Review: Sally Campbell, A Mediator’s Eye View, Essays on War, Peace, & Shared Humanity By Keith Porteous
You’d think it would be easy to review a book by someone with a worldview that is aligned closely with one’s own, by a writer who has been a regular contributor to this publication. Not so! Instead, I’ll abandon any pretence of objectivity. In her new book, Sally Campbell not only tells it like it is, she gives us the tools we can use in the reconciliation of conflicts, big and small.
Campbell is a teacher and a mediator, and a former lawyer. She is also an extremely literate communicator who carries the valuable talent of equanimity, some of which she acquired during her work with indigenous communities across Canada. Her ability to address the horror and pain of conflicts big and small, without escalating the entrenched divisions in public discourse, is her special gift.
A Mediator’s Eye View is a collection of essays, some of which first appeared in The Islands Grapevine, touching on global conflicts and war from the perspective of someone who dares to imagine that we might be able to end them, by facing the factual and historical realities with intellectual honesty, and employing the tools of peacemaking and reconciliation with dedicated persistence.
From the decades long divides of Israeli apartheid and murderous occupation in Palestine, to the more recent NATO provocations of a catastrophic proxy war in Ukraine, Campbell refuses to allow the Western media narratives to corrupt the truth that desperately needs more exposure to an audience that has been force fed a steady diet of corrupt government propaganda dutifully reported by legacy media.
A Mediator’s Eye View gives us the straight and unvarnished goods on war, empire, and militarism. It also makes the crucially important connection between the massively expanding war machine and the ongoing climate catastrophe, something that is a rare commodity in any current media discourse. And all this with the literal icing on the cake of sharing some of her favourite recipes for the healing practice of baking. Bravo!
We can only hope that Sally will return to these pages as a regular contributor to The Islands Grapevine following her leave of absence to complete this book. We’ve missed you Sally!
A Mediator’s Eye View is available from Abraxas Books on Denman, or directly through Sally at Farmers Market Wednesdays on Hornby. Alternatively, Friesen Press Bookstore, online at https://books.friesenpress.com has both paperback and e-copy available.
 ability to address the horror and pain of conflicts big and small, without escalating the entrenched divisions in public discourse, is her special gift. ){kind=link}