Ellie Foster

In loving memory of Ellie Foster

who died on April 27, 2011 in Santa Cruz, California. An activist, humanitarian, and dedicated advocate for peace and justice, Ellie was known and loved by many in and beyond the Santa Cruz community.

Ellie was a lifelong Quaker, pacifist, and peace activist. In the early 1960s, Herb and Ellie started the Santa Cruz Friends Meeting. In the 1980s, Ellie was the local director of Witness for Peace, and she was involved in direct nonviolent action in Nicaragua.

She participated in many other nonviolent activist movements, including serving as co-founder and member of the Santa Cruz Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and as a member of the Salt and Pepper Shakers Affinity Group during the Lawrence Livermore anti-nuclear action in 1983. Most recently Ellie performed with the Raging Grannies.

Memorial services for Ellie Foster will be held Saturday May 28, 3p.m. at the Santa Cruz Quaker Meeting (225 Rooney St, Santa Cruz). A potluck will follow. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Resource Center for Nonviolence: (Memo- in memory of Ellie Foster) 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060; or American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102 (or online as gift in honor of a loved one: http://afsc.org/). Notes or cards may be sent c/o Herb Foster, 118 Myles Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

For more information: 831-423-1626

Photo by Takao Takahara, visiting scholar at Monterey Institute of International Studies from Japan, who interviewed the Fosters on March 22, 2011 in their home in Santa Cruz. Takao is researching the peace work of Earle and Akie Reynolds, also long-time Santa Cruz residents and Quaker peace activists.

May 20, 7:00p.m.: Nonviolence Resistance and the Current Crisis in Mexico, with Pietro Ameglio, at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz.  Dessert and coffee will be served starting at 7:00p.m.; Presentation 7:30p.m.  For more info, contact Anita Heckman at (831) 423-1626×101.

Who is Pietro Ameglio? Pietro Ameglio of Mexico has worked for more than two decades promoting active nonviolence in Latin America. A university lecturer, popular educator and author of a book on Gandhian nonviolence, Pietro is a key figure in an emerging nonviolence movement in Mexico, offering new hope against uncontrolled drug violence and increasing militarization. He was one of the founders of the Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ) in Mexico. SERPAJ is a Latin American organization working in 10 countries to promote human rights, social justice and nonviolent culture and struggle. Pietro founded the group Serpaj Morelos, which was honored with the Pfeffer International Peace Prize in 2008.  Pietro has a deep, faith-based commitment to social justice and a deep grasp of Gandhian nonviolence.

Over the past four years, the drug violence in Mexico has claimed the lives of close to 40,000 people. In January 2011, Pietro played a key role in a public demonstration and fast in Juarez, the most violent city in Mexico. He wrote:

“We are in the midst of a tragic war not of our making – the Mexican government declared war against organized crime, and we know that violence generates violence. The saying of Gandhi is more than ever applicable here: ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.’”

Several groups are coordinating events throughout the Bay Area to raise public awareness and support for nonviolence efforts in Mexico. Pietro’s engagements currently include:

May 14, 7 p.m.: IF Latin America Dinner, a fund raising event for Pietro’s work. 160 Sunflower Lane, Watsonville. For reservations or more information, email if.officemgr(at)gmail.com

May 16, 6 pm: Presentation at Monterey Institute for International Studies. For information please contact Pushpa Iyer at (831) 647-7104 or pushpa.iyer(at)miis.edu

May 17 and 18: Presentations in San Francisco (with Global Exchange and Fellowship of Reconciliation) and East Bay (with Fellowship of Reconciliation and Metta Center for Nonviolence) : venues and times TBA. For more information contact John Lindsay-Poland at johnpl(at)forusa.org

May 19, 7 pm: Short Brown Beret Meeting, 8 pm presentation by Pietro: Presentation at Watsonville Brown Berets Bike Shack. Contact Sandino Gomez at sandinista(at)freakreadio.org

May 20, 7 pm: Presentation at the Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz.   Dessert and coffee will be served. Contact Anita Heckman at (831) 423-1626.

