DEIA means hope for a better world

White Washing Words

You're scrubbing words because...why? What's the rationale? Are you afraid the truth will finally be told, that you're afraid of the competition? Underlying your motives are deep seated prejudices, against the disabled, people of color, women, gender identity. Your willingness to tear America apart in the hopes of gaining more power.

Rights advocates say measures Trump is trying to dismantle aimed to uplift marginalized groups and addressed the continued effects of historical and generational inequity.

Trump and his allies defend his actions by saying his orders aim to remove what they call discrimination against other Americans, including white people and men. -reuters

Reuters and NPR both report that among the executive orders issued by Trump is banning rules against discrimination in government contracts. This means the Jim Crow laws eliminated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 would return.

DEIA does not exclude you. It includes you. Discrimination against any person or group is illegal, not just against white men. Open your eyes. End the bigotry. You can make the world more like God intended. DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives, while often promoted in secular contexts, can also be seen as aligning with Christian values, emphasizing the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and calling for justice and reconciliation.
-a variety of online sources

Diversity

"There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colors, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen. There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted." — Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

Equity

We all need to work together, because there are no jobs on a dead planet; there is no equity without rights to decent work and social protection, no social justice without a shift in governance and ambition, and, ultimately, no peace for the peoples of the world without the guarantees of sustainability.
Sharan Burrow

Inclusion

It's when we care for each other - choosing inclusion and love over division and hatred - that this great country is at its greatest.
Tulsi Gabbard

Accessibility

If you’re more offended by language than systemic ableism, it’s time to rethink your priorities.

Sheri Byrne-Haber

Two warnings about the politics of division, hate, and fascism.

The schools would fail through their silence, the Church through its forgiveness, and the home through the denial and silence of the parents. The new generation has to hear what the older generation refuses to tell it.
(Quoted in the introduction to The Sunflower)

“Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. Whenever you find yourself thinking, or hear others claiming, that he is exaggerating, that is our innate tendency to reach for a rationalization. This will happen often: Humans seem to have evolved to practice denial when confronted publicly with the unacceptable.”—Masha Gessen (New York Times Review of Books, Nov 26, 2016)

Facts Matter: Three Myths About Pearl Harbor

Misinformation and Distortion

A Time Magazine article by Olivia Waxman punches holes in three myths about Pearl Harbor.

#1 The war did not start World War Two. Japan invaded China in the early 1930s, and Germany invaded Poland in 1939, drawing much of Europe into the conflict.

#2 The attack started a huge volunteer movement in the US to fight Japan. In fact, most combatants were drafted.

#3 The attack woke a sleeping giant. The fact is the giant was already awake with a draft in place, Lend-Lease and sanctions against Japan.

Deja-Vu?

"The U.S. was certainly not “sleeping” at the time of Pearl Harbor. The Roosevelt administration had been playing hardball with the Japanese for years, trying to get Japan to lay off its war of conquest in China. The U.S. had embargoed all sorts of strategic goods and raw materials to Japan: weapons, aviation fuel, scrap iron. And in the the summer of 1941, Washington had actually placed a freeze on all Japanese assets in the U.S. and made it impossible for Japan to purchase oil."

"The country was deep into the process of converting the economy from consumer goods to wartime production. So the giant wasn’t really “sleeping”, even if the fleet at Pearl Harbor was surprised by the initial blow."

"As to that Yamamoto quote? Well, it’s been impossible to find the actual source. Most of us first heard it in the blockbuster film Tora! Tora! Tora! in 1970, so it’s more Hollywood than history. The producer said the screenwriter found [the quote] in a letter, but no one has really been able to produce the letter or confirm who the recipient was."

Getting It Right Matters

Over time, as stories are told and retold, they change. That may be because of our inability to remember narratives exactly as they were told to us. This is innocent enough. It could also be intentional like the reframing of the narrative of the Civil War by Southern historians to The Lost Cause. The Lost Cause offers justification to the cruelties of slavery and Jim Crow laws that denied human dignity. They even used the Christian Bible to reinforce their claims. Check out The Curse of Ham. The same thing is happening now around the false narrative of the January 6th insurrection. Trump and his enablers would have us believe their attempt to violently overthrow a lawful election is their patriotic duty.

Now What?

The sanctions against Japan sound familiar. Kind of like the threats against Russia today if they invade Ukraine. And the proposed sanctions against China as it flexes its military might. Are we headed down that path? This is unsettling, to say the least. Do we even have a choice? Jumping immediately to conflict leads to...what? What we do depends on getting the lessons of the past right.