The Power of Acceptance and Unity

My novel, The Healer’s Miraculous Discovery, explores the way our differences can bring us together or drive us apart. Perhaps it’s a bit naive, but from the time I was a kid, I’ve been puzzled over why people can come to hate others who are different from them. Whether it’s how they look or what they believe, history is replete with instances of man’s inhumanity to man over intolerance of differences.

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Intolerance and Discrimination

Stories of intolerance and the harm it causes to people and societies go back to the dawn of civilization, so I need not recount them here, but it’s hard to ignore the trends of the last ten years in the United States.

In the post-World War II era, there was still racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination in this country, but it was marginalized and not nearly as violent as it is today.

Men like George Wallace in Alabama may have gotten a lot of attention, but most of the country (thankfully) could not accept his outright bigotry. Fast forward to today, and acts of hatred, intolerance, and prejudice are mainstream.

There’s a very scary report available from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that shows a five-fold increase in antisemitic activity in the US from 2013 to 2022. It’s worth looking at.

Beyond that, there was an increase in such incidents of 41% from 2021 to 2022 on college campuses. Aren’t those places where educated people know enough to rise above this? It’s gotten so bad that Wikipedia has an entire series dedicated to intolerance.

Tolerance, Diversity, and Understanding

I was always raised to believe that every person has an obligation to leave the world a better place than it was before they lived. Some can do that in huge ways, others in tiny increments. For me, that’s been a career in healthcare, and maybe, hopefully, the message of The Healer.

Here’s a great article for further reading: Tolerance, Acceptance, Understanding | Psychology Today.

And, Rice University’s Tanenbaum Project: Microsoft Word – Opposition to Places of Worship Fact Sheet FORMATTED (rice.edu).

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“The Healer’s Miraculous Discovery is highly recommended for libraries looking for crossovers between sci-fi and fictional representations of personal and social change. Its plausible possibilities create many insights and reflections that readers won’t see coming.”

~ Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review