Summary:
On August 5 2012, at Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a terrible scene occurred. A gunman, Wade Michael Page, came into the temple with the intent to kill people he believed challenged the white race. He wanted to do his part to secure the success of the white Aryan race and decided to kill people that were different than him. The Gift Of Our Wounds is a novel based on the experiences of Arno Michaelis and Pardeep Singh Kaleka. It talks about their involvement with each other in forming their nonprofit organization Serve2Unite. The reason they are brought together to tell their stories is based upon their past and the tragedy of the Sikh Temple shooting.
Arno Michaelis came from a middle-class family and early in his life began to cause trouble. Soon after high school he joined several white supremacist hate groups and was pulled into a world of hate. He wrote songs defiling other races, influencing the white race, and supporting violence. While in the hate groups he became a student of a group wanting to start a racial Holy War that would put the white race in control of not just America but the world. Eventually, he gets out of the hate groups and begins to regret the acts he has committed.
Pardeep Singh Kaleka began his life in India but soon moved to the United States with his family. Growing up his father taught him many key life lessons about humility, respect, and how to treat people. Along with being a good person, their religion played a role in how they lived and Pardeep's father was a very strict follower of the Sikh religion.
The novel goes through a detailed account of both Arno and Pardeep's lives and leads to the event of the Sikh temple shooting. Pardeep's father was one of the victim's killed in the shooting and he struggles to grasp why someone would kill innocent people out of hate. Meeting Arno is the way he begins to understand the idea of hate and together they must reach towards a path of forgiveness in both of them.
On August 5 2012, at Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a terrible scene occurred. A gunman, Wade Michael Page, came into the temple with the intent to kill people he believed challenged the white race. He wanted to do his part to secure the success of the white Aryan race and decided to kill people that were different than him. The Gift Of Our Wounds is a novel based on the experiences of Arno Michaelis and Pardeep Singh Kaleka. It talks about their involvement with each other in forming their nonprofit organization Serve2Unite. The reason they are brought together to tell their stories is based upon their past and the tragedy of the Sikh Temple shooting.
Arno Michaelis came from a middle-class family and early in his life began to cause trouble. Soon after high school he joined several white supremacist hate groups and was pulled into a world of hate. He wrote songs defiling other races, influencing the white race, and supporting violence. While in the hate groups he became a student of a group wanting to start a racial Holy War that would put the white race in control of not just America but the world. Eventually, he gets out of the hate groups and begins to regret the acts he has committed.
Pardeep Singh Kaleka began his life in India but soon moved to the United States with his family. Growing up his father taught him many key life lessons about humility, respect, and how to treat people. Along with being a good person, their religion played a role in how they lived and Pardeep's father was a very strict follower of the Sikh religion.
The novel goes through a detailed account of both Arno and Pardeep's lives and leads to the event of the Sikh temple shooting. Pardeep's father was one of the victim's killed in the shooting and he struggles to grasp why someone would kill innocent people out of hate. Meeting Arno is the way he begins to understand the idea of hate and together they must reach towards a path of forgiveness in both of them.