President John F. Kennedy once said, “If we cannot now end our differences, we can at least work to make the world safe for diversity.”

These words ring true now more than ever in the history of our nation and in our own communities. In a time of individual customization and instant gratification, we are becoming accustomed to everything in the world that surrounds our immediate selves to be perfectly crafted to fit our desires, tastes and preferences. We can make our own Pandora station, Google “thinks” it knows what we are searching for based on previous searches, and Facebook recommends friends to us based on our current interests. All of this might make the world more convenient; however, I would argue that it makes us less tolerant of other interests, cultures and opinions by slowly reducing the amount of new experiences we face in our daily lives.

When most people speak of diversity they most often think of race. While racial diversity is key in balancing opinions and perspectives in any organization, it is not the only thing that must be diverse in your life to be able to appreciate, understand and most importantly tolerate a fellow human being’s opinion without wanting to eliminate that person or opinion.

Why is it OK to “develop a taste” for a certain beer or type of food but we don’t allow ourselves to “grow accustomed” to someone else’s political opinion, religion or culture? We allow our bodies time to get used to a different form of cooking but avoid or insult different political opinions by calling it idiotic or bigoted. We will sometimes “high five” an opposing sports team, but seethe at the mention of another culture in the Middle East, China or even a different neighborhood in our own community.

“There never were in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity,” said French philosopher Michel de Montaigne.

If we are truly to be a fair and just society, we don’t need to join other cultures and differing opinions; rather, we must embrace each other’s backgrounds and diversity, for it is our diverse history as a people that binds us together in our journey into the future.

 

The last bite….

Friday night, Courtney and I had the honor of being invited to the annual birthday celebration of a dear friend of mine for many years. It was a very diverse group of us in regard to age, race, careers and political persuasion. The oldest was 92 and the youngest was 26. We had retired, government and private sector represented, and both President Obama and Mitt Romney had votes at the table. The conversations were great, and the meal was delicious at the Crazy Lobster on the Riverwalk. I give a great meal with amazing people 5 (out of 5) crumbs

Buddy Boe, a resident of Garyville, owns a public relations and program management company and is well known on the local political (and food) scenes. His column appears Wednesdays in L’Observateur.