A witness for peace in Colombia

[EFerrari]

A witness for peace in Colombia
By Barbara Clawson
Special to the News & Record
Tuesday, Mar. 18, 2008 8:53 am

Editor’s Note: Barbara Clawson is a retired UNCG educator who is the first North Carolinian to go to Colombia to help Presbyterian Church USA work as a witness for peace in a country ravaged by poverty and violence. This is the first of two accounts of her month-long mission.

Two perspectives. Two realities.

Upon entering Barranquilla, Colombia, we experienced a busy city of more than a million people.

Heavy traffic. Palm trees. People with cell phones. Many business, many industrial buildings and many advertisements — both familiar and different — lining the streets.

Wandering through a new mall, one could be almost anywhere in the world with clothing stores, appliances, a cinema, a food court offering a diversity of foods and a grocery area with all one could imagine.

People move about freely and we’re told life has improved in recent years for the middle- and upper-class people in this city.

A second reality was introduced on March 6.

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080318/NRSTAFF/335373294

[Judi Lynn]

1. So glad to see this article. Hope the people who took part will NOT be targets for retribution,

which is something they no doubt had to consider at the beginning. Very courageous people.

It was cool knowing they saw coverage of it on tv. That had to make them feel good.

Thanks.

[Judi Lynn]

2. By the way, I hope I will live long enough to see that statement the author quoted

by Gandhi is true.

We keep hoping for proof.