Peace¹⁰⁸

Patricia January 5th, 2008

Hello all and welcome to Peace¹⁰⁸.

I am Patricia Royman. This year I have been privileged to meet, hear and work with some of the best thinkers and activists in the arenas of peace, environment, science and politics. My travels this year took me to diverse countries to participate in environment and peace conferences in Dubrovnik Croatia, Venice Italy, San Francisco California and Dallas Texas. In Croatia, I met survivors of the war in Bosnia…brave people who had witnessed and suffered atrocities and abuses that still exists in this world today.

One person, who moved me deeply, was a survivor of the Bosnian war. He was formerly head of a large forensics department, has degrees in psychology and philosophy, and was a soldier in his country’s war. During the war he sustained several injuries. He lost a leg. He still has shrapnel in his body and was shot in the chest by a neighbor at a community meeting during the war. He said he did not want to fight but he had to fight to protect old people and women and children. He was the first non-American to receive a purple heart. He has met with President Bill Clinton and other leaders of the free world.

While attending the peace conference in Dubrovnik this man also gave a lecture on the Balkans at the local university. We were in the same cafe group which met between major plenary sessions to discuss the theory or practices the speakers had presented.

In our breakout group he and others had stories that were real, honest, and in need of real solutions.

I will be writing about Mursod and others in the coming weeks.

Happy New Year!

• Community , Peace