Diane Randall Headlines William Penn President’s Convocation
Diane Randall Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) headlined William Penn University President’s Convocation
Oskaloosa, Iowa – It’s a biannual event at William Penn, with Tuesday marking the first one of the year. William Penn played host to Diane Randall. Randall is the Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). She is only the fourth to hold the position since 1943.
Diane became involved with the peace movement in the early part of the 1980’s when she was a high school English teacher in Omaha, Nebraska. Since that time, her work has involved such projects as abolishing the death penalty in Connecticut. She eventually worked for the Office of Urban Affairs of the Archdiocese of Hartford, lobbying the state legislature there.
“The idea that our faith influences our public actions is central to most religions” said Randall, who pointed out the tradition of loving your neighbor as yourself as an example of the groups advocacy. “Individual Quakers have often been early leaders in the struggle for equality; being it slavery, voting rights for women, abolition of the death penalty.”
Randall shared with the students some photos of the staff in Washington that help work on many of the groups different projects. Many of them work as interns for the group. “These young adults [interns] parlayed their college experience into apprenticeship jobs that will help develop their work experience as well as their professional networks, policy, advocacy and communications.”
Randall shared their experience gained from that type of work to the students, because “all of you will be figuring out what your next step is beyond William Penn University.” She explained that some may be facing the choice of what to do after school because they are nearing the end of their time in college, while others may just be starting their college life. “Many of you will go immediately to work, and to continue to develop your good citizenship as an employee, a neighbor, a parent, a member of a church. Some of you may choose to explore the idea of working in Washington for a year with FCNL” or in another form of national service. “These experiences that are not financially lucrative do provide you with another kind of capital. That is social capital and exposing yourself to a world that is different from your own. Often it is these direct experiences of seeing the suffering or challenges of our fellow human beings that motivate us to work on public policy.”
“We begin to ask the questions of why.” Randall said.
“Why should I be entitled to a great education when girls in Afghanistan don’t get to learn to read? Why is this family in Des Moines homeless when my family has a safe secure home? Why is it villages in Kenya have no running water, and why do people in this country go to bed hungry when we have vast agricultural resources? Why do we fight wars on borrowed money?”
Randall says that some of the questions of public policy will be very personal. “Will I get a job when I graduate from college? Will my Mom and Dad be able to keep their jobs? How will I ever be able to afford to own my own home?”
“What concerns you about public policy will be answered by your own circumstances and experiences, and it may be affected by your faith.”
