Page Some Friendly Advice
---Jack Powelson, 1987
Daily Readings From Quaker Writings - Ancient & Modern
The Journey is not yet over. The "retirement" I now approach will be a gentle, relative shift...Have I learned anything along the way? I list a few insights...
First, what is right will probably work, and what is wrong will probably fail--often not right away, but usually in the long run.
Second, it is better to do good than nothing. But it is better to do nothing than to do harm.
Third, there is nothing wrong in being a champion, provided the champion does not steal the show from those championed, does not direct, nor patronize them.
Fourth, do not engage in a social protest whose success depends on failure "Well, it would be harmful if everyone did it, but if only a few do, it will be a strong protest."
Fifth, watch out for bandwagons. When the whole society, or even much of the Society of Friends, suddenly veers in one direction, then especially is the time to ask "Is this correct?" Sometimes it is...more often not.
Sixth, behind every social action should stand a principle. For those who favor sanctions...my principle is "It is wrong for the rich to threaten with their wealth."
Seventh, if we deprecate our own society, we cloud our vision of peaceful change, for it is in our own civilization that change has mostly occurred.
Eighth, social revolution comes slowly, not because we want it to, but because if we force it, it fails. Violence recreates the society its perpetrators want to change...
Ninth, social change occurs by gradual increments in the strength of the poor, forged by the poor themselves, in thousands upon thousands of actions, none individually spectacular, but in the aggregate powerful.
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Updated 5th Month, 15th Day, 1998