It's a hot topic today, diversity. We hear about it all the time. How we should embrace diversity. encourage that, heck we have passed laws about that. Following the civil war a series of amendments to the constitution were passed, beginning what we know call the civil rights movement. In 1964 President Johnson signed the civil rights act into law, the most sweeping and important legislation in regard to civil rights. Diversity is naturally a portion of that, although more often called by other names. It does includes race, creed, religion , national origin, and gender, President Johnson declared, " those who are equal before God shall now be equal in all aspects of American life. " A noble sentiment, and a sentiment I dare say couldn't be expressed using those same words today, without some controversy.
But what is diversity? Being different is the simplest answer. What are civil rights? Being treated in a civil fashion is the short answer. Equality, being equal in all things, is the goal. Can all of that be legislated? Well that is what governments are established for. It makes no difference what form that government takes, the objective is to establish rules for civility among the population. Are their rewards for good citizenship? I would say no, the only reward would be a lack of punishment. The United States began with delineating what the rights of the people were. Other than what was written in the Constitution itself, the Bill of Rights were added. At first there were just ten, then others were added. We have been legislating what those rights are ever since. The general thinking being, if it doesn't say I can't, that means I can. A popular definition for freedom.
The question becomes, can we legislate equality? More specifically can we legislate past inequities today without infringing on equality? I would say we can only legislate inequity so as to prevent further inequity. It has been my experience, my observation, that everyone wants to be treated equally, until they are. At that point, past inequities or injustices are employed to justify why they should receive something more than an equal share or opportunity. And I have observed this in every demographic that there is. We call it entitlement. It is really something different from what everyone else is entitled too; is it diversity? You could call it that. Diversity meaning something different. But diversity is supposed to be something benign, isn't that the thinking? What if that diversity is not and runs contrary to your beliefs or practices? Are you then to endorse, adopt or tolerate that? Does diversity always trump legislation? If that is so then diversity supersedes government and the rule of law. So at what point do we discard our civic duty?
Civics is concerned with our rights and responsibilities as a citizen of our nation, whichever nation that happens to be, whether natural born or adopted. We are all quick to defend our rights, we should be as quick to resist changing our responsibility as well. But what is the responsibility of a good citizen, specifically, an American citizen? I'm sure you could make a long list of those qualities, among them being a Patriot. Well, perhaps that last one is being removed from the list, Patroitism receiving a bad name lately. But I would add to that list shared values. Our country was founded on shared values. Those values were, freedom, liberty and equality. Indeed we declared all men are created equal. Equality doesn't mean everyone will receive the same fortunes in life. Yes, yes I know about slavery, about that blight on the history of our nation. I also know we, as a nation, abolished that practice in 86 years after our founding, at the cost of thousands of lives. Lives lost defending the right of a man to be free! That is one of our common values as Americans. America is an experiment in diversity. The objective being to allow benign diversity to flourish in our Republic while protecting the rights of everyone. Is it possible to allow differences while remaining the same? I'd say, only if the differences are benign, the difficulty lies in identifying just what that is.
But what is diversity? Being different is the simplest answer. What are civil rights? Being treated in a civil fashion is the short answer. Equality, being equal in all things, is the goal. Can all of that be legislated? Well that is what governments are established for. It makes no difference what form that government takes, the objective is to establish rules for civility among the population. Are their rewards for good citizenship? I would say no, the only reward would be a lack of punishment. The United States began with delineating what the rights of the people were. Other than what was written in the Constitution itself, the Bill of Rights were added. At first there were just ten, then others were added. We have been legislating what those rights are ever since. The general thinking being, if it doesn't say I can't, that means I can. A popular definition for freedom.
The question becomes, can we legislate equality? More specifically can we legislate past inequities today without infringing on equality? I would say we can only legislate inequity so as to prevent further inequity. It has been my experience, my observation, that everyone wants to be treated equally, until they are. At that point, past inequities or injustices are employed to justify why they should receive something more than an equal share or opportunity. And I have observed this in every demographic that there is. We call it entitlement. It is really something different from what everyone else is entitled too; is it diversity? You could call it that. Diversity meaning something different. But diversity is supposed to be something benign, isn't that the thinking? What if that diversity is not and runs contrary to your beliefs or practices? Are you then to endorse, adopt or tolerate that? Does diversity always trump legislation? If that is so then diversity supersedes government and the rule of law. So at what point do we discard our civic duty?
Civics is concerned with our rights and responsibilities as a citizen of our nation, whichever nation that happens to be, whether natural born or adopted. We are all quick to defend our rights, we should be as quick to resist changing our responsibility as well. But what is the responsibility of a good citizen, specifically, an American citizen? I'm sure you could make a long list of those qualities, among them being a Patriot. Well, perhaps that last one is being removed from the list, Patroitism receiving a bad name lately. But I would add to that list shared values. Our country was founded on shared values. Those values were, freedom, liberty and equality. Indeed we declared all men are created equal. Equality doesn't mean everyone will receive the same fortunes in life. Yes, yes I know about slavery, about that blight on the history of our nation. I also know we, as a nation, abolished that practice in 86 years after our founding, at the cost of thousands of lives. Lives lost defending the right of a man to be free! That is one of our common values as Americans. America is an experiment in diversity. The objective being to allow benign diversity to flourish in our Republic while protecting the rights of everyone. Is it possible to allow differences while remaining the same? I'd say, only if the differences are benign, the difficulty lies in identifying just what that is.
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