Diversity is a term used and taught today in education, government, military and business, to name a few. In its purist terms, diversity is merely awareness. It is as simple as Adam recognizing that Eve was different.

Through the millennia since, it has evolved into recognizing the differences between the sexes, nations, politics, religion, races, skin colors, etc. We, as humans, use our senses to observe all around us and make judgments. Those judgments could be as simple as what we perceive as “good” and “evil” based on our values. True diversity should allow us to make those distinctions.

A part of diversity today is the concept of “inclusion.” An example of inclusion is a black basketball team that tolerates an Asian playing with them or a public all-girls high school team playing the girls at a Catholic high school. We see inclusion every day on our television, where advertisers use various cultural, racial and ethnic groups to promote their product. Higher education also uses inclusion to further their enrollment processes.

But here is the crux, the “rub,” of diversity today in America. It should be an individual decision and not government mandate. We as Americans should have the ability to use our experiences, values and ethics to live our lives as we desire without offending those who may not share ours. Government has no right to challenge our individual freedom to choose.

“E Pluribus Unum,” out of many one, was a basic foundation of this nation’s very beginning. Diversity, as preached today, seems to say out of one, many. That concept in history is disastrous. One only has to watch the evening news to see the results of the antithesis of E Pluribus Unum — it is chaos.

Americans fought a long and bloody civil war on the battlefield over the issue of states’ rights and slavery. We sacrificed roughly 600,000 citizens in that conflict. That’s the equivalent of about 32 million today. The mere suggestion recently by Texas and California of secession from our union is horrific.

Our society is breaking down because of politically correct diversity. We are fragmenting under government mandate and the future is not rosy. Simply look at the rest of the world, and you will see what is called “tribalism” ascending with its eventual slaughter of those who disagree or are not members of a particular tribe. The simple fact that we cannot control our own borders is ample evidence of a coming doom.

Ken Houston is a former combat decorated Army officer and former business executive, now retired.

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