Posts by Lucy

Haitian student in AFSC citizenship class

Haitian student in AFSC citizenship class

by Lucy Duncan

My husband is British. I remember sitting in what was then the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) office soon after our wedding waiting to be interviewed so that he could get his green card. It was October, 2001 and there were very few people in the waiting room. Our immigration lawyer said that since 9/11 many of his clients had been showing up for their interviews and getting arrested, so many had stopped coming.

Lucy with her brothers in Iowa

Lucy with her brothers in Iowa

Note: I sat down to write a reflection piece on the White Privilege Conference, which I attended with other AFSC staff and board members and a number of Quakers in April, and I ended up exploring how I learned racism instead. This piece is dedicated to my teachers: Niyonu Spann, Vanessa Julye, Pamela Haines, Pat Jennings, kamillah fairchild, Rosa Silveira, Nancy Duncan, Frances Hoover, and so many others. – Lucy

by Lucy Duncan

Hearts in Boston by Brian D'Amico

Hearts in Boston by Brian D'Amico

by Lucy Duncan

“No more hurting people. Peace.”                                 -  Martin Richard, 8, killed at the Boston Marathon    bombings

The blast sends shock waves

Waves of fear, of anger, of confusion

Waves of caring, of love, of tenderness

Images of the explosions and of the bleeding cut to the heart

Who could do such a thing?

Window at Alcatraz

Window at Alcatraz

by Lucy Duncan

67 Sueños Mural Detail

67 Sueños Mural Detail

by Lucy Duncan

“There is no greater agony than carrying an untold story inside of you.” – Maya Angelou

I spent a day with Pablo Paredes and a few of the courageous immigrant youth with whom he works when I was in San Francisco in December. Pablo is AFSC program director for 67 Sueños, a youth-led program that works to make visible the stories and dreams of undocumented youth who are often left out of the immigration debate.

Moon over Maine

Moon over Maine

On the occasion of the seating of the Maine-Wabanaki Truth and Reconciliation Commission

by Lucy Duncan

“People can be transformed by being open and human. We believe that people have a need to be heard, but how they are heard really matters – if they take the risk of telling their story, it needs to make a difference.” – Denise Altvater

Listen...to the story

Martin Luther King

by Lucy Duncan

“These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wombs of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born.

We must move past indecision to action. …

Now let us begin. Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.”

Denise Altvater and siblings

Denise Altvater (far right)and siblings weeks before they were taken from the reservation and placed in a non-native foster home by the state of Maine.

Denise Altvater is a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and has worked for AFSC for eighteen years.  She has been instrumental in developing the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission between a sovereign Tribal Nation, the Wabanaki, and a U.S. state, Maine, to address hurts caused by the foster care system. The commission will be seated on Feb^ruary 12, 2013.

Candle

Candle

by Lucy Duncan

In the Liberian version of the Christmas story, “Every Man Heart Lay Down,” retold by author Lorenz Graham, God is frustrated.

He says, “The people no hear My Word, The people no walk my way, Nev mind. I going break the world and lose the people, I going make the day dark and the night I going make hot… And I going make a new country and make a new people.”

San Francsico Friends Meeting/AFSC Peace Vigil

San Francsico Friends Meeting/AFSC Peace Vigil

by Lucy Duncan

“Let them remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Let them be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power, and that we can do — every one — our share to redeem the world despite all [the] absurdities and all the frustrations and all [the] disappointments. And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live life as if it were a work of art.” – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel