Bring them home, bring them home Bring our parents such who in home
From the lust of a guest and back to our arms bring them home
Bring them home, bring them home Bring our sons and our daughters home
From the middle of back to our arms
Welcome to Peace Now, my name is Trude Quayf. I'm a member of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace
We're a local organization of friends and neighbors and we've been advocating for peace, justice and a healthy planet for over a decade.
I'm your host today and I'm joined by Pat Beedle. Thanks for being here Pat.
Let's start with a little background about Pat. She's a quaker, she's a long time activist, environmentalist, peace activist, and she's been an activist longer than just about anyone I know.
And there's one other thing. Pat just recently celebrated her 90th birthday. Pat, how long have you been an activist?
Well, I sort of have a slight problem with the term activist in a way because I don't know whether it means you're standing out or marching or really out in public or I think that people can be activists in many other ways
in ways of talking with their friends or their family or their church group or their union or their social club or whatever about these important issues that are before us today like Peace and War
Nuclear weapons and crises in the Middle East and all of these things. As citizens I think we all need to be concerned about that.
I mean it's right out there and it's part of all of our lives.
Well, when did you start doing the work that you've been doing? Do you remember?
Well, I don't know whether this is activism or not. I first got involved with the environmental movement back in the 60s when I was a member of the legislative women's forum at the Capitol.
I was environmental chair and we were working on the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act in the way that it meant.
So I've been concerned all these years, although I veered off into some other directions as well because I think it's all part of the same thing.
So you started as really an environmental activist?
Originally, but then the Vietnam War came along in a big hurry so I then I got into Peace vigils in front of the Capitol.
We had the Quakers and many other concerned people were in vigil there for seven years. Every Wednesday from noon to one during the Vietnam War.
So that was the beginning of that thread of my experience.
So you were in an individual down at the Capitol?
Yes, and we've had vigils there over the years at various times.
And now we have one just a monthly, the first Wednesday in the month from 1215 to one in regard to what's happening presently, whether it's drones or military spending or all of the issues.
All of the issues related to war and peace.
Do you remember any of the organizations that you worked with back in the 60s?
What kind of peace organizations were there back then?
Well, there was clergy and lady concerned. It was out there. I really didn't belong to it per se, but I always supported American Front Service Committee and other groups like that that were working against the government.
And of course our only Quaker meeting was involved in conscientious objection, counseling and that sort of thing.
That was really important back during the Vietnam War, wasn't it?
Yes.
When people were being drafted?
Yes, it certainly was. That was all a big issue of draft counseling and whatever.
All right, well let's talk about some of the issues you're concerned about now. What are the organizations you're working with now? And what kind of issues?
Well, I'm working with a women against war, which has a number of different issues.
One of the issues that I'm particularly involved in are the grannies for peace and the Iran project.
We're trying to promote diplomacy with Iran instead of making tougher sanctions and trying to make a more military solution out of it.
But we really believe that it's possible to negotiate and get a deal with Iran and ourselves that will really be productive and good for the future.
I know you're one of the founding members of women against war and grannies for peace.
Can you talk a little bit about some of the actions you've done with these groups?
Well, I've done the grannies for peace thing. I feel a little closer to because we started that by going to the recruiting office and presenting ourselves as wanting to enlist
so that our grandchildren and other young people wouldn't have to go to war. So we tried to do that and of course they closed the recruitment station in front of us.
And so we were out at Colony Center where the station was at that time, it's since moved. So we were just there and saying and tried to present ourselves, but they wouldn't accept us.
So that's one of our themes and of course we've been very concerned about veterans and what happens to them when they come back.
And of course we're concerned about drones and particularly now and what's happening with so many civilians dying and no count of them even from our government.
I mean it's seen really and so that's another thing we're doing right now is protesting the old idea of drone warfare.
And also we're promoting some other things that are happening with women against war and there are a number of projects coming up this fall.
There's a whole quilt exhibit about drones and other things and that sort that we're going to be taking part in.
So that will be down at the Capitol somewhere down there?
It's going to be in different places. It will be at the Empire State Plaza but there's going to be several other places as well.
I remember seeing a photo of you at the recruiting station over in Colony. I think it might have been on Valentine's Day maybe.
But I know you stood there and you tried to talk to the recruiters. Were you able to talk with them at all?
Oh no very much. They were interested in me and to say strangely enough.
So we continue to do that sort of thing for a while but then we got into some other aspects of just thinking about the cost of war, of the money and the suffering that so many people have endured.
I mean when you think of them millions of people in Iraq who were killed as a result of our deciding to go to war and then turns out and many people knew at the time that there weren't any weapons of mass destruction.
So you really need to pay attention to what the government is saying and investigate whether that's really true or not.
Like right now I mean there's a big question about whether we should be bombing in Syria and Iraq is that going to make things worse instead of better?
Which many people think it will. Then it may actually create more terrorists.
Yeah because if they see this bombing happening it's a good way to recruit Jihadists and other people who want to hire us. So it's stupid for many reasons.
Because recruits more fighters and that's not what we need.
