Dear Editor,

I felt the need to write this letter because I am deeply saddened by the polarization, the meanness bordering on cruelty, the divide that I see in our communities at this time.

Emotions are high, fear is rampant, people are tired of what we’ve been living for the past year and a half – I understand that.

But the inability to empathize or make allowance for any opinion other than our own is creating a cancer in our communities that is slowly chiseling a divide line that feels uncrossable.

I know vaccinated people who feel that the unvaccinated just haven’t researched the right information or read the right articles, or are being misled by inaccurate theories.

At the same time, I know unvaccinated people who feel that the vaccinated just haven’t researched the right information or read the right articles, or are just being misled by inaccurate theories.

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Can we all agree that it is possible for someone to make an informed, conscious decision about their medical treatment that is well researched and well thought out and may at the same time be opposite to the decision that someone else made with equal research and thought?

Neither side of this debate should be labelled pro-science.

Neither side should be labelled anti-science.

There are informed, reliable, well-educated and well-researched professionals and individuals who have come to rest on both sides of this debate.

Everyone who disagrees with your position is not ANTI-science. They may be ANTI-your opinion, but in what reality is that the same thing? Everyone who agrees with your position is not PRO-science. They may be PRO-your opinion, but again, in what reality is that the same thing?

Vigorous discussion and critique have always been the hallmark of the scientific method.

If we try to silence and discredit those who disagree with us, we are in fact being anti-science.

The way forward is not mandating one side of the debate to fall in line with the other.

The way forward is honouring the kindness and respect for others that should naturally flow from living in a country that upholds the human right of free choice.

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Rebecca Jones, Langley

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