Diversity

Diversity is this weeks topic.  Diversity - the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety; especially : the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization. With all of the anti-globalism running rampant these days, diversity has almost become a dirty word. This country is literally divided into two camps, driven by the anti-immigration stance taken by our current administration. Stephen Miller is the policy wonk  largely responsible for our extreme hard line stance on illegal immigration. Miller told the New York Times in April of 2018 the zero-tolerance policy, which separated almost 2,000 children from their families in six weeks, was a "simple decision" and "the message is that no one is exempt from immigration law." 

Our administration policy is now that we want only people who are well educated and we no longer support Chain Migration, which ironically would have prevented Melania Trump's Parents from becoming citizens in August of 2018.

The administration wants to reduce the number of refugees that enter the country. We are constantly told about gang members and any crime, no matter the significance gets tremendous media action, especially from the far right.

It all fits in with the extreme nationalistic approach to governing that is driving the whole MAGA program. Personally, I think it is all driven by the fact that according to the Brookings Institute by the year 2045 the white population in the USA will be a minority. That quite frankly terrifies a bunch of old white men in the GOP, based on their rhetoric and actions. To them it is nothing more than a ploy by democrats to beef up their numbers as the assumption has always been that refugees and lower class immigrants vote democratic. My personal experience with Hispanic immigrants is that most are conservative Catholics - not exactly the bedrock of the Democratic party.

I find this fear of the diversity people from different countries bring to the table here is a net positive, not negative. One of my favorite relatives was my great aunt Edith  - a Higgins like me. But she married a man from Montenegro  Uncle Milo came here as an i indentured  laborer. His life was very difficult but with hard work he removed the indentured shackles and built a successful life. Aunt Edith and Uncle Milo owned several small cafes and a highlight of my childhood was coming in the back door to our house on West Grant and seeing fresh pasta hanging and drying - Aunt Edith was in town and she was making raviolis. I was a happy kid. We used to visit Trinidad and Edith, Milo and their son Marko and his family. That meant I got to hang out with my three cousins, Charlene, Michelle and SheilaJo. Thanks to Facebook I was able to reconnect with my cousins over 60 years later. Milo was a decent, hard working man who would not meet the standards being set by Stephen Miller and this administration. It seems we no longer have room for every day people.

A diversified culture can handle people from other places. It is capable of having Italian, Korean, Polish, German - any ethnic neighborhood that reflects the cultures and values of the lands from which the inhabitants traveled. Each of those groups assimilates our cultural values and we become a huge melting pot. Some of those neighborhoods may retain a higher degree of their original culture - Chinese neighborhoods spring to mind.


“Song of myself
I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuff'd with the stuff that is coarse and stuff'd with the stuff
that is fine,
One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the
largest the same,
A Southerner soon as a Northerner, a planter nonchalant and
hospitable down by the Oconee I live,
A Yankee bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest
joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth,
A Kentuckian walking the vale of the Elkhorn in my deer-skin
leggings, a Louisianian or Georgian,
A boatman over lakes or bays or along coasts, a Hoosier, Badger, Buckeye;
At home on Kanadian snow-shoes or up in the bush, or with fishermen
off Newfoundland,
At home in the fleet of ice-boats, sailing with the rest and tacking,
At home on the hills of Vermont or in the woods of Maine, or the
Texan ranch,
Comrade of Californians, comrade of free North-Westerners, (loving
their big proportions,)
Comrade of raftsmen and coalmen, comrade of all who shake hands
and welcome to drink and meat,
A learner with the simplest, a teacher of the thoughtfullest,
A novice beginning yet experient of myriads of seasons,
Of every hue and caste am I, of every rank and religion,
A farmer, mechanic, artist, gentleman, sailor, quaker,
Prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician, priest.

I resist any thing better than my own diversity,
Breathe the air but leave plenty after me,
And am not stuck up, and am in my place.”
― Walt Whitman 

We are as strong as we are because of our diversity. Taking children away from their parents at our southern border does not make us stronger, it weakens us as we lose the moral high ground on which we claim to stand. The light from that shiny city on the hill grows dimmer.

It is important to clarify that being pro immigration does not mean I am for open borders. People who enter the country illegally start out with one foot in a grave and the other on a banana peel. They have already broken the law. We need to beef up our border presence and substantially increase our capacity to screen the border determine the eligibility of those attempting to enter the USA. A wall is not, IMHO, the way to go. 

It is important that groups like police and fire departments reflect the diverse populations they serve. It is not political correctness that suggests this - it is simply common sense.  

That's my quick take on diversity - to see what Eamana thinks, please stop by Ramana's Musings