The Bay Area groups coordinating Pietro Ameglio’s events include IF and the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz; Fellowship of Reconciliation and Global Exchange in San Francisco; and the Metta Center for Nonviolence

By Mike Rotkin
Appeared in the 5/1/11 edition of the Santa Cruz Sentinel

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An opinion piece that appeared in the Sentinel two Sundays ago raises concerns about “an undercurrent of anti-Semitism in Santa Cruz.” The author explicitly targets the Resource Center for Nonviolence RCNV as contributing to this ostensible problem.

Let me begin by saying that I am not affiliated with the RCNV. I have attended several of their events over the years, occasionally donated money to them, and am friends with several of their staff. I also am Jewish, and although not a religious person, I have deep cultural roots in the Jewish community. Members of my family were exterminated in the Holocaust, my father was a leader in the Jewish community in Washington, D.C., and I identify as a Jew. As someone who grew up in a community where we were the only Jewish family among 300 households, I know a little about anti-Semitism.

I also wish that everyone commenting on the situation in the Middle East offered views that were balanced, offered only accurate information, and, perhaps most importantly to me, did not make the mistake of conflating their views on Israel with Jews in general. However, there are several fundamental problems with this opinion piece.

First, several of the events and individuals that are criticized in the piece have no relationship to the RCNV. There is not room in the brief space of my response to name every inaccuracy I found, but a few examples: The letters about Helen Thomas, whatever their merit, were written by individuals who have no relationship to the RCNV, its programs or staff. The one referenced letter that was written by someone who volunteers at the RCNV, but does not work there or speak for the center, raised questions about a foreign worker rather than Palestinians being responsible for the murder of a Jewish family in the West Bank. It is not anti-Semitic to observe that not every Jewish family murdered in the West Bank must have been killed by Palestinians. This is, apparently, one of the leads being followed by Israeli police.

Scott Kennedy is criticized for attending a meeting at the U.N. with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the author fails to point out that it was not to support Ahmadinejad’s frequently insane comments, but rather to ask critical questions about Iran’s nuclear program, treatment of women and minorities, and other human rights abuses.

The writer describes a discussion group on the Middle East sponsored by the RCNV in which he had participated and then attributes anti-Semitic quotes to several unnamed participants. As a result of little investigation, I found that nobody else who participated in the group can remember these quotes or anything like them being expressed.

The article criticizes the RCNV for sponsoring two speakers whom the author feels are outside the boundaries of civil and rational discourse. One of them, about whom I happen to share the author’s assessment, Imam Abdul Malik, who claims Jews bombed the World Trade Center, was not sponsored or in any way supported or endorsed by the RCNV.

The other, Norman Finkelstein, a serious scholar, gave a talk that I attended. I was extremely impressed with his documentation of all of his arguments. I felt that many in the audience who had come expecting to gather evidence of an irrational, “self-hating Jew” were pleasantly surprised to hear cogent and persuasive arguments about non-democratic elements of Israeli society and what Finkelstein feels is a self-defeating foreign policy for both Israel and the United States.

The author of this opinion piece has every right to express his views, but he makes exactly the mistake that he urges others to avoid — conflating any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. I am glad that the RCNV continues to encourage critical discussion and activism about the Middle East, and I see no evidence that they have contributed to anti-Semitism or any other breach of reasonable civil discourse in their work.

Mike Rotkin is a former five-time mayor of Santa Cruz.

Originally Published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel 5/1/11 edition

Letter of support RCNV <– Click here to download a word doc of the letter.

Recently you (Santa Cruz Sentinel) printed an attack on the staff and volunteers of the Santa Cruz Resource Center for Nonviolence RCNV in a guest opinion by Robin Kopit under the title “We do not need a center for intolerance.” We were both saddened and disappointed by this irrational and largely unsubstantiated attack on one of the most morally principled education and advocacy institutions in our community.

For 35 years the RCNV has provided this community and indeed the nation with extraordinary leadership in educating the young and old alike in both the attitudes and practices of supporting non-violence as a way of life. People of many religious faiths have found the RCNV a resource and support for their highest values of seeking justice for all and in their efforts to overcome bigotry and exclusion of the marginalized.

