reading and discussion with Betsy Bell on

“Open Borders:  A Personal Story
of Love, Loss And Anti-War Activism”

Sunday, June 16, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.

All are welcome!  Free, an offering will be taken.  Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

Betsy Bell spent her formative years in Jim Crow Oklahoma. As a Girl Scout, she began her social justice activism working with a bi-racial team to integrate public schools. After studies at Bryn Mawr College, she began an academic career in Lawrence, Kansas.  There she advocated for reproductive rights with Planned Parenthood. She lives in Seattle where she has held several career positions. Twice widowed, Betsy has published two short memoirs, several poems, and personal essays.

During the ’80s Betsy and her husband Don Bell, advocated with many others, for a peaceful end to the Cold War through People to People friendship. Her book, Open Borders, tells the story of meeting people in Seattle’s Sister City, Tashkent during a particularly tense moment in the US government’s relationship with the Soviets. For the past fourteen years, Betsy has worked with the Seattle area faith communities toward economic justice through the Jubilee USA Network, beginning with the WTO protests in 1999.  Betsy believes in the power of ordinary citizens to create a positive, inclusive and just society.

Seattle FOR program May 19, 2019, “Bridge Building with Native Americans”

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents
Jonathan Betz-Zall on

“Bridge Building with Native Americans”

Sunday, May 19, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.

All are welcome! Free, an offering will be taken. Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

In the Tlingit language, “Nakani” Means “Go-Between”, and that’s the role of the Nakani Native Program, the direct successor to the American Friends Service Committee’s Northwest Indian Program. The Indian Program ran for 50 years, during which it influenced Judge Boldt to award the tribes a substantial share of the salmon fishery and helped found the Tribal Canoe Journey which sparked the Northwest tribes’ successful cultural revival. Board member Jonathan Betz-Zall will describe Nakani’s continuation of this work and how supporters can help.

Jonathan Betz-Zall is a long-time FoR member and environmental justice activist, currently the Treasurer of Western Washington FoR. He retired from a long career as librarian and college instructor to work with the Nakani Native Program. He still helps lead neighborhood sing-alongs and dances frequently.

Seattle FOR Program April 21 on Venezuela

Seattle Fellowship of Reconciliation presents Marti Schmidt on

Venezuela and the Repeating Problem of U.S. Unilateral Coercive Measures

Sunday, April 21, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m.,
at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N 70 St, Seattle – Near #5 bus.

All are welcome! Free, an offering will be taken. Info 206-789-5565 or wwfor@wwfor.org

Martha L. Schmidt is a Seattle lawyer practicing equal employment and labor relations law. She has been a Chair of the World Peace Through Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association, and served as Co-Chair of the Peace and Disarmament Subcommittee and Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild. She now co-chairs a new Guild subcommittee on the Hawaiian Kingdom which will study international law of occupation to that heavily-militarized island state.

Marti has been a union organizer and an educator on labor rights and the global economy for King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO, before the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. She also has taught university courses on social movements, human rights, labor studies and international law.

Marti was a rep from the NLG in the NW Disarmament Coalition which included FOR and has been a longtime peace and justice activist. In late fall 2013 she was part of an NLG delegation, serving as an acompañante, for the Venezuelan municipal, metropolitan and indigenous elections.