DIVERSITY! YOU CAN'T LIVE WITH IT AND YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT!

"You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time."  This statement was made by monk and writer, John Lydgate, in Fifteenth-Century England.  One only has to be reminded of what's been happening in the US recently to readily agree.

All gays are exhibitionists or perverts and shouldn't have civil rights bestowed on them until they straighten up.  The General Lee is a symbol of southern prejudice?  Come on, get real!  Oh, let us not forget that our Constitution needs to be changed because it is so out of date and thereby meaningless and irrelevant to this modern generation and its needs.  These are all issues we have to work out as a country.

Life goes on as we strive for perfection.  We strive, we reach, but I doubt that we will ever achieve it. What seems perfect to one of us usually causes another to cry out in anger or shame.  Let's face it; we are not an agreeable group of people.  We are diverse and that is what makes us special.

This country was settled by unhappy people who came to America wanting to escape a bad situation in their own homeland, who sought to better themselves in a new, less restrictive environment.  This country was also settled by people who were brought here against their will and enslaved, such as the Africans, Irish and Germans.  Many of these people did not arrive with smiles on the faces, loving and agreeing entirely with every other group's varying cultures and beliefs.  Hate and prejudice traveled with and arrived here with the first shipload of future Americans.  Time didn't heal all wounds, but things were either dealt with, replaced with new issues of more importance at the time or ignored by the general populace.

Wave upon wave of these new issues washed ashore over the course of time, issues that were sometimes unthinkable to some citizens who instead, chose to stow them in a place far away, adrift, not to be thought of or talked about.  But like Pandora's Box, unpopular and controversial issues have a way of surfacing and spreading, demanding our attention.  When we ignore and refuse to intelligently discuss issues, arbitration may be necessary, especially when those on one side or the matter or the other demands action to be taken.

Just like children fighting over the last cookie, a person who has been given the authority, may step in and make the decision based on the facts that he or she is privy to.  The outcome may be agreeable to all concerned or it could lean heavily toward one participant's advantage.  Another result might be that it is determined that the cookie will remain uneaten.

The obvious resolution to this dilemma would have been to share the cookie equally and skip the middleman, right?  What are the chances of that happening?

I won't say if I approve or disapprove of the Supreme Court's recent decisions, but they sure did open up a giant bag of worms!  Stay tuned for season 226 next year of The Supreme Court Rules Again!

Sharon