Category: Quaker Artists 3

Sally Campbell (b. 1941) is a songwriter, singer and musician.  She was unable to sing or play an instrument when she began writing songs.  With the help of teachers, however, she learned to sing on-key and play the autoharp.  Gifts Songs and Blessings, her CD, is a collection of songs recorded at a concert for her 70^th birthday.  She also works closely with the Peoples’ Voice Café, an alternative coffeehouse.  A former children’s librarian at the Library of the Blind, part of the New York Public Library, she is now a “de-cluttering consultant” helping people to clean and organize their livingspaces.  She is also a peace, disabilities and environmental activist and was president of her library’s union.

Sally is a member of Morningside (NY) Meeting.  She became a Friend as an adult, coming out of a Congregationalist background.  She started writing songs at Friends General Conference Gathering in 1982, and many of her songs have been inspired during Meetings for Worship.  Her first song, for example, was “Hug a Friend”, and another, “Give Us This Day a Gentle Song” was written when a couple brought their baby to Morningside Meeting.  She has co-led songwriting workshops at FGC Gathering and performed at First Day Schools, too.

I was delighted with Sally’s Gift Songs and Blessings.  Reminiscent of Malvina Reynolds, her songs are short and pithy, often funny, always warm.  She calls herself a “song-catcher”.  This reflects her gentle and light spirit perfectly.  (She is a dear friend of mine).

(Gift Songs and Blessings is available for free by emailing Sally at scampfriend@earthlink.net.  An interview with Sally, during which she shares some of her songs can be heard at http://www.northernspiritradio.org/episode/giftsongs-and-blessings-sally-campbell-song-soul.  She will also be offering a concert for her 75^th birthday on November 19 at 8 PM at the Peoples’ Voice Café, 40 E. 35^th St. in New York City.  Admission is by donation of $20 or whatever one can afford; no one will be turned away).

May 2016

Norman Morrison burned himself to death at the Pentagon on November 2, 1965, in protest of the Vietnam War.  He was a member of Stony Run (BYM) Meeting.

Path to War (2002), an HBO film, recounts the story of President Lyndon Johnson’s escalation of the Vietnam War.  Scenes depicting the debates between the hawks and doves of his administration, set in the White House and elsewhere, form the core of the movie.  The cast includes Michael Gambon as Johnson; Alec Baldwin as Secretary of Defense McNamara; Donald Sutherland as presidential advisor Clark Clifford; and Victor Slezak as Morrison.  Daniel Giat wrote the script, and John Frankenheimer directed.

Morrison is a thread in the movie, appearing in four scenes, placed several months apart.  He is shown, horrifically, setting himself on fire across from McNamara’s office as McNamara watches.  At a White House meeting, blow-ups of the North Vietnamese stamp commemorating Morrison are passed around, and Johnson sneers at Morrison’s act.  In his office McNamara gazes out the window at the spot where Morrison died and murmurs “Incredible….”  The Committee for Non-Violent Action holds a silent vigil at the site on the anniversary of the burning.

Path to War repeats the lie that President Johnson didn’t want to become involved in the Vietnam War.  (This is the so-called “quagmire myth”).  In truth, he reversed President Kennedy’s intention to withdraw from the war and widened it catastrophically.  As well, Norman Morrison’s act seems to have been portrayed inaccurately.  He is shown holding Emily, his baby, as he prepares to burn himself, though it appears that he had actually set her down some distance away.  McNamara is shown watching Morrison from his office, though it seems he did not.  The cast is remarkable, however, especially Gambon as Johnson.  The production values –the budget was $17 million –are superior

We still live with the legacy of the Vietnam War.  The permanent war in the Middle East, lately rebranded as the war against ISIS, is based on the lessons learned by the Pentagon about how to fight a war that Americans will tolerate.  (These are use of a volunteer army, air bombing, and drones; shaping the reports of the media; keeping American losses down; etc.)  Like Johnson, McNamara, Clifford and the rest, we have become insulated from the horror we inflict.  Morrison’s act was wrong –we must live and struggle –but he was not insulated.

 (Stamp honoring Norman Morrison issued by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam above).

April 2016

Ann Docwra (1624-1710) was a member of the Suffolk gentry.  She converted to Quakerism about 1664 and went on to become a leading Cambridge Friend.  Known for her fiery temperament, she often angered both Quakers and non-Quakers.  She was close to many early Friends leaders, however, like George Fox Thomas Ellwood and George Whitehead.  She left her estate to Friends in a 1000 year lease and donated toward a Meetinghouse and cemetery.  Jesus Lane Meetinghouse in Cambridge (BrYM) now rests on the site.  It has an Ann Docwra room.

Docwra published a series of pamphlets in defense of Friends.  Encouraged by her father to study his lawbooks, she responded to attacks against Quakers on a legal basis.  (She called herself a “She-Lawyer”).  She engaged in a vitriolic pamphlet war with Francis Bugg, the chief antagonist to Friends and her alleged nephew.  As well, a special concern for her in her writing was women’s full participation in Meeting.  She wrote about the Inner Light, separation of church and state, and religious tolerance, too.  Her works included An Apostate Conscience….; An Epistle of Love….; A Looking-Glass….; Spiritual Community….; and A Brief Discovery….

Docwra also composed a poem, “The Mystery of Profession great”.  Her verse explored the conflict between stating one is religious and actually living such a life.  The opening stanza:

The Mystery of Profession great,/And Lifeless Forms I here repeat,/That all may see, that want of Light/Makes men like Bats and Birds of Night.

March 2016