When I was a teenager, I had a poster on the wall in my bedroom. It was graphically designed with a black background and white lettering, and there was an hourglass in the lower right hand corner. The words on the poster were: “We cannot change unless we survive, but we will not survive unless we change.” They were influential words for a teenager, and they still ring true for me today.
The past few months have been a whirlwind. We have a new president who has values that are different than our previous president. He has implemented ideas that are different from what we have lived with for the past eight years. Many executive orders have been signed, many protests and marches have been organized, which makes me question whether our country is now more divided than ever.
What I have learned in my multiple decades on this earth is that change can be difficult, but change is the only constant there is. I believe the biggest changes come from increased knowledge. There has been much talk about inclusion and exclusion recently, so I decided to learn more about those two words.
EXCLUSION:
• We are not all equal in capacity or value.
• It is not feasible to give equal opportunity.
• We must choose and thus train an elite who will take care of the rest. Those not equal will benefit through the trickle-down theory.
INCLUSION:
The opposite of exclusion, and works from opposite assumptions:
• We are unique in value; yet each has unique capacity.
• All people can learn.
• All people have contributions to make.
We at EOEJournal believe in inclusion, and that each of us has a unique value with contributions to make and that we can learn from each other.
Lisa Petty, Editor
Equal Opportunity Employment Journal