Something has been nagging at the back of my mind for a while now, presenting me with a sense of unease because I couldn't quite identify what exactly was bothering me, couldn't get a handle on it enough to figure out what was behind it.
My mind kept going back to a time in my life when I was in college (for the third or fourth time as Life kept interfering with my education). One of my jobs was Recording Secretary for the Standing Committees of Student Government, the allocating committees that were assigned budgets and had to dispense funds to cover the different needs of our university population.
When a brand new committee was formed in the second half of the eighties, I kept records of its meetings. At the time it was called the MAC - Multicultural Awareness Committee - soon changed to Multicultural Activities Committee. I was asked, and accepted, a dual role: Recording Secretary and full member.
The population of our university wasn't huge at the time, maybe ten thousand, but the variety of folks was more than you might expect in an upper mid-western environment. The groups who organized themselves into Student Organizations came to the MAC for help in funding their activities and events. The principle goals of the Student Organizations were two-fold: first to offer support and friendship to their memberships; second to reach out to the larger university community to share the unique cultures of the different organizations. Some groups were large; others not so much. Even so, each and all shared those common goals.
The thing that sticks in my mind about those days is that the different organizations seemed to be simply wanting to share what made them unique, to present to the community of which they were a part information about the wider-than-expected diversity encapsulated within the sphere of our university environment.
I thought then and believe still that each and all of us have an inherent need to be understood and to be accepted as an integral part of a greater whole. I thought then and believe still that this nation, the United States of America, epitomizes that concept. We were doing our best in our own small way to exemplify that.
Quietly and generally without a whole lot of fanfare, we celebrated the inclusion of those of us who were maybe in some ways a mite different from the majority of the community we shared. It was informational, and fun, and I think it helped all of to grow as we learned from each other.
A couple of decades before my (too brief) time on the MAC, things had been different. We had among us those who remembered those times all too well. They remembered segregation, had battled with all that they had in them to bring it to an end.
I think that what has made the United States strong enough to have survived has been un underlying powerful belief that the forging of the strength of this nation lies not in her diversity per se but in the one-ness that makes the sum of the whole much greater than the parts.
There are any number of instructional articles and videos about the making of steel. There are any number of uses said steel can be put to.
That's sort of how I view our nation. We are forging something that will stand the test of time here.
To do it requires many different components put to many uses in many ways. It requires the integration of the many into the whole. Each standing apart cannot become what is needed. By the same token, the whole will not be indeed what it needs to be if any of the components are left out.
And so ... for a time the vision was to forge a new way, incorporating all of the parts necessary to make the whole as strong as it needs to be.
Have we lost that vision?
Because just lately it's come to me what has been nagging at me for so long.
I see and hear an entirely different version of our vision, and yes it bothers me.
Are the various parts now struggling to return to segregation, leaving the strength of an integrated whole? Do any of you recall the old catch-phrase 'separate but equal'? Seems to me that didn't work out all that well. Separation is not exactly much of a sign of equality, if you ask me. Yet it seems factions are developing that desire separation, and equality is left in the dust ... or the ashes ... take your pick.
You know, just because one group is smaller in size doesn't make it less vital to the forging of the whole. If you took it out of the mix, the result would be different all right - probably not nearly as strong. Try leaving one 'minor' ingredient out of a recipe once. It might still be okay but it surely won't be what it was supposed to be. The same goes for forging steel and just about everything else - including nations.
So really. Those who seem to be trying to 'set themselves apart' ... stop it. Just stop it. We are all just as important as each other, no more and no less. We will not become less than we are as a nation, and this re-segregation is not going to work.
In closing (I heard that sigh of relief) I refer you to the stars that grace the Flag of the United States of America. Yes I know they represent each and all of the States of our Nation. They can also represent the forging of this Nation, one made up of many. You notice that each of those stars is the same size; each is equal to all of the others. The fact that Texas and Alaska are far bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware is entirely moot. They share equal status, and our Flag needs ALL of her stars to be complete. Not a single one of those stars carries a label but together they, and the stripes of red and white that flank them, represent one nation. One. Recognizing and respecting individuality in NO way diminishes what that means but enhances it.
God Bless America
Indivisible
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