Note: Tory Smith is an intern working for AFSC’s Wage Peace and Israel/Palestine programs. He is a Quaker. He presented this piece as part of a panel of faith-based activists at the Justice Conference hosted in Philadelphia in February.

Hector Salamanca, an AFSC Iowa Dreamer and intern, reads a poem written by Michael McConnell to celebrate the creation of AFSC's Midwest Region in 2012. Michael was an AFSC regional director for 23 years until his passing April 7, 2013. AFSC has established the Michael McConnell Youth Internship Fund to help carry on Michael's passion for peace and justice.

Here's the text of the poem:

“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?

Note: Today, tax day, Paul Sheldon, a Quaker peace activist, posted on Facebook that he has for several years underpaid his federal income taxes as a witness against war. I invited him to send us the letter he includes when he files his taxes and he sent it to me to be published here. The amount he excludes from his tax check in modest, $25, but he always includes a letter and feels that this witness is a small, but meaningful step, in opposing war. He invites others to join him in this witness, as led. - Lucy

“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

Note: Sandy Branam, a member of Savannah Monthly Meeting of Southeastern Yearly Meeting, created a painted journal of the 2013 AFSC Corporation Meeting including her trip to Philadelphia and back via the train. She passsed it along to me saying that we could publish it here.  I had a real sense of a gathered meeting as Friends participated in staff presentations, engaged in meeting for business, and came together to learn how AFSC and Friends can partner in Spirit-guided action, and these images capture that spirit. - Lucy

Fair treatment of all residents of Denver is the focus of the grassroots immigrant rights movement that has built up over the past few decades.