In the 1700s, the Quakers and the Mennonites began to question the morality of slavery.

These discussions led to “minutes” at Yearly Meetings. In 1775, the Quakers founded the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), the world’s first anti-slavery society and the first Quaker anti-slavery society. In 1835, female anti-slavery societies are formed in Boston and Philadelphia. The women met in each other’s homes (www.ushistory.org). Civil unrest, the Civil War, and the rest is history (still unfolding).

I vividly recall the many discussions we had at our kitchen table about the Vietnam war. “Will the Domino Theory lead to the United States being invaded and becoming a Communist Country? Hmm…sounds a little farfetched to me.” (Remember, I was in Texas during those years, so my thoughts on the subject were considered suspect or even traitorous.) Again, great civil unrest, the Kent State killings, and the public began to tire of the war.

In December 1970, Congress passed the landmark Cooper-Church amendment to the Foreign Military Sales Bill, which prohibited any funds for military spending on the introduction of additional troops into Cambodia. Today, the Cooper-Church amendment is regarded as the first Congressional action taken limiting presidential powers during a war. At their 75th annual meeting, the U.S. Conference of Mayors considered the idea of withholding funds for the Vietnam War.

In 1973, a Congressional joint resolution (H.J. Res. 636) prohibited any further appropriation or expenditure of any funds for any “combat in or over or from the shores of North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia.” (www.about.com). End of war!

In the winter of 2010, a group of Maine activists came up with the idea of “Bring Our War $ Home.” We put our ideas into a plan, and we worked our plan. The idea spread around the nation, fostered greatly by those outrageously creative women in Code Pink, and especially by the peripatetic (she’s everywhere at once) Code Pink local representative, Lisa Savage.

On Monday, June 20, 2011, the U.S. Mayors at their annual meeting in Baltimore voted to bring our war dollars home. Quoting from an article by Lisa Savage, which appeared in Common Dreams dated June 20, 2011:

“The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Resolution No. 59 was only a twinkle in the eye two years ago when a coalition of citizens alarmed at endless wars and catastrophic budget shortfalls coined the slogan “Bring Our War Dollars Home” at activist Sally Breen’s kitchen table in Windham, Maine. That state’s campaign took off on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2010, and soon spread nationally with adoption by the women-led peace group CODEPINK. Locations across Maine soon adopted war dollars home resolutions, including Deer Isle, Portland, and School Administrative District No. 74, followed by Northampton and Amherst, Massachusetts and, most recently, by Hartford, Connecticut.”

Margaret Mead once wrote, “”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” And most of those changes probably began with discussions around a kitchen table. Will the present members of Congress hear the will of the people? BRING OUR WAR $ HOME. End the endless wars.

Sally Breen lives in Windham. Her kitchen table is usually covered by literature that sparks discussion of the many issues facing humanity.