Diversity for these divided states?
might unite their people?
Do they find it in their flag? And if they do, is that the right place to be looking?
E pluribus unum, reads their motto. Out of many, one. A union formed by separate states. United they have stood, recognising that diversity can make you rich. Divided, they have fought a civil war, enacted Jim Crow laws, embraced the Fox network.
At our daughter’s primary school assembly they would sing a sweet song,
3000 affluent young white Aucklanders acknowledging and celebrating difference.
‘‘It’s a song about me,’’ they would sing. ‘‘It’s a song about my individuality. About the clothes I wear. About the colour of my hair. And it’s about who I want to be near.’’ And so on.
As they sang about their individuality, they would all be waving their arms and hands in the same direction at the same time, and I could never understand why no one else was grinning but any way, the sentiment was admirable.
‘‘Sometimes we do agree, and sometimes we don’t. Sometimes I want to do the same as you. I might also change my mind’’ they would sing, their limbs and blonde ponytails all still moving as one.
How different are we all from one another? Do you use the year of your birth as the combination for your security alarm? There are 9999 combinations you can use to make your combination unknowable but burglars must surely know to start by looking for something between 1940 and 1999, because, well, people lack imagination.
Let us give thanks there are people who can come up with something more than just the same 50 numbers everyone else picks.
When fresh-thinkers and people with new perspectives go to work, this is when invention and change for the better come about. This is is how a country grows; flourishes; becomes . . . great.
How dismal that people should be so wary, so hostile to people who are Not Like Us. How self-defeating.
An optimistic interpretation of this week’s result could be that a younger, more diverse, more representative group of candidates was elected and promises the nation a brighter future.
A truer one might be that there are some millions of Americans whose only reason for not behaving as badly as their president is that they don’t believe they could get away with it.
When freshthinkers and people with new perspectives go to work, This is is how a country grows; flourishes; becomes . . . great.