Culture

Over the last few months, I have been listening and watching a variety of podcasts, shows, and books that have all circled around or connected to the ideas surrounding our shared, or better said, lack of shared societal moral foundation. This has been an intellectual journey that has led me to a concerning place.  

America is truly exceptional and is among the greatest forces for good in the history of humanity. America is not only a set of principles and ideals, but the application of those principles and ideals overcoming the flaws of human nature and self-interest. Few other sets of ideas or nation has so positively effected humanity as the application of our founding principles and ideals and Juneteenth is a perfect way to celebrate our struggle to turn these principles into reality.

Introduction

Below is a slightly modified letter I sent to my employer's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team. As an agency we recently have been invited to attend sensing sessions regarding an Equity survey that the newly created state Equity Office sent out. I believe it is an open survey that all can look at. If you are not a state employee I ask that you do not submit your final response, but I recommend you go through the survey so you can see what has generated all the Equity and Critical Race Theory discussion that I address below.

The purpose of this post is to show how to change a person’s mind. Today, as a culture, we struggle with “canceling” people who do not agree with us. I do not claim to understand why people do this, but I do know how deep-seated beliefs get changed. And, if you strongly hold these beliefs canceling people is not the approach to make the world better and changing peoples’ minds and hearts.