I read this book as a part of a book study led by McRay (the author himself). These stories, mostly from Israel-Palestine but also from Northern Ireland and South Africa, chronicle the difficulties we humans have in securing peace among each other. They tell of how each side of really difficult conflicts can come to live peacefully and non-violently with the other.
McRay is not the subject here. Rather, he is the interviewer. He has contacted people who have overcome extreme circumstances. McRay is the storyteller, almost a journalist. But his agenda is not to report news; it is to teach us how to live peacefully. These stories are specifically addressed to an American audience by an American author and provide food to comment on contemporary American issues.
Jo’s story in Northern Ireland moved me perhaps the most. In 1984, when only twelve years old, Jo lost her father to violence at the hand of the IRA. After conviction and over a decade in jail, the murderer of Jo’s father was released from prison as a part of peace accords. Jo eventually sought to meet him and forgave him. They chatted, met a few more times, bonded as friends, and began telling their story of how they began to see each other as humans. Now, they travel the world together to tell their stories. Stories like this, intimately told with vivid detail, fill this book.
I’d like to hear more from McRay on emerging conflicts, especially in Asia (such as that in Myanmar) as well as in places like Somalia and the Sudan. Language is obviously an issue in these regions, and McRay, in this work, focused on areas where English is commonly spoken. Nonetheless, American audiences need to be informed about other injustices that are not as widely known.
Nonetheless, McRay provides us with stories of transformation and of hope in difficult situations. He uses the deliberate decisions of everyday humans to teach us the ways of peace. That story needs to be told over and over again in an oft-warring world.
I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World
By Michael T. McRay
Copyright (c) 2020
Herald Press
ISBN13 9781513805931
Page Count: 207
Genre: Conflict Resolution
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