The Peace & Social Concerns committee of the Gainesville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) is hosting a Forum entitled “Occupy Gainesville” on Sunday, Oct. 30th at 1pm at the Quaker Meetinghouse. All are welcome to attend.

Participants in the Occupy Gainesville movement are requested to attend, in the hopes that they might convey the Spirit – as well as some particulars – of the movement to the Quaker Meeting.

The Quaker use of consensus and horizontal process is similar in ways to the evolving processes of the Occupy movement. As such, it has been suggested that Occupy Gainesville’s Process working group help to organize the structure of the forum for this event. An abbreviated version of the General Assembly might be interesting. Topics for the agenda could include the discussion of specific questions (some are listed below), and group reports that might be of particular interest to Quakers who want to get involved. Other ideas are welcome.

For more information about Occupy Gainesville, see http://www.occupygainesville.org/

Potential Questions for the Forum

GQ: How should Friends (Quakers) respond to the Occupy Movement? Is there a way that a faith community can provide support consistent with our identity as a religious denomination (and thus focused on that which is infinite)? Do we have a duty to do so in keeping with our traditional testimonies that are related to human welfare, such as Equality, Integrity, and Community?

OG: How does your meeting deal with conflict & resolution?

GQ: Sometimes we hear critics say that the Occupy Movement will lead to riots and civil disorder. It was reported that Occupy Rome had riots and substantial destruction of property. So far, reported conflicts in New York City seem to be limited to compliance with police instructions to withdraw from some spaces that need to be cleaned. a). Is there more that we should know about this subject? b). Do you have a policy with regards the use of civil disobedience, such as Gandhi’s instructions to carefully obey all laws except the specific unjust law that you intend to violate?

OG: How do members of your meeting articulate their positions on issues as Quakers, so as not to misrepresent those in the Meeting who disagree. ie, Do you speak “As a Quaker . . .” or “As a Meeting . . .” If so, when.

GQ: Is our nation’s focus on the crimes committed by New York City financial traders relevant to how we should think about the “1%” of the Gainesville community who manage relatively large streams of finance here? Are there sectors of our community who profit at the expense, or to the detriment, of “99%” of the local population? Are they in banking and investment companies (including local offices of New York financial empires), real estate developments (which may be transferring to taxpayers, via the County Commission, the costs of installing utilities where there had previously been oxygen-generating mature trees), or entrepreneurial incubators (in which tech savvy business executives profit from the new knowledge produced by UF scientists whose salaries and benefits we all may be helping to pay)?

. . . More questions welcome. Post below.