To the editor:
Diversity and equality mean different things to different people. In a free society such as ours, it is our strength, but assuring equality in diversity is difficult.
Depending on how you describe a group or individual will show where they fit in a normal bell curve of society. What is considered normal depends on your viewpoint and where you stand. There is no one size fits all of society.
Ethnic and racial issues differ by the environment in which you grew up and have lived. Hormones and DNA may dictate our view on the importance of gender rights. What is important is that all people have the same opportunity to live freely with equal access to all that society has to offer. What freedom does not say is that one segment of society has a right to impose their opinions and lifestyles on others.
When we legislate and mandate regulations within our communities, we must view that bell curve of what seems to be normal mindful of what may be offensive or a hardship for that fringe group and then determine if there is a reasonable way to accommodate them and to bring them along. We can break up the majority of our population into any number of subcategories. We may see gender and race or the LGBTQ community as principle, but there are any number of subcategories.
I read again this morning another report showing majority of corporate heads were white male heterosexual. That article was next to another of gains of the people of color advance to positions of authority. Then another of gains in the unequally of wages for women to comparable males in the same position.
It is good and a positive move that mass media keep these subjects in front of us. This is a minute segment of the overall workforce and have little effect on the whole of a corporation. While we rarely look at blue collar laborers, what we called essential workers just a short while ago, they are the foundation of any business. If we are truly concerned about equality, then we must be considering the value of the individual as they contribute value to the whole within a company. There may be one captain of a ship, but he has no value without his crew.
We need equality for all, not just the top of the ladder.
William Gerhard, Scipio