Oregon's Rich Diversity Gives Us the Opportunity to Grow and Learn From One Another
Last
week, I was honored to give the keynote speech at the first Business of Diversity
luncheon for Oregon. Our office of Corporations and Small Business Advocacy participated with 475
other business leaders and supporters from around the country. These business
leaders crossed political, geographical, racial, and gender differences to
talk about how we work together to recognize diversity in the
workplace, and how we might leverage our unique
perspectives to drive Oregon’s economy forward.
As
Oregon’s Secretary of State, my job is to represent ALL Oregonians with respect
to the agency divisions I manage – Elections, Corporations, Audits, and
Archives. Every day, I learn from the employees who serve in
these divisions and from the citizens I meet as I visit cities across
Oregon.
As
diversity is a conversation people are having more and more regularly in
offices, at dinner parties, and across social media, I would like to share
my personal perspective on diversity.
Growing up
in a tumultuous time in our nation’s history and in a
hard-scrabble community, where the racial divide was deep, the backdrop
of my childhood was pretty homogeneous. If you’ve ever seen the show All
In the Family, my
dad was Archie Bunker and my mom was Edith. It was a low economic community. My two
best friends wound up on drugs and in jail, and I wound up flying
helicopters in Vietnam.
I
share this piece of my story because while growing up, we were never taught
that acceptance of people who were different was of any importance. It was not until I was in Vietnam, serving alongside soldiers from
every ethnic and religious background, that I began to understand there was a
much bigger world outside the community where I grew up.
When
I came home from the trauma of Vietnam, I was so fortunate to find my wife,
Cathy, and I was able to turn inward to find faith and purpose in
life. Those things saved me. From my faith, I’ve learned that it’s
critical to set aside the prejudices of the past and accept, serve, and
love others unconditionally.
So,
what does this have to do with diversity at this moment in history?
Our
faiths, families, and life experiences shape who we become. However, I’ve
learned each of us must keep learning and growing, testing the limits of
our personal biases and prejudices, and reaching enlightened conclusions when
we can. Most importantly, the richness of our diversity means we can disagree
without becoming disagreeable.
The
goals of true diversity are realized when each of us treat others as
we would like to be treated ourselves, while respecting each other’s
differences, and basing our relationships on where we can find agreement, not
dissent.
For those who could not attend the Business of Diversity Luncheon, you can listen to my speech here: https://youtu.be/GD_ExcLg29c or read the full text here: http://sos.oregon.gov/Documents/diversity-august-2017.pdf
My
commitment to all Oregonians is to keep growing and learning, and I appreciate
the grace the citizens of this state have given me in that I have the room
to explore new ideas in my role as our Secretary of State.
My goal is to promote liberty and justice and opportunity for all.
Sincerely,
Dennis
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