"If not me, then who?"

This story doesn't strictly speaking 'qualify' as an 'act of kindness done to enemies' but as the current conflict is providing scant opportunity to record such acts of kindness, I am extending the scope of this blog to acknowledge an extraordinary, experienced trauma surgeon, John P. Pryor, of Philadelphia, who was killed in Iraq this Christmas.

I came across his story on the Tanker Brothers blog, and subsequently read more on sources linked to it. This surgeon was motivated by compassion to apply his medical skills in the service of those victims of war whom the public, and particularly those who oppose war, often overlook: the combatants.

According to a report which Tanker Brothers quote, these words of Albert Schweitzer reflect what John Pryor stood for. "Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you don't live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here, too."

This conviction led John Pryor to Iraq, a decision which, according to the report, "was not always supported by those closest to him".

Spare a thought for a man who laid down his life for his brothers. And for those closest to him in their great loss.

David Rice: his brother's salute to his memory

After his brother David died in the second tower, Andrew Rice was appalled by yet more civilian casualties—this time in Afghanistan.

But Rice chose not to fall in line with those who were determined to show the "other side" that they couldn't mess them about. With grieving relatives of other victims, he comforted the weeping mother of Zacharias Moussaoui.

He explains his approach to the loss of his brother: "I'm refusing to fall in line with what “they” want, which is visceral hatred between two sides; this gives me permission to reconcile."

[You can read more about Andrew Rice's story here and also check out The Forgiveness Project and check out Peaceful Tomorrows amongst the links under BREAKING THE MOULD in my side bar.]

A sketch in the sand, a loosened bond

I've recently come across reports of the Presidential Faith Forum in California in mid-August.

John McCain referred to a guard who had come in and loosened the ropes that bound him so tightly, before returning to tighten them four hours later. This puzzled me when I first read about it, and I didn't initially interpret it as showing kindness to the enemy. Actually it occurred to me that this act might simply have been a variation of the good cop/bad cop scenario, with the same guard playing both roles. But I've since found the transcripts of this forum online and the additional details make it clear that this 'qualifies' as kindness to an enemy in a relatively recent war. (As ever, I hope to come across more recent kindness towards enemies. Today, last week, last month, last year...)

Following the transcripts of the Forum Responses, it seems it was the same guard who approached McCain, while he was praying on Christmas Day, and who drew a cross in the sand with his sandal, leaving it visible for a minute before rubbing it away.

Come to think of it, did McCain ever return to Vietnam?

Did he ever try to track down that guard?

Courage and compassion during Black July

A report based on an address by Dr Palitha Kahona in Toronto last week, has appeared online in the Sri Lankan Sunday Observer. It included a reference to a comment by Dr Nallai Nallainayagam on his family's experiences during the Black July of 1983. (I have been unable to locate the original.)

“The riots brought out the worst and the best of human traits. Some neighbours who have lived in harmony and peace for a long time turned informants, guiding the mobs towards Tamil homes. At the same time, many Sinhalese and Muslims, both neighbours and strangers, risked their lives to protect the lives of Tamils by hiding them in their homes and feeding them till they could be taken to safety. My family sought refuge in the house of a very close Sinhalese friend and was well looked after for more than two weeks due to the kindness and the generosity of this family and friends in the Muslim community. We have no words to thank them for their bravery and kind heartedness”.

A captor's gift

Just when I was despairing of ever coming across the report of any kindness shown to hostages in Iraq, I came across Norman Kember's account on the web site of The Forgiveness Project.

Norman Kember said:

"We also experienced small acts of kindness from our captors. After a month we were given toothbrushes, and then a notebook and pen. Just after, at Christmas, we were shown a DVD of the Life of Jesus in Arabic, and one of them brought us a fragrant rose from the garden."

I hope, when the four surviving hostages, from the group kidnapped from the Iraqi Ministry in 2007, are released, that they will also be able to draw on a memory of even one fleeting act of kindness too, from their hardened captors. Given reports of the suicide of Jason, and what we know of man's brutality to man out there, this seems a wish so childish that I can feel my reader's scorn, and hear an exasperated "Get real!"

I hoped, when Jill Carroll was released, that her account of her kidnapping would mention some act of kindness. At one point, I seem to recall, word came out that she was "preparing food with the women of the house", yet her subsequent accounts showed that the women were particularly unfriendly towards her.

Whenever I consider the appalling atrocities carried out in zones of conflict across the globe, I realise how, increasingly, I expect less and less of humanity.

Yet, amongst it all, we can acknowledge a Quaker's crumb of comfort, for Norman Kember experienced kindness during his ordeal - and that kindness registered.

A land called Paradise?

"In December 2007, over 2000 Muslims in the USA were asked what they would wish to say to the rest of the world. This is what they said."



This film is just one of many entries in the One Nation Many Voices contest. Go browse.

Create a Peace Room

Today, at the University of Hull's stand, at the BETT Exhibition at Olympia, I got chatting to Andrée Jordan, and heard for the first time about the Peace Room. Check this site out, if you're a teacher, learning with any age group—8 to 80! I'm going to spin it at my students next week.

It was in South Africa that I first came across the book Above All Nations, in a shop selling secondhand books in Fish Hoek. That book inspired this blog.

The Peace Room Project set me thinking about the many peacemakers South Africa has produced, in spite of its turbulent past, but a country which now looks set to a turbulent future, with the prospect of a President whose theme tune, still invariably aired on public occasions, is Umshini Wami (Bring me my machine gun).

And now you can get the ringtone.

Cry, the Beloved Country.