Quid De Cogitatione?
Perhaps the most succinct definition of democracy came from our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address: “Government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
That speech, made Nov. 19, 1863, was a call to action to maintain The United States of America, not just for Americans, but a prescient recognition of what the sole democratically run country would mean to the world.
It was preceded by the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in the seceding states on Jan. 1, 1863. The 13th Amendment’s ratification Dec. 6, 1865, finally abolished slavery.
“The people” Lincoln spoke of were men. Even when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920 giving women the right to vote, it was still not all the people.
It took the Voting Rights Acts of 1965 to finally achieve universal suffrage, at least for adults. The 26th Amendment in 1971 lowered the voting age to 18.
It’s been a long and ongoing effort to make all our goals of a free country, with liberty and justice for all, a reality.
Those people President Lincoln referred to as our government in 1863 have grown by a diverse influx of new Americans to well over the percentage of those eligible voters in 1863.
And with it, so has the diversity of people that the government is “of,” “by,” and “for.”
Our government is of the people (all inclusive) and by the people (on majority vote), but what does “for the people” mean?
It certainly doesn’t mean just for a few subgroups. It is for all the citizens of the United States.
It is the responsibility in a democracy for government to protect the rights of all citizens to thrive within its legally passed laws.
No minority is to be denied an opportunity to succeed.
D.E.I., Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, incorporates and seeks to teach all the basic tenets stated in the documents put forth by our founding fathers.
Artificial Intelligence on the Internet says, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, [is] a framework used by organizations to promote fair treatment and full participation for all people, particularly those from underrepresented or historically disadvantaged groups.
“The three concepts are interconnected: “Diversity involves acknowledging and valuing the differences among people, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, disability, and sexual orientation.
“Equity focuses on creating fair access, opportunity, and advancement for everyone. It involves identifying and addressing systemic barriers and biases to ensure that outcomes are not predetermined by someone’s background.
“Inclusion is the practice of creating a welcoming culture where all individuals feel a sense of belonging and are respected, valued, and empowered to participate fully.”
The responsibility of any true democracy is to protect every citizen’s right to thrive?
Yet some politicians and supporters strive to denigrate D.E.I. They have picked one of the most outrageously ludicrous scare tactics they could conceive.
The specter of leering boys in the bathrooms and locker rooms of little girls!
What cynical mind could conceive such a scenario? Someone selling snake oil? What naïve mind could possibly believe such a scenario? The one buying that snake oil?
With all the good intentions of D.E.I. this fear-based falsity should be reason to scrap it?
Those who would torpedo D.E.I. have a different attitude about gun control. In the ghastliness of children murdered in their schools because of the lack of gun control, they torpedo the good intentions of strengthening gun laws by using the Second Amendment as a crutch to do nothing.
Do we need a counteracting amendment to the Constitution to prevent someone from killing children in their schools, worshipers in their churches, mosques, and synagogues, participants at festivals and games, viewers at parades, and speakers at political rallies or any venue a gunman chooses to express his grievances?
Those victims and their loved ones have their constitutional rights, too!
If throwing the baby out with the water works on D.E.I. over one issue, maybe we can rid our country of gun violence over one issue: guns of mass destruction being available to the public.
There is a flaw in D.E.I. as defined above, caused by unfortunate timing and a lack of considerations of potential ramifications.
There have been many studies examining and documenting the tribulations of being a person of color in a society deferential to Caucasians – “Whites” – and at times the object of distrust because of skin color. D.E.I. became a solution when some in the country were rightfully alarmed at the increasing number of African-American men dying at the hands of police officers, at times over relatively petty missteps.
We Americans disdain societies with strict caste systems, and it seemed necessary that we level the playing ground for all in our society.
The unfortunate timing is that the concept of D.E.I. came out as a Black issue.
The lack of consideration of potential ramifications? This was not challenged by stressing that D.E.I. really was a solution for “all people, particularly those from underrepresented or historically disadvantaged groups.”
Additionally, overlooking another “underrepresented and historically disadvantaged people,” those in rural America. Poverty and lack of opportunity does not exist only in slums and historically segregated communities, but in areas like Appalachia, the Rust Belt, and much of rural America hidden up dirt roads and hollows, where schools are underfunded, job choices limited, and chances of success a dream.
I can see where these disadvantage people might ask of D.E.I., “Why not me, too? How do my children get an education that will lift them out of our generational rut?”
We can easily guess who is exploiting their frustration!
D.E.I. can and should be fixed, not abolished.
