I was invited to be a keynote guest speaker for the National Guard activities during African American History Month at the Joint Force Headquarters at Camp Lincoln in Springfield Illinois. Major General Enyart, The Adjutant General for both the Illinois Army and Air National Guard, introduced me. Following are some thoughts I shared with that group.
Most of us are raised by families of mothers/ fathers, grandmothers/grandfather, uncles and aunts that look the same. We are taught to think and believe in what they do. It is the only world we know when we were children.
But you grow up, leave home and go out into the “world”, especially if you join the military. Then you find the world is a diverse place filled with people that have different cultural, color and beliefs. In the military, you learn to exist within that diversity.
Each one of you has your own reason why you join the National Guard. Many of you join because of the education benefits, extra money, and to serve your country. It used to be you stayed home except for a few weeks of the year. That has changed. Times are different as the world is different.
In the military you live and work in a diverse world and when you go into combat, there is a great possibility you will engage an enemy who does not look you, believe in what you do, nor think the same as you. Who live and fight by different rules.
The person serving with you may not look like you, be from a different culture, or have different personal beliefs than you. Yet, everyone wears the same uniform, trained together, go into battle with the same hopes and fears, these different people will lay their lives on the line with and for you.
Diversity at home and abroad is the way of our world today. Now does that mean you will like all this difference? No, because most of us did not grow up to like differences. It is something we discover when we find our own mind.
Our differences make this country great. It gives us the ability to drawn upon a bigger pool of skills and talents. What is great about diversity is that we can be different and have common purposes.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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