I am about to embark on a subject that might get me hung by the thumbs in the public square, or at least thrown in jail. Wish me luck. Drum roll, please… I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that, in this country as it exists today, diversity is a strength. If I suddenly stop writing you’ll know I have been hit by lightning. Fortunately, because I am writing this rather than speaking it, you cannot shout me down with accusations of being a racist and a bigot, or worse by throwing eggs and tomatoes at me. I keep hearing Ricky Ricardo in my head with the admonition, “Lucy, you got a lotta esplainin to do!” Thanks, Ricky, I will do my best.
Diversity actually could be a very strong strength. The previous sentence was brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department, but I digress. When you add identity politics to the diversity mix, which inevitably leads to tribalism, the possible strength of diversity becomes an obviously glaring weakness. How could classifying all white people as intrinsically bad create strength in a country full of white people. Strength among people is created by commonly held values of what is right and true, moral and good. According to this type of “whites inherently bad thinking”, it would be ok and accurate to say to Barack Obama, “You know, you’re really only half bad after all”. All humans are equal in the eyes of God. This was written in the Declaration of Independence by the intrinsically evil white men who were the founders of this country. That they were imperfect in executing this idea does not diminish the idea itself but merely demonstrates their imperfection. You got a perfect country with perfect founders? Slavery in this country was abolished by white men. Slavery still exists in about 70 countries in the world and not all of them are governed by white men.
The idea of the melting pot which was popular during the early years of European immigration worked to build a strong republic because there was mostly agreement on what is good and moral, including the equal value of all people. Those of you screaming “racism!” go back and read the word mostly. The idea that racism has not significantly diminished during my seventy years is just a lie, being perpetrated for political gain and further creating dissonance amongst the masses. Utopia will never exist this side of heaven no matter how loud or long you complain about injustice, both real and imagined. With the now popular salad bowl idea of immigration, people come into this country both legally and illegally, hanging tightly to their own cultural ways that often differ with the existing laws and values of this country based on our Constitution, and feeling zero obligation to adhere to those laws and values that have existed before their arrival. They demand goodies and the ability to do as they please without consequences. Our current government through the Biden administration is happy to grant them just that in exchange for the votes that will keep them in power ad infinitum. Not exactly the country I read about in my Weekly Reader. Again this only leads to identity politics and a resultingly weak and chaotic nation, not a strong and unified one.
Circling back, ala Jen Saki, to the original theme of this particular piece (alas, I have admittedly strayed, but have been rescued by the fact that the description of my newsletter has been stated as “floating in the stream of consciousness” which allows, thank God, for digression as a normal occurrence) I would like to somehow tie in the inexplicable, at least to me, recent cultural phenomena of accepting as Gospel, ideas that require you to suspend logic and reason. Back to the foolish premise that all white skinned people are intrinsically bad. I like to tell people I like to lay in the sun because the darker I get the less inclined I am to colonize indigenous peoples. Need I say more? Another one of my favorites is the idea that men can have babies. All men? Some men? Even one biological man? Show me this man and his baby. We simply must believe this because a black woman politician said this and if you then refute what she said using logic, or for any reason, you are a racist, a bigot and a misogynist and are destined for cancellation from existing. This type of illogic is sheer madness and cannot possibly do anything but destroy a nation. A chair is not a lion because you wish it so. Why has this become such a difficult concept and why are so many of the sheeple afraid to open their eyes and clearly state objective reality? We are becoming The United States of Alice in Wonderland.