By Al King

Are you with me that we should stop the division if we are to move forward and create the equal opportunity we all wish for?

First, we must understand a couple of basic indisputable facts. We all have biases. The world is not perfect nor fair, and it never will be. There will always be racism, or whatever other ism you can imagine. People are all different, with different abilities. That too will always be the case.

But must we focus on the isms or on how to get to giving people the tools to make the best of their abilities and desires? I suggest the latter is the only way we will move forward. Focusing on the isms does nothing but divide, separate us, and create the notion that one of those isms is owed something from the others. Worst, it exacerbates the notion that those isms should control us and that government somehow can eliminate that which cannot be eliminated.

With 70 years of observation, I suggest there are solutions everyone should pursue that have stood the test of time and give everyone an equal opportunity to improve their own lot in life as well as that of others.

The first is to focus on what can be done to improve every person’s abilities. Education should be the key to encouraging individual development that best fits their own abilities and desires. Not everyone needs or is suited to have a college degree, nor does everyone need one. We will not all be rocket scientists or doctors or engineers. Some will be heavy equipment operators or welders or garbage collectors.

Someone must do each of those tasks and the thousands of other tasks needed for a functioning society. When we each find that which fits us best, we should then be provided the opportunity and encouraged to learn that skill well and to perform it to the best of our ability. Everyone wins when that happens, and everyone who does so builds self-esteem, critical to our well-being.

Second, in seeking that opportunity, we must not look at those things that do not define us. Our skin color, ethnicity, and other inherent traits have absolutely nothing to do with what we can or cannot do. As we look around at our American experiment, there are literally millions of examples of people of all backgrounds who have become successful in every possible field of endeavor. Those are people who didn’t accept the notion that their inherent traits would stop them from succeeding. Rather, they focused on what they needed to do to be successful in their chosen field.

Third, it should be obvious to all that a sound functioning family unit gives a foundation to raise our children in that it provides them both good examples and the necessary self-discipline to deal with the ills that the world will always throw at us. Family matters. Family brings with it responsibility. We should look hard at how to end fatherless homes, to end multiple children from different fathers from one woman, to end spurious reasons for divorce, to develop the interpersonal skills to make relationships work, even when it feels like they are failing. It is extremely rare that a relationship fails solely because of one individual.

Last, I suggest that we must not succumb to the notion that anyone owes anyone else anything except respect and fair treatment. The very moment we are told someone owes us anything that we did not personally earn, we begin an unforgiving path to failure. We lose our focus on what we can do and look to others. We lose incentive to make good decisions.

Then we seek leaders who work to solve problems, not create or exacerbate them. Leaders who look past stereotypes, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, or other divisive attempts to group people, to find the underlying solutions to problems. Should we fail in these efforts, we will achieve the same end as too many great societies, such as Rome.