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From the day I landed in America almost half a
century ago, the American Dream has been my preoccupation,
as it is for most immigrants. And the “Melting
Pot” has been drummed into my head as its
model and goal. I have heard it preached from all
kinds of pulpits – political, religious and
journalistic.
But when I had been in this culture awhile I started
wondering what the words mean.
It seems to me that in a melting pot the units
blend irretrievably into each other. The individual
identity of each element is lost. It is like the
process that makes compounds out of elements, and
then the compound differs radically in its properties
from the individual components. In a melting pot,
the largest ingredient would always overshadow
all the others. This reminds me somewhat of a hostile
takeover, not a model of cooperative interaction.
I wonder if this is how America is.
North America is a land of immigrants. Each wave
of immigrants has added inestimable value to society.
That is how the society has retained its progressive
spirit and its zeal. When a community becomes absolutely
absorbed into the mainstream and has no longer
any identifiable feature that it came with, perhaps
that is when it starts losing its energy.
Then there are some observers who, in deference
to the individual components of society, have proposed
a model based on a tossed salad to capture our
social contemporary complexity. But then I see
that in such a construct, the components of a salad
only rarely interact with each other, and a vigorous
tossing may deliver more bruised and injured ingredients.
So, that model doesn’t excite me either.
Sometimes, I have argued that the complex contemporary
North American society is a mosaic. A mosaic catches
the eye and retains the attention because of the
intricacy of its design, and how the pieces fit
with each other. In a mosaic, even the smallest
piece has a place, such that the whole is greater
than the sum of the parts.
Have you ever wondered how small, little shards
that have little value as individual tiles, can
create an enthralling whole with much magic and
considerable value to it? A mosaic offers an interactive
model.
Better yet, one could think of this complex society
as a large multi-instrument orchestra. Notice how
even the lowliest cymbal or the triangle has a
place. When they speak, even the naturally dominant
violins and pianos listen. When the mighty and
the small talk to each other without drowning the
other, the conversation becomes heavenly music.
That’s how a rich performance is born. An
orchestra when well and wisely led has an organic
presence to it.
A lynch mob is governance by majority rule, but
we would all reject it. A democracy mandates that
the rights of even the smallest minority are respected.
A mosaic or an orchestra requires that even the
smallest bit is not trampled on, but allowed its
breathing space.
What I see here is discovering, nurturing and
celebrating unity in diversity, not hammering the
many into one. This is how I see the meaning of “E
Pluribus Unum” that is our motto, and our
way to a more perfect union.
When Guru Nanak said “Ek Oankar,” he
was telling us that to discover unity in the diversity
of creation is to experience God.
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