Are We Done Fighting?: Building Understanding in a World of Hate and Division

by Matthew Legge

peacekeeping, which as yet haven’t been fully studied. I remember how important exploration was to me when I joined the first team of Peace Brigades International’s Sri Lankan project. It was 1989; no one could be sure that human rights lawyers who were being assassinated by hit squads could be kept safe by nonviolent accompaniment. Still, the experiment needed to be done, and as it turned out, we kept everyone safe who we accompanied. An important part of the effort were the peace workers back home, who supported the experiment and backed us up by communicating with the governments involved. As experiments of this kind are tried and found successful, we gain more confidence that we can go beyond the old violent paradigm that is failing us.

Bronnie Ware, a palliative care nurse, wrote that the single biggest regret people told her as they lay dying was not staying true to themselves.4