We are aware that the RCNV has had its opponents as any advocacy group would have that takes a stand against structural violence and injustice by any state or corporate entity. The RCNV is not a perfect institution, but its staff has demonstrated both its integrity and its courage over the years by speaking truth to power and standing with the powerless.

Mr. Kopit, of course, is free to express his opinions and his prejudices, but we reject his unsubstantiated accusations as an effort to discredit the RCNV by innuendo, guilt by association and false claims. If the RCNV is a center for intolerance, it is its intolerance for injustice, falsehood and the many forms of violence that the strong exercise over the weak.

The RCNV has stood over the years with the victims of U.S. imperial violence in Latin America, Vietnam, the Middle East and other parts of the world. It has stood against the violence of men over women, against the violence of the rich over the poor; of the majority over the minority; and yes, of the violence of the powerful state of Israel over the people of Palestine whom it has dispossessed.

We suspect that it is the support the RCNV has given for the exploited and colonized Palestinian people that bothers Mr. Kopit and has led him to his rash and generalized accusations. In fact, the leaders of the RCNV have made numerous efforts to include those who would defend Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians in its programs and educational efforts, inviting them to participate equally with others in public programs with respect and courtesy.

Very recently the RCNV made a concerted effort to invite persons from a number of Israeli support groups to take equal time and leadership in a public program with Palestinian spokesperson Mazin Qumsiyeh. All those invited refused the offer. In this context, Mr. Kopit’s attack on the RCNV seems indefensible and strident.

We are pleased with the service that the RCNV has given to Santa Cruz and the larger community over the years and commend its staff for its tolerance — indeed its encouragement — of honest discussion and debate of contentious issues and its intolerance of exploitation and injustice wherever it occurs.

Darrell and Sue Yeaney live in Scotts Valley. The opinion was signed by 16 other people including:

-Dick Vittitow
Santa Cruz, CA

-Mike Harrell
Santa Cruz, CA

-Roy Hoch
Capitola, CA

-DeAnne and Richard Hart
Aptos, CA

-Marcia Heath,
Santa Cruz, CA

-Joyce Elman McLean
Santa Cruz, CA

-Joel Bahu
Santa Cruz, CA

-Marilyn Luciers
Santa,Cruz, CA

-Claudia Chaufin
San Francisco, CA

-Margaret Knight
Santa Cruz, CA

-Grace & Herb Schmidt
Santa Cruz, CA

-Joel Miller
Santa Cruz, CA

-Robert & Laurel Blaney
Santa Cruz, CA

-Steve DeFields-Gambrel
Santa, Cruz, CA

Please see the link below Peter Klotz-Chamberlin’s letter to the editor for a detailed response prepared by Scott Kennedy to Robin Kopit’s guest commentary in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on April 17th.  The link is highlighted in blue and is a downloadable PDF.

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Dear Editor:

The Resource Center for Nonviolence encourages nonviolent means of addressing conflicts locally and internationally. We seek change in our nation’s reliance on military solutions to international and national problems.  We support free speech, public debate, and nonviolent action for the dignity of all people.

We welcome direct meetings with people who hold different views than those expressed by our staff, volunteers, or featured speakers.

I invite those who hold different views, including Robin Kopit, whose criticisms were printed 4/17/11 in the Sentinel, or those who are interested in learning more about our work and perspectives, to meet with members of the RCNV staff and Steering Committee to discuss core issues face-to-face, in public or in private. Please contact us at 831.423.1626 to set up a meeting. For a detailed response to Robin Kopit’s commentary  please see www.rcnv.org.

Peter Klotz-Chamberlin, Co-founder and Steering Committee chair, Resource Center for Nonviolence

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Below is  a downloadable link to a PDF document by Scott Kennedy that line by line, paragraph by paragraph examines and refutes the claims Robin Kopit made in his guest commentary in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Kopit,_Robin_from_SK_4-18-11