You know if a lot of people realize that this is not the first time that a war has been brought about by giving false information during the Vietnam War with the Gulf of Tonk and incident that was the reason we went to war turned out to be false as well.
Yeah that was a very good point. So Americans need to be very careful about.
Yeah they need to get information from a lot of different sources too and not just buy something that's sold to them by some questionable reference.
And it's hard to sort it out that's why it's good to join some of these organizations that are working at trying to decipher what the real truth is because truth is the first casual to get these.
Yeah that's a really good quote. I don't remember who said that.
I don't either but it's true. It's true.
You're also a member of the Upper Hudson Peace Action and you've been the coordinator of that.
Or you were the coordinator of that organization for many years. Can you talk a little bit about peace action?
Well we got involved in the call to health and nuclear arms race back in the early 80s and I was privileged to go on a trip to the Soviet Union in 1980 with a group called Promoting and During Peace from Connecticut.
And we visited the five rural cities and we talked with people about one question we asked them is why had they gotten into Afghanistan which they just had and they said that they asked us to come.
So it sounded like other governments worked the same way right. So anyway we it was a wonderful experience meeting people there and seeing how they had suffered the graves and in the Stalingrad and the rebuilding that had been done.
It was just incredible when you think of the terrible bombing and so much of it had been restored. I think it's important to leave some of the ruins there so people from other generations can get a picture of what actually happened to the people there.
They were under siege in St. Petersburg for a thousand days or something like that.
So when we think that the Russians have been helpful to us that's not entirely true.
I think they didn't they lose 8 million people, 8 million soldiers during that war?
Yeah there were 20 million people who died in the whole course of this.
I mean of course we lost a lot of people who but in comparison it was much smaller.
So anyway I got a little side track there but so we started this call to help the nuclear arms race. It was a national effort.
So we in the Albany area we had a local chapter and we did a lot of different things. One of the most interesting things was that we had 50 house parties the night that the MASH TV program ended.
We encouraged people to have friends over and make a contribution of course and to see this last final episode which was very successful.
We reached a whole lot of people in the general public as well as different neighborhoods.
But we had marches and walks and petitions and all the usual things.
Not our group in particular but it was going on all over the country.
And so we had march in somewhat like the climate march to only we all ended up in Central Park in New York City and there were a million people there.
So that was my biggest.
Wow. A group of people to take part in so that was very exciting.
So we did our best to try and keep nuclear weapons from being built and also nuclear boar from happening.
Larry Wittner who has written the trilogy about all of this period of time said that he thought the nuclear freeze movement was a really key player in keeping us from going to war with nuclear weapons and slowing down the nuclear arms race.
So when people say the peace movement has never done anything that's not true. So show it up.
Yeah I talked with Larry Wittner and I thought that was one of the most hopeful things that I had heard when he talked about that.
I wanted to ask you that question. Do you think that the peace movement has been successful in either stopping wars before they've started or in ending wars?
Well I think that what he said is certainly we haven't had a nuclear war but you know we've come close to it.
We have some things that almost happen which is certainly frightening.
But and I think that people have gotten into all these other issues that they aren't focused on that right now but I was very disturbed to hear that they're going to modernize our nuclear weapons.
Here we are trying to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and we have I don't know if that was something like that.
And most of them ready to go and it's just absurd that those people think that way.
I mean we know how terrible a nuclear war would be and Indian Pakistan have nuclear weapons and Israel hasn't.
Ah the idea of some terrorist really being able to build one and use it is just frightening.
And there's no reason that we can't turn it back the other way except there are companies who want to make money from these kinds of things.
And political leaders who are glad to take contributions from them.
So that's part of this whole deal too is campaign finance reform and getting out of that web of revolving doors or things with politicians and fossil fuel companies and other kinds of armament companies.
So that has become a huge issue I think that it covers all the issues that we're concerned about.
Campaign finance reform and getting money out of politics.
Yeah.
Maybe it's the most important issue because it seems that the politicians are bought and paid for by the corporations at this point.
Yeah most of them are it seems like. Right.
So well they're up.
Now there's another when I was doing a little research about you I saw another organization you're involved in alternatives to violence.
Could you say anything about that organization?
Well that started down in Green Haven prison in New York state and it started back in 1975.
And there was a think tank there of lifers in prison who wanted to try and keep young people out of prison.
And the scared straight venue hadn't worked so they they heard that Quakers had been peacemakers during the Vietnam War.
And so they invited some people to come and with them put together this workshop.
And it's now in a number of prisons across New York state it's in I don't know 30 some states it's in 40 countries around the world.
It's really a format for getting people to talk and listen to each other and to think about how to resolve conflicts and to practice communications.
And it can adapt to other cultures that's what I found interesting you sort of wonder if something that we send over to African countries or something is going to work.
Because you know but it turns out that it just sort of adapts to the culture that it's in because they've done them in the Burundi and Rwanda with people from two different sides of the issue.
And the people have come out at the end and felt they were all part of one community.
So that's what we really need to do here.
That's not so powerful. I'm really interested in finding out more about that.
Well I'll sign you up for a work.
Okay great well now there are so many issues that you're currently involved in.
I don't go to any sort of activism event where I don't see you you're always there.
