Jack’s Winning Words 10/27/08
If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” (JFK) Last week I was part of a discussion group of 25 adults and 25+ high school students from our community. At my table of eight were an Iraqi, a Syrian, 3 Asians, an African American and 2 Caucasians. It was agreed that what we liked best about our community was its diversity. Our differences seemed to melt away. What do you like best about your community? ;-) Jack.

FROM MOLINER G.S. NOW LIVING IN iOWA: Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa. HAWKEYE COUNTRY! I've strived for our company to be Rainbow.

FROM MOLINE LIZ: Were your tablemates Americans? It's a shame we still feel the need to label ourselves and each other in our country. Perhaps someday we'll get past the "you're African American, I'm Caucasian" mentality. We should all be proud of where we came from-- but we're Americans, first and foremost. Once we get past the labels, our corner of the world will be safer for diversity.

FROM MOLINER C.F.: Every community is diverse and it has nothing to do with ethnicity. Put any two people in a room and yoiu have diversity. The thing I like best about our community is its diversity. As my old daddy used to say, "It takes all kinds..."

FROM PR F.M. IN WI: Our diversity - not just of the races but economic too!

FROM D.S. IN MI: It’s what I like best as well. There aren’t too many places I’ve visited quite like this. Glad you came last week.

FROM PR C.H. ON CAPE COD: Unfortunately our community is not very diverse. However, some of the things I like best include: beauty and rhythms of the land, the weather and the seasons, the sense of "special place" -and rootedness to the land and sea that many have here, the small town feeling and more sane feeling here than in metro-Boston or Detroit - and yet we still manage to make our lives hectic!

FROM GRANDMA GUFFEY IN TAMPA: Hi Jack, I wanted to share your winning words experience on diversity, and this is the first time I have found the time. Your experiences sounded very interesting. Mine have been mostly with our family and with our church. When we came to Tampa in l963, our church was a quonset hut and the families were large ones, mostly from the Midwest and East. Now it is like the United Nations. Our priests used to all be from Ireland. Now they are from Scotland, Poland, Colombia, Ghana,and the Phillipines. In our family Tom and Laurie have adopted two boys from Kasakhstan., a girl from Korea and a girl from Guatemala. They also have their oldest girl. Their world is a community that has many families with internatrional adoptions, and that is a very vibrant community. Our oldest daughter in Orlando has had a swim team there for 17 years. and other coaches have told her it is like the United Nations, too. Her swimmers have been from Viet Nam, Singapore, Sweden, Germany. any many others. Our twins, one in Texas and one in Tampa, have had many friends from all over the world. Susie's roomates a the University of Denver and Georgia Tech were from Iran, Japan. Venezuela, etc. Jeannie;s roommates at the U. of Denver were from France and at the U. O M iami Medical School there were many friends from Vietnam and the Phillipines and Cuba, of course. Our youngest daugher;s good friends are from Ethiopia and Cuba. Along the way there are friends of everyone from Trinidad and Buenos Aires. This is truly an amazing world we live. The fun for me is meeting the grandmothers, and we all seem to think alike when it comes to our families. MORE: I forgot to mention my experiences at USF in my Learning in Retirement classes through the past few years. My last class included a grandmother from China. She had come from Taiwan in l960 to go to college in Kentucky and has stayed. Another was a Japanese woman who was 11 when Doolittle bombed Tokyo. Most of the people in the classes have come from all over the United States. They are pretty diversified, to say the least.