It wasn't about white men or even Latina women;Judge Sotomayor was right in 2001

When thinking about building community is seems to me we need to be grasping to see the bigger picture, which seems to be a major goal in our current "got-ya" culture. First, if all the enemies can find is one word in a speech eight years ago for a judge who has been writing judicial opinions for a couple of decades the turmoil is less than a tempest in the proverbial teapot.

But, let's think about the bigger picture as related to the gripe that Judge Sottomayor said a decision that included a Latina woman would be better than a decision that just included white men. Where is the controversy? How is that racist?

In my community thinking and community building activities and in my professional life there have been several instances that stand out to me about the need for the diversity that the Judge really was discussing in her speech.

#1 -- On the school board we were often told the reason for so few minority teachers and so few minority administrators was that there were just none available and non applying for jobs in our district. It was amazing when a minority was hired as the assistant superintendent for human resources how quickly there was a pool of applicants that represented the diversity of the county.

#2 -- Working in corporate America is was often said the reason for no women at the top was there were not capable female executive candidates. What a difference it made when a female became head of human resources and a new perspective was involved
in searching for candidates.

#3 -- Have been wondering since the mid 1970s what difference it would have made if city council had invited some community members to the planning sessions that put a municipal swimming pool within a hundred yards of a cemetery. Council always wondered why the pool never got more use. Many members of the minority community who lived in that neighborhood did not feel it was respectful to have the cemetery and pool right next to each other.

People like to simple answers and people like to put others in instant classifications so they don't have to think. If you are going to build a community at what we call the local level or the national level, you have to get around to thinking instead of knee-jerk reacting, which destroys but never builds.