I've seen you at anti fracking rallies marches free Bradley Manning.
Recently I saw you at the climate change march in New York City.
In fact I wrote on the bus down there with you and there were over 300,000 people there which I think was a really positive sign.
So many more young people than we'd ever seen before.
And sort of you had mentioned to me that it seemed like all these various issues the people are all coming together.
Well I certainly hope that's true is just the beginning of that.
I know there was a convergence conference for several days before the march where they were trying to bring all these issue groups together to form a real overall position on the economy which is really the basis of everything.
And I wasn't able to attend that conference but I certainly hope that it was successful and that there are a lot of new ideas coming out that are really going to take off as a result of the climate march.
Sometimes there are big events and nothing happens.
I hope that this is one that's really going to take hold and it wasn't inspiring to be there.
It's such an important issue.
Well there are two existential concerns about life on this planet and they are nuclear weapons and the climate change.
So everything else sort of needs to fit into that in some peripheral way.
We think we're working on this but it's really to get to this other overall result.
But you have to work on small things.
You can't just take on the whole thing or you'd be overwhelmed and exhausted.
So it's important to team with other people in your community or church or union or whatever group, peace group, to join with other people and work with them because then you continually can lift each other up if it gets kind of tough.
And you build a community that we all need?
Yeah, right. That's what this transition business is all about.
We need to build a community so that we can survive whatever happens.
But in the process we need to be building the community so we won't have to be so desperate about it.
And it seems to make our lives so much better when we have community.
Yeah and you meet such great people too.
Who are all concerned about these same issues and wanting to work on it.
And it's a good way to connect with some great people.
It really is.
Now we have a little over five minutes left.
So there's one question I really would like, have been wanting to ask you.
And I know you've been working toward peace and justice and a clean environment for over 50 years.
So I wonder, do you have any advice for people, for the rest of us?
How do you keep going?
How do you, it never seemed to get burned out and you always seem to be looking ahead? How do you do that?
Well, I've been fortunate in my life.
I haven't had to have a long difficult, strewner-wise working life, which many, many people have.
And I'm very grateful for that. I just lucked out.
But maybe it's my quaker faith. We've always felt that we have a role in the world as well as in our own inner convictions.
And so we feel as if we're supposed to try to help them end the world instead of exploiting.
And so I have the community of my quaker meeting and American Front Service Committee, who does great work in many communities around the country and around the world.
And then there's a Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, which works very much on many of these issues on the environment,
particularly nuclear weapons, and moving money away from the military budget, I mean, 57% of the discretionary budget that Congress can deal with goes to the military.
I mean, in this day and age, it is just so incredible when there are all these needs that people have in their communities, in their lives, in terms of the environment and everything else.
And it's obscene that so much of our discretionary money goes to the military. We need to bring that back. We need to have peace conversions.
There are a lot of FCNL could give you a good list of things that should be touched from the military budget and wouldn't that.
We can us in any way. And there are just so many ways of dealing with the money that we have from various resources that need to go into people's lives and to health care, especially education, which is really following that.
And there's so much inequality, where you start with that in terms of education, in terms of just basic food and housing.
There were a lot of housing people there at the climate march, which I thought was great.
And they started out with the indigenous people and the housing people right in the beginning at the march.
So they just spoke out and said that our people are suffering as a result of this and really better start working at them.
So that was interesting as well as all the wonderful signs and...
That was powerful.
...slogens and banners and people and energy and everything that was great.
Yeah, it really was. It was remarkable. I was so glad to see you there.
I was very glad to be there. Probably my last big march, but anyway it was a good place to be.
It was. It was a good one to pick to go to.
So what do you think is probably the most important issue to you? We're down to about two minutes.
I don't know. Now I'm not kind of organizing stuff so much now.
So I'm more just trying to show up when I can't do various things.
So I'm showing up for fracking and for a...
You know, to my drone work and for some of the environmental issues.
And I certainly have all I spent concerned about nuclear weapons.
So I think it's very important that we speak out about not modernizing our nuclear weapons.
I mean, it's incredible that we could think of doing that at this time.
So I think people need to be aware that the president is recently spoken about doing that.
So sometimes you wonder how these decisions get made, except you know that there's money at the bottom of the wall.
Right. It's not necessarily in the public's best interests.
Well, now there's a number of organizations that you work with.
And I'm sure you'd advise people to join these organizations.
That would be women against war, grannies for peace.
Yeah, local. Upper Hudson Peace Action.
Upper Hudson Peace Action. And then there's a New York State Peace Action, Panies, P-I-N-Y-S.
And there's a national group. I mean, there are a number of local groups around the country.
I didn't mention that our local office peace action group has a student chapter at U-Albany.
And they're trying to get more student chapters around the state too.
Good. So one people move in this direction.
Good. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining me here today, Pat.
I think you've given people a lot to think about.
And anybody who's interested, please contact one of these organizations and get involved.
And thank you for joining us today. And please join us for future shows where we'll be discussing more about the drones.
We'll be discussing how these wars have affected our local and our national economy.
And also, we'll be doing a show on the criminal injustice system.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
