Update

What does it look like to be “non-partisan”? In 2020, this question takes on new and complex facets.

As we commemorate our 244th year as a nation this Fourth of July, we know that the struggle for equality and freedom is at a critical juncture. Ours is an unfinished democracy as we live with the legacy of slavery, white supremacy, institutional racism, and oppression. Far too many people today experience ongoing discrimination and hate based on race, religion, or ethnicity.

To end endless war, we need to know where the United States is engaged militarily and who we are fighting. One of the ways we work for peace is by pushing for increased government transparency and accountability for U.S. wars.

The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Rayshard Brooks, and countless others have laid bare the problems with the American policing system. Recently, Sen. Tim Scott (SC) proposed the Justice Act (S. 3985) as a response to this ongoing crisis. This bill, though, falls far short of the moment that inspired it.

Behind the closed doors of a secret Senate Armed Services Committee markup last week, Sen. Tom Cotton (AR) introduced an amendment, which passed on a party line vote, to provide funding to speed up a possible return to nuclear testing.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) joins the celebration of World Refugee Day. As a Quaker organization, FCNL is dedicated to pursuing policies that uphold and sustain the inherent worth, contributions, and dignity of each person including refugees. We commemorate as well the 40th Anniversary of the Refugee Act of 1980.

On this day five years ago, nine lives were taken at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. The mass shooting is a gruesome manifestation of the intersection of racism and gun violence. Sadly, both problems remain just as prevalent today as they were five years ago.

Amid a worldwide health crisis, an economic downturn that has devastated millions, and a pandemic of racism and police violence in the United States, this query has woven its way into my thoughts over these past months.

After nearly 20 years of war, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement on Feb. 29, 2020 aimed at bringing an end to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Since Donald Trump threatened to use soldiers to quell the largely peaceful protests supporting our black siblings who have been victims of police brutality and institutional racism, I have been having trouble sleeping.