Day 22,033

Evie Day 302

Good morning, and a happy Friday to you. Today is 12 January 2024.

In a few hours, I have a work responsibility. I get to talk about Diversity & Inclusion, and the focus of my short talk will be “Introspection”.

As I have shared with you in previous posts, I spend a little time each day reading the news, and I try to keep myself informed about the events going on in my local, state, and galactic community. A disturbing trend has been the content of the comments related to certain stories. The comments reflect a rise in some beliefs that go against so much that I believe in. I do believe that diversity is strength, and all of our experiences have value. But, I tell you what, if the comments section is any indicator, many folks posting are bigots and nationalists who think that only people who think and look like them can succeed in leadership positions.

Here’s another aspect of this that I accept – a lot of these posts are from a small, very active group of white Christian Nationalists that have multiple profiles, and they intend to stir up trouble. They are chaos agents from internal groups like the KKK, neo-nazi organizations, and other groups that endorse a troublesome ideology. Group them all under the heading “domestic terrorists”, because that’s exactly what they are. They adopt terms like “anti-work” and blame all of their troubles on minorities, Antifa, immigrants, and the BLM movement… and they are ignorant and evil.

I look at the D&I component as two-fold. There is the external – the need for empathy, the need to listen and try and understand. I’ll never be a woman from Africa who has immigrated to the West – there are experiences that I will never have. But… I can make an effort to empathize. I can try to walk a mile in her shoes… small on my size 12 EEE feet as they might be.. but I can still try. We need to do a better job relating to each other and empathizing deeper, and to that end, we need to look inside.

“Introspection” to me means I need to think about my unconscious biases, the assumptions I make in passing, and attitudes towards others.

I often think about things as song lyrics. I have loved music my whole life, and there have been some words that pop up in my head daily…
“Every day is a winding road”
“All we are is dust in the wind”
“That’s just the way it is… but don’t you believe them”

Right now, there is one lyric that sticks with me…
“I’m starting with the man in the mirror”

I hope the world is treating you better than you deserve.

Peace y’all.