“We need a more just and inclusive America. We need an America where individuals can succeed regardless of their race or gender. Let’s put the Republicans’ frivolous arguments aside and elect the most qualified person to be our next president. That person is Kamala Harris.” — Debra Lee
It’s time that we reframe “regardless” to instead read: We need an America where individuals can succeed because of the importance and usefulness of their differences. It is time we honor our differences for the value they bring, not just as a footnote on our resumes, but as a gift and an opportunity to see and do things differently. As Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor stated at her Senate hearing as a nominee: I believe that as third generation Latina that I know more what an eighty-year-old Latina grandmother has to do go through than those who are white.
Too often, our differences have been labelled as “negative,” “divisive,” or “separating us.” We even reinforce that concept by stating that “We have more similarities than differences,” or “That deep down we are all the same.”
In either case, we both diminish the importance and value of our differences. Equally true is that we are not all the same. And that is a good thing! Our differences are what makes us so unique and individually gifted.
The truth be told as Shakespeare once wrote I fear dear Brutus, the fault lies not in the stars, but in ourselves. Our differences don’t divide us, but rather the value that we place on those differences.
And so, on the eve of a New Day coming this November … may we each remember:
“We are only one question way from being connected; from learning about one another’s journey. And that one question only comes about when we are willing to be open to hearing another truth and world outside our own.”
