Online Coloradoan
Fort Collins Coloradoan

Peaceful Advice From Peacemakers

By Kelli Lackett
KelliLackett@coloradoan.com

Peace in our lifetime.

It's a tall order in a time of war.

But local author Susan Skog has taken up the topic in her fifth book, "Peace in Our Lifetime: Insights from the World's Peacemakers" (Cliffrose Communications, $15), focusing on how ordinary citizens can work toward peace in their homes, workplaces, neighborhoods and in the world.

A journalist who has written for such publications as the New York Times and Prevention, Skog researched the book by turning to the peacemakers themselves for stories and wisdom, interviewing those who have worked to make peace in war-torn areas around the world.

"If you go one step below the political leaders, you'll find all of these people working for peace in the world," Skog said. "I wanted this to be a current and timely look at what is happening in the trenches and at the grassroots level -- beneath what we see in the media headlines."

She offers insight from such peacemakers as Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk whom Martin Luther King Jr. nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work during the Vietnam war; Arun Ghandi, grandson of Mahatma Ghandi, who founded M.K.Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and Amber Amundson, who lost her husband on Sept. 11, 2001 and helped to create the organization September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows.

The book is organized not as a mere collection of their stories, but topically, with chapters headings that include "Believing in Peace," 'Ending our Demonizing" and "Channeling Anger and Fear."

"I wanted to make the book as accessible as possible -- to look at master peacemakers who are creating epic changes in the world but bring those changes back to our own lives," Skog said.

The book suggests that the same principles that ease conflicts in families, schools and neighborhoods ease conflicts around the world.

"We decide to wage war or we decide to make peace both in our lives and internationally."

Peace in Our Lifetime: Insights from the World's Peacemakers is available at www.susanskog.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.