QUERIES

1. What, if anything, is the Light Within calling Friends to do in response to the unprecedented rise of domestic
extremism, white supremacy, and authoritarianism that is threatening the destruction of our democracy at home and abroad?

2. How can I/we respond with resolute love even while I/we may be struggling with fear, anger, apathy, or hate? POSSIBLE ACTIONS

Defending Truth- We urge all Friends to discern the deep truths that provide a foundation for active love, wisdom, compassion, and peace in the world — and then to defend them.

We ask:
• Individual Friends to search yourselves about the threats to our country, and the world, and to witness publicly to the truths that you discern are grounded in your experience of the Spirit.
• Quaker meetings and organizations to issue public statements calling out lies and the purveyors of lies, all in the context of our understanding of love, equality, and justice for all.

Working for True Equality and Justice for All

We urge Friends to act for equality and equity within our diverse society:
• Join or support organizations led by people of color which are working for the empowerment of black, brown, indigenous and Asian people and communities.
• Speak, write, and protest in support for full equality of all people in American society, whatever their racial or sexual identity, gender, or class.
• Support legislative and economic changes that would lead to actual equity among all peoples.

Promoting Free and Fair Elections

Stemming from our testimonies of Integrity and Equality, we urge Friends to:
• Support non-partisan voter-registration drives, particularly in communities under attack from those seeking to prevent them from voting. • Publicly condemn partisan efforts to restrict access to voting.
• Confront partisan efforts to seize control of the election administration apparatus.
• Support conscientious, non-partisan election officials in our communities.
• Volunteer as poll workers, election monitors, and drivers to get people to the polls.

Preparing for Non-Violent Resistance

We believe that as a religious society grounded in nonviolence, we can:
• Initiate discussions on the impacts of voter suppression and new laws enabling partisan actors to legally throw out ballots and change the results of elections, then garnering support for nonviolent resistance against all this, and forming community-based networks of support for such actions.
• Arrange for nonviolent direct-action training in our Quaker meetings and organizations, as well as with others in our larger communities.
• Form small “affinity groups” that can prepare to carry out direct actions in support of free and fair elections and the state and local officials who support them.
• Support wider efforts to plan and organize nonviolent resistance on a state and nationwide level, as needed.

You can endorse this Quaker message, find additional resources, register for national conversations on these issues, report on specific actions that you, your meeting, or your organization has undertaken, and sign up for continued updates at www.quakercall.net.

We also welcome your questions, suggestions, and resources at info@quakercall.net.