Frances Fuller, multi-award winning author of a book about Lebanon, 'In Borrowed Houses', has called for the creation of a US Department of Peace. A Department of Peace in the most powerful country in the world, a cabinet-level department of government, prepared and empowered, could use history to create a better future. It could create meaning out of the agony of war. She recently issued a statement about conditions in the shattered city of Mosul, saying that a U S Department of Peace could help lay a new foundation for peace, uniting the survivors, Christians and Muslims who have suffered through the long battle with ISIS.
“City in ruins. Society shattered.”
"This is the way war ends: homes, houses of worship, places of business, schools, hospitals, all reduced to rubble, piles of stones. Dazed humans occasionally pulled from the rubble, emaciated, wounded; babies covered with dust and dehydrated. Community destroyed along with the physical city. Trust in one another gone."
"On July 10, the same day as the above headline, the United States Institute of Peace in Washington invited subscribers of their newsletter to a July 14 event where Ambassador Ekkard Brose, German Special Envoy for Crisis Prevention and Joseph Pennington, American Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, would discuss strategies to advance a sustainable peace in Iraq and the area. Far off in California, I want to know what they said in their one hour and fifteen minutes. I wonder what power they have to implement anything they talk about."
"This is why I believe that a Department of Peace, equal in authority to every other department of our government is necessary. A Department of Peace would have been working for a long time on what to do when the battle for Mosul ended. A Department of Peace could do more than discuss. It could help a president formulate policy. It could go to the Congress with a program. It could focus the best minds in our country on promoting ideas and ideals instead of inventing and selling weapons. It could unite Muslims and Christians in giving the jobless, purposeless youth of the world a better narrative than the one that invites them to become killers and rapists."
"War is merely a way for one group to seize temporary power over another by violence. The violence is met by more violence. Its very existence promotes its necessity. Thus war gives birth to war. This is an endless cycle of futile suffering, unless we have a plan for afterwards."
"The Mosul its people knew is gone and will not come back. Another city may be built, maybe a better, more beautiful one, but it will not be home to those who escaped early and are living now in a refugee camp in Jordan or in the streets in foreign countries. It will not be home to those who stayed in Mosul ‘til the bitter end and were pulled from the rubble by the army that rescued them."
"What the battle has cost these people no human can be given back. Dead fathers, sisters, children, best friends will not rise again to join those who survived to grieve for them. Childhood and innocence missed will never happen. Education forfeited is lost opportunity forever crippling lives."
The full statement is available on her blog at http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com.
Frances Fuller puts a face on the Middle East many Americans have not yet seen. Her award-winning memoir, 'In Borrowed Houses', gives readers a penetrating glimpse of the Middle East from the inside.
The Syrian occupation of Lebanon during that country’s long civil war is part of Fuller’s experience in the Middle East, related in her memoir. Told in short episodes, Fuller’s book reveals the alienation, confusion and courage of civilians in the Lebanese civil war, introducing to the reader a variety of real people with whom the author interacts: editors, salesmen, neighbors, refugees, soldiers, missionaries, lawyers, shepherds, artists, students. With these people she works, studies, plays games, prays, laughs and cries, all to the accompaniment of gunfire. Together these small stories tell what war is like for civilians caught on a battlefield, and they create the impression of the Lebanese as a fun-loving, witty, patient and resilient people. Fuller's stories compose not a political history, but a historical document of a time and a place.
'In Borrowed Houses' has taken three industry awards. Frances Fuller was the Grand Prize winner in the 2015 '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' Book Awards. It received the bronze medal for memoir in the Illumination Book Awards in 2014. Northern California Publishers and Authors annually gives awards for literature produced by residents of the area. In 2015 'In Borrowed Houses' received two prizes: Best Non-fiction and Best Cover.
Critics have praised ‘In Borrowed Houses.’ A judge in the 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards called 'In Borrowed Houses' “ . . a well written book full of compassion . . . a captivating story . . . ”. Another reviewer described the book as “Wise, honest, sensitive, funny, heart-wrenching . . .”. Colin Chapman, lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut said, “ . . . western Christians and Middle Eastern Christians need to read this story…full of remarkable perceptiveness and genuine hope.”
Frances Fuller is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below or by email at frances0516@att.net. The full text of her latest article is available at her website. Fuller's book is available at Amazon and other book retailers. A free ebook sample from 'In Borrowed Houses' is available at http://www.payhip.com/francesfuller. Frances Fuller also blogs on other issues relating to the Middle East on her website at http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com.
About Frances Fuller:
Frances Fuller spent thirty years in the violent Middle East and for twenty-four of those years was the director of a Christian publishing program with offices in Lebanon. While leading the development of spiritual books in the Arabic language, she survived long years of civil war and invasions.
Contact:
Frances Fuller
frances0516@att.net
http://www.inborrowedhouseslebanon.com
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