Prisons

Dominque Stevenson with Friend of a Friend participant

Dominque Stevenson with Friend of a Friend participant

To Friends Everywhere,

"Power without love is reckless and abusive and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love." – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jordan Garcia with Day of the Dead Altar

Jordan Garcia with Day of the Dead Altar at Monthly Vigil

Note: The below blog post was written by Lucy Duncan, but with contributions and editorial support by Gabriela Flora, Jenn Piper, and M'Annette Ruddell.

“That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality.” – Ralph Ellison

Participants in AFSC's Friend of a Friend Program

Participants in AFSC's Friend of a Friend Program at a Graduation Ceremony

“Slowly we learn that we are all broken, all less than perfect, and that God loves us, each one, wonderfully even so. Slowly we learn that the real love for one another we crave is not the ideal love of my personal façade for your façade, but the imperfect intent to love that my flawed self can offer the real you.”

– Lloyd Lee Wilson, Quaker

Participant of AFSC's Friend of a Friend Program

A Participant of AFSC's Friend of a Friend Program

I used to teach second grade at an inner city elementary school in Vallejo, California. I was teaching there when the riots occurred in Los Angeles in response to the initial verdict acquitting four police officers who had beaten Rodney King.  That morning, I interrupted the usual routine to invite the students to discuss what was happening.  Many of my students, who were mostly of African, Filipino, Mexican, and East Indian descent, told story after story of their own experiences of racism.