Frank Watson: Celebrate Commonality, Not Diversity

When did diversity become a positive attribute? How is it beneficial to celebrate our differences? I have a good friend who is an ordained minister, and I was honored to be invited to his ordination. Although everyone there spoke English, the ceremony included prayers in nine languages. The Lord’s Prayer was recited in Navajo. Personally, I like the Lord’s prayer and find it uplifting, but when read in Navajo it is simply noise that has no meaning to me. I’m sure that the prayers recited in Chinese were similarly meaningless noise to the lone Navajo present. The attempt to celebrate diversity detracted from what should have been a meaningful ceremony.

I remember when the U.S. was proudly called the great American melting pot.

I was informed in a college class a few years ago that the melting pot metaphor was no longer acceptable.

The new politically correct American ideal is more of a stew where each individual keeps their identity in the mix.

No one has to change to blend in.

Rather, our society must accommodate all cultures, religions, and languages.

Our schools are required to provide instruction in each student’s native language.

When I taught in Spokane, I had a Native American student in algebra class.

Although the student’s primary language was English, we had a full-time aide to translate instruction into Salish.

I have some good friends who immigrated from Vietnam as adults.

They will tell you that the first thing they had to do to be successful was to learn English.

They knew that the inability to speak English in America is economically and socially limiting.

When we require all Washington schools to accommodate students in their native languages, we hinder their opportunity for economic success.

I taught school in Japan for a year.

Although I knew that my tenure was temporary, I tried to participate in professional and social activities with my Japanese colleagues, frequently in situations where there were no Japanese/English translators.

Fortunately, our school had a cook who spoke Spanish, so we would go from Japanese to Spanish to English and back again.

Once we could communicate, we found things in common.

Many Japanese teachers loved music, baseball, cooking, etc., as well as I do.

I became acquainted with a physical education teacher who loved to fish, and we formed a lasting friendship.

The list of cultural differences were long and very real, but we found a way to get around them to form a common bond.

Modern diversity training for the workplace teaches that we must not only accommodate those Americans from other cultures, but we must be careful not to offend them with the reality of our culture.

We are to accept it when our coworker decorates for Ramadan, but we must not offend anyone by decorating our work station for Christmas.

This is wrong.

I am offended when I cannot practice my beliefs because my neighbor identifies with another culture.

I’m proud of being an all- American mutt.

I am a mixture of many ethnicities, probably more than I know.

My ancestors had a variety of inputs that make me what I am today.

I am ready and willing to blend with those different than I am so that we can combine our strengths and become not only different than we are today, but better.

Rigid demands that individuals be accepted by American Society generate differences, hatreds, and divisions. If we are to continue as a united people, we must celebrate our commonalities and return to the reality that America is stronger when we are a melting pot.

(Frank Watson is a retired Air Force Colonel and a long time resident of Eastern Washington. He has been a free lance columnist for over 18 years.)