My closest friend was born in Korea.  I belong to a tea society that is 99% African American.  My Husband is a different religion than I am.  My daughter attended a middle school that was 73% minority.  I have almost as many gay friends as I have straight friends.  My daughter attended kindergarten with a child that knew they were trans even then.  She knows children who practice many different religions and are of varied  nationalities  I’m not bragging- I’m just giving you some facts about me.  I don’t hate anyone based on how they are different from me.  I choose to live in a city not just for the cultural opportunities that it affords- I choose it for the diversity.  I choose to live in a large multi cultural city so that my daughter grows up knowing that people are different and that’s Ok.

My bucket list item is to visit every state.  The end goal is not to have a 50 piece shot glass collection- the goal is to learn as much about people as possible.  I like to learn about how people spend their time, the types of jobs that are available, the regional foods.  Though I choose to live in NYC, I have visited many places that I thought were amazing.  If you follow my blog, you know I fell in love with Maine, Boston and Cape Cod this year.  I have met people that are vastly different from me, and some that are eerily alike. We have met people that had never met someone that lived in Manhattan.  We have met people that have never met someone who is Jewish.

I read all sorts of blogs- I appreciate writing style more than actual content.  I love to read when people answer “Share your World” or award questions.  This is a great snippet into how other people live and think.  I get more important information about life from these posts than I get from formal essays.  This is when people are real- because they are just telling you about themselves- almost unguarded.

So what’s the point of all these words?

If you want to get rid of hate, I suggest the following for every single person.  Every single one.  No exceptions.^

  1. Read a blog of someone that is different from you in some way.  Learn one new thing about this person every day, or whatever.
  2. Randomly pick a book out of the library.  I don’t advocate reading something you hate- but give it a try.  Try to understand something that is foreign to you
  3. Try food from a place you can’t even locate on a map.  And don’t order the closest thing that resembles something you like.  A chicken satay is not really venturing out of your comfort zone if you eat chicken all the time.
  4. Visit a place you have never been- whether it’s a city, a state or a country.
  5. Visit an environment that is different from yours.  This is one thing I hate about some New Yorkers- they have such tunnel vision they can’t fathom there is life outside of the Hudson/East Rivers.  When we went to Tennessee on vacation a few years ago, people kept asking if we were visiting family- they couldn’t fathom why we would go there.  FYI- loved Tennessee- great state- amazing memories.

6. Read a newspaper that has opinions different from your own.  Try to understand                why someone has a different opinion that yours.  I read something recently that                  most people only read things that further the beliefs they already have.  This is not            good- you have to understand both sides of a story.  My daughter was a debater in              middle school- she had to study both sides of a question.   This experience was                     invaluable- she always thinks out both sides of an argument before coming to a                  conclusion.  We all should be thinking both sides of an argument before coming to            a conclusion.

7.  Visit a house of worship different than your own.  Learn about someone’s else’s faith.

What is my grand plan?

Every elementary school classroom in the US should have a partner class in another part of the country.  They should exchange letters, recipes, life stories, life styles…everything.  Classes can skype one another- give kids a peak into the lives of others.  That’s what core curriculum should include- learning, from an early age, how people are different, yet the same- and that it’s all good.

Ending hate will require every person to make a commitment to learning about others.

I do not want this to become political.  I specifically do not write about political issues, so please don’t comment about politics, no matter what your opinion is.  I want to stop dividing ourselves into two factions-I want us all to  embrace the differences, but find the similarities.  

31 thoughts on “Actions>Words”

  3. Diversity should actually be a lovely thing. One side complementing the other, and making everyone stronger and better. Always looking at both sides of the coin is great for a holistic view and broader understanding of our environment.

    I really do love and appreciate this great post.💯👍👍

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  7. Great points! I used to flock only towards things I knew and understood, but found myself feeling inadequate comparing to the knowledge others had amassed. It took some time, but I realized it was a conscious sheltering that had caused my inferiority. When I pushed myself to try new things, to sample from areas I hadn’t yet experienced, the world opened up. Sure, I found some things I didn’t like, I still didn’t like. But the majority were things that became quick favorites or helped me grow as a person. Your advice here is exactly what… you’ll grow as a person when you follow these guidelines. Awesome post.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  8. Wonderful post. I believe there are some schools that have programs where they Skype with Chinese students… maybe other countries too, but for sure China. I can’t remember what school that was, but I thought it was REALLY great.

    We should look into this and see what types of schools are doing this. I see a NEW post coming from you…. :).

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      1. That is why Skyping across country and Internationally is good in school. It opens ALL schools up to different cultures, traditions, especially those rural areas where they are sheltered from diverse groups. There was a Librarian from California who just moved to London. She did a one hour Skype class with the California class where she brought the kids around London. It was really nice, because many of these students might not ever go to London, but NOW they were excited! I grew up in Indiana, I went to school in CT and have lived in the Bay Area and Seattle. Some parts of the country are not as diverse as other parts, that’s why classes where we can Skype with each other is important. Also, as far as the whole person, it comes down to the parents and the teachers embracing diversity. There is a BIG push for this in books right now. They want authors to right stories on diversity. I hear you!

        Liked by 1 person

  10. An excellent post on embracing differences and learning from them. Of late in India we have been seeing a lot of unrest over differences in class, religion and beliefs. It’s heartbreaking to see people kill and maim in the name of a cow or beef. It’s absurd. We should all learn to take these differences as a different way of living and appreciate the diversity on this planet.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. I’m catching up on all of your blog posts that I’ve missed this morning and just wanted to take a moment to let you know much I enjoy your blogs/your voice. You make me think, you inspire me, you make me laugh, and I have to admit this last set of blogs is putting tears in my eyes. Thank you, thank you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s