'Equity and inclusion' is divisive propaganda

Cleveland Heights City Hall flies a Progress Pride Flag to show it is becoming friendlier and more inclusive to LGBTQ+ community members. The CH-UH library adopts a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion plan and offers seminars about The 1619 Project. These and other measures are meant to show that “equity and inclusion” is a social goal.

This goal may help members of selected groups feel more welcome. But it causes those who are not members of such groups to feel less welcome. It divides our community into factions. It fosters intolerance. It results in bigotry disguised as anti-bigotry.

George Orwell demonstrated that “doublethink” is a form of indoctrination. It is used to brainwash the public to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth. The agency of persuasion is a distortion of truth through propaganda.

Advocates of “equity and inclusion” promote such doublethink. They claim to believe in an equality of opportunities (“equity”). But simultaneously they claim a conflicting belief in an equality of results (“inclusion”). This encourages them in the belief that decisions should be based less on merit and more on racial or sexual agendas and quotas. In Orwell’s words, they are using doublethink “to abuse language for manipulative purposes.” That should be condemned as immoral.

In the 1970s, Cleveland Heights liberals fought discrimination. They advocated equal housing opportunities. Putting people into categories was rejected. Treating everyone equally meant neutrality. Nobody should receive an unfair advantage or disadvantage because of their race or sexual identity.

Today’s “progressive” activists in Cleveland Heights reject neutrality. They proudly impose on others their attitudes about racial or sexual preferences.

For instance, the city's mayor and city council outlawed medical treatment to provide gender education and therapy for children. They denied parents their right to elect such treatment after consultation with medical professionals. They did not similarly outlaw puberty blockers or transgender surgery without parental consent. They took one side in a culture war for ideological reasons. They did not seem to care about offending those holding a different opinion about sexuality, such as members of certain religious groups. Advancing an activist agenda through propaganda was all that mattered.

This is just one example of public attacks on private matters of conscience in the name of social justice. Such attacks must stop. Government needs to spend time stressing instead what everyone has in common. Then maybe “all are welcome” will become a reality in Cleveland Heights.