Diversity isn’t unity

The city of Spokane is giving out its first annual Spokane Human Rights awards on Dec 12. It is the anniversary date of the United Nations adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

To win the award, you must have worked to unite the community and promote diversity. How does one promote unity and diversity at the same time? By dictionary definition, unity means uniformity, singleness, absence of diversity. If more diversity really leads to more unity, we would have less conflict and crime in Spokane instead of more, and less need to add additional police officers.

In Orwell’s “1984,” the ruling party had three slogans that embodied its deliberately contradictory world view: War is peace; freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength. City residents can expect more chaos, crime and conflict as long as the Human Rights Commission continues to promote its own Orwellian double-think slogan: Diversity is unity.

Steve Dunham

Spokane