The Dilemma of Democracy: Diagnosis and Prescription Book

I finished reading this compelling first part of Dr. Sheila Cassidy’s autobiography on Human Rights Day. The title is taken from Martin Luther King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

I found it gripping, enlightening,and challenging. Sheila Cassidy was imprisoned in Chile for two months and subjected to torture, because she treated a guerrilla fighter who had been wounded. He was considered an enemy of the state led by General Pinochet. She believed in and lived out her Hypocratic oath.

The military coup under General Pinochet replaced a peaceful socialist state by a totalitarian military dictatorship who were zealous in executing and torturing those who they believed were an enemy of the state and their collaborators. This first part of her autobiography is deeply rooted in Sheila Cassidy’s Christian faith and she sometimes appears to be throwing down the gauntlet to those Christian communities who only appear to pay lip service to Jesus teachings and their claim to be his disciples.

I wondered throughout whether she had written this book to make sense of and come to terms with a very difficult & challenging part of her life.