Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner was an enlightening story about the human response to other humans who are different in ways we don’t understand. In 1938 Rosie was a different girl who suffered from the then unknown condition of Synesthesia. She sees colors when she hears sound. Her parents forced her to hide it. When people found out about her condition it was used to manipulate and mistreat her.
Meissner takes the atrocities of Hitler and does a fantastic job of comparing them to similar mistreatments of Americans who were perceived as different and a drain on society in the 30s and 40s. I had no idea that some of the things that happened to Rosie and others in the story did actually happen to Americans. It was heart wrenching and I could not put the book down.
After I finished reading Only the Beautiful, I was compelled to find out just what was happening in the US during that time. I was shocked. We should be ashamed. When those situations are looked at from today’s issues, I can see some scary similarities. If we aren’t carful we could very well be headed to a repeat of these horrible acts on our youth. Adults do not have the right to change children’s bodies while standing behind the ethics of “for the greater good”. Good for who?
Read the book.
Light & Love, Lori
Brendan & Lori O'Gara 
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