(note: photos were taken in later years during trips to FCNL Annual Meetings and meetings of the American Thoracic Society)
Journal, January 25, 1970
Saturday, January 24, we left Scattergood, about 3:30 pm. We arrived in Washington, DC, at about 10:00 am. After seeing the Washington Cathedral, we attended the Florida Ave. Friends Meeting. After lunch we arrived at William Penn House, meeting Bob and Sally Cory.
Then we went sightseeing–as we went through downtown Washington to get to William Penn House we saw so many things at once it was hard to absorb it all. First we caught a glimpse of the Washington Monument, then the Executive Office Building and the White House, then down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol and William Penn House.
After unloading, we went to the Smithsonian Institute, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial. The Jefferson Memorial was being repaired, the Library of Congress, then we ate at the National Gallery, listened to a concert, saw the National Archives, and went to bed.
January 26, 1970
The next morning began with meeting for worship at 7:45 and breakfast at 8:00. We went to hear the Supreme Court decisions at 10:00 and decided on our special projects.
I was chairman of the draft group–Bruce, Paul, Aline, Steve Maxwell, J’lee. Bruce, Wayne and I went to the FCNL office and got the address of the National Council to Repeal the Draft (NCRD). At 1:30 we went to the Population Reference Bureau where we saw a film and talked with Alvaro Garcia-Pena.
- FCNL Washington, DC
Then we got some literature and talked to William Payne at the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. There we had a good discussion about the whole U.S. government. We went back to William Penn House in order to talk with Ed Anderson, lobbyist for FCNL. He was graduation speaker at Scattergood last year. We had a very interesting talk with him. His conception of the youth activities are that the young people become involved in an activity until it becomes dangerous, and then they move on to something else, e.g. when some kids were killed during the civil rights campaign, interest began to wane and the kids turned to Vietnam. Now that there are some arrest, they are turning to pollution. An interesting idea. But, he said, Quaker kids stuck with it, citing the AQAG reading of the names of the Vietnam war dead on the Capitol steps and, though some were arrested, more came until the list was finished. The law was also changed. Pat Deluhery, one of Senator Hughes’ aides, had dinner and spent the evening with us. We learned about Senator Hughes’ amendment to the drug bill, trying to lower penalties for individual drug users which, I found today, was defeated, though the penalty was lowered for individuals, but increased for those marketing marijuana.
Tuesday, January 27
Began with worship (7:45) and breakfast. We then had the entire day to visit our own Congressmen, Congress in session, and work on our projects. I talked with Representative John Kyl, 4th district (Marshall) from 8:30-9:00 and was interested and impressed. We spoke a lot about his job. Then Bruce and I went to the NCRD where we got a lot of really good literature and talked to one of the girls in charge, who is also in charge of the draft part of the Moratorium. Then we saw the Senate and then the House in session. There weren’t many people in the Senate, but I guess there some roll call votes in the afternoon in which almost everyone showed up. After lunch our group met and all decided to talk to Congressmen about the draft and hearings, while I went to some offices downtown.
Somewhat after 1:00 I started down Constitution, then Pennsylvania Avenue. First I visited the National Service Board for Religious Objectors (NSBRO). This organization deals mainly with 1-0 and 1-A-0, not resistance. I guess they have good relations with the Selective Service System and exchange information with each other. I guess the NSBRO has a fairly successful program of helping people in the armed forced. Then I went past the White House and soon arrived at the National Headquarters of the Selective Service System. I got a lot of current information on the lottery, as well on as on SSS in general there.
Then I tried to find the Vietnam Moratorium Committee. The address was 1029 Vermont St, I believed between 10th and 11th Streets on Vermont. I found I was wrong, which caused me a detour of over 40 blocks through a poor Black section of the city–one of the most important parts of the trip. I did finally find the Moratorium offices and talked to the press secretary, Ted Johnson. He gave me some good information about the plans for the Moratorium for this winter and spring. I was looking mainly for literature, which we could later use at Scattergood to help plan our activities. I was in the White House area now, and walked back to William Penn House, in all around a 100 block walk. We had dinner together at the Sampan, a Chinese restaurant that night, followed by project reports and discussion of the trip. Here, as at the Civil Rights Commission, we had a very good discussion of our government–very critical, too. My whole attitude about government has change a little, but I should talk about that later.
Wednesday, January 28
The next day, after worship and breakfast, we packed up and left William Penn House.
Our first stop was at the State Department where we talked to Paul Russell about the Agency for International Development (AID) and the Food for Peace Program, especially in his area of Korea. All of these people said a lot of interesting things, but I’m far behind on events, so maybe something about what these people said could be mentioned later. We visited the White House which was pretty much a disappointment.
Then we visited Arlington National Cemetery, which was a very interesting, moving experience. Watching the guard at the Unknown Soldier was rather frightening–a human robot.
I was impressed with John Kennedy’s gravesite.
Quakers, social justice and revolution 