the ‘peace gets personal’ blog

As a recovering global nomad, this periodic blog helps me to process the messy, ongoing journey of coming ‘home’ to the USA. This is where peace gets personal.

Category: International

  • A Conversation on Genocide and Whiteness

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    Jean-Baptiste, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, wants his story told and remembered. I had the privilege to sit in his home and listen. Listen. It started with house burnings. Then cattle thefts. Then machete hacks and seven days in a pit, praying, surrounded by the dying and the dead. Ten siblings among the 800,000 lives lost. Jean-Baptiste says he is grateful now for life, but never free of pain. He builds the future by teaching his children a different way, acceptance and even love towards all. He tells his story as a form of healing. But, he says…

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  • Sins of Omission

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    Several months ago – Yes, I am a very slow blogger, but this is a story worth telling…. So, several months ago, I had the privilege of meeting two new colleagues at an inter-faith conference. Paul is a Palestinian Christian from Jerusalem and Salim is a Palestinian Muslim living in Nablus, 60 kilometers or so to the northeast.  Despite their different life experiences, they share a similar frustration at how people in the outside world, especially the United States, tend to have a one-sided understanding of the issues facing Palestine and Israel. Paul meets a lot of international visitors, many of…

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