Diversity makes us who we are
LET US celebrate our diversity, its strength and its beauty. Everyone has a story – of dreams and nightmares, hope and heartache, love and loss, courage and fear, sacrifice and selfishness. We all share these common contrasting traits – and so should refrain from judging others harshly.
As the 13th century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar and theologian Rumi said: “Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.”
“It’s time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and strength,” Maya Angelou (African-American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer) would add.
The real differences around the country today are not between blacks and whites; Muslims and Christians; coloureds and Indians, but between those who embrace oneness and those who seek to destroy it with racist vitriol and unrepentant hearts.
Between those who look to our shared future and those who cling to the past and also deny it. Between those who open their arms and their hearts are those who are determined to preach hate and clench their fists.
The truth and the reality of the matter is that we cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs. We all lose when any person is denied or forced out of a job because of race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.
Being gay has nothing to do with the ability to read a balance sheet, fix a broken bone or show kindness.
We live in an interdependent country, which means we cannot escape each other.
How we respond to common challenges of poverty, race and inequality will depend, in part, on whether we understand this interdependence.
The challenges of this country are not someone else’s problem, they are everybody’s problem. Each has to be moved to ask: what part can I play in moving my country forwards?
Every time we make a racist or bigoted statement, we hasten the next, and as we continue to degrade one another, then intolerance and violence become inevitable, the unimaginable becomes more conceivable.
There are few earthly things more beautiful than a diverse community, and on Heritage Day we affirm that across the nation.
It is only in a diverse community that those who hate ignorance may strive to know about others, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see and also see another light.
Unity in diversity enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for everyone.
Prolific author Shannon Alder said: “When you think yours is the only true path ,you forever chain yourself to judging others and narrow the vision of God.
“The road to righteousness and arrogance is a parallel road that can intersect each other several times throughout a person’s life. It’s often hard to recognise one road from another.
“What makes them different is the road to righteousness is paved with the love of humanity. The road to arrogance is paved with the love of self.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French aristocrat, writer, poet and pioneering aviator) said: “He who is different from me… enriches me. Our unity is constituted in something higher than ourselves – in Man. For no man seeks to hear his own echo, or to find his reflection in the glass.”
Let us celebrate our diversity.