Book Review

Book Review/Religious Faith/Conscientious Objection/Stanley, Phil/New book tells the story of smoke-jumping COs/Whitefish Pilot/Whitefish/MT/USA/22-Feb-07//tanley said growing up in China as the son of Quaker missionaries prepared him for being a minority in the pro-war climate in America during the 1940s.

When drafted in 1942, he requested a 4-E classification based on the teachings of his faith, as a member of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

"It's a very simple faith," Stanley said. "The main belief is we can talk directly to God. We don't need intermediaries or priests or pastors. I had a tremendous emotional struggle over this issue of war. I knew my draft number was coming up soon. All the benefits of being a veteran, I would lose if I wasn't a soldier -- free education, discounts on meals, and on and on." ...

Book Review/Quaker History/Tuke, James Hack/Recalling the Great Famine/Mayo News/Mayo/Ireland/E.U./27-Feb-07//When famine strikes, music, laughter and dancing are the first casualties. The landscape is shrouded in the dank grey of despondency and, ultimately, the darkness of death. Every community in Ireland has its stories of starvation from 1845-8. They are most vividly grim along the western seaboard. James Hack Tuke, the inspiring Quaker philanthropist, wrote on conditions in the Mullet peninsula, where I now work.
In his book, ‘A Visit to Connaught in the autumn of 1847’, he described an eviction that took place, just before Christmas, in the villages of Mullaghroe, Tirrane and Clogher. The occupants were tenants of Mr John Walshe, an absentee landlord, who in one of the ironies that make Irish history so complex, was actually a Roman Catholic. His drivers, with the help of the 49th regiment of soldiers, sent forth over 600 men, women and children into the cold and rain of winter. ...