Something Else That Crumbles Without Vigilance: Diversity

Just read the local newspapers, and you’ll be reminded of the task at hand:

* Sixteen days after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, fire damages a restaurant in Anaheim that caters to a Muslim clientele. Although a hate crime is ruled out, the restaurant has received hate calls and the ruins draw hateful bystanders.

* The district attorney’s office meets with Vietnamese residents as part of an ongoing program to better acquaint them with our justice system.

* Many residents still grumble about immigration from Latin America and the real or perceived problems it creates.

Since the attacks, people from President Bush on down--through the written or spoken word--have praised America’s diversity. It is our great source of strength, they say.

Do we mean it?

Do we love our diversity and draw strength from it, or do we give lip service to it, all the while wishing we weren’t nearly as diverse as we are?

I’d love to open the envelope and read the answer, but I don’t have it.

This I do know: Nobody said democracy would be easy. It’s harder yet in a place where Protestants and Catholics, Muslims, Jews and atheists share space with blacks, whites and browns and Mexicans, Irish, Palestinians and Lithuanians.

As a reflection of America, not many places are as diverse as Orange County, with a population 51% white, 31% Latino, 15% Asian and 2% black. Even among some of those groups, diversity abounds. An annual prayer breakfast features blessings from eight faiths.

We tell ourselves we celebrate the diversity.

Are we telling ourselves the truth?

Mai Cong has been in America since 1975 and is a longtime activist in Orange County’s Vietnamese community.

“I do believe that, in general, in time of peace and when all of us have no serious issues, people want to work toward diversity,” she says, “because we accept that it is here and it’s going to stay here.

“I have the sense, however, that when we stumble into something like what happened in New York City, then people start questioning.”

So, do we mean it when we embrace diversity?

“This is a test for all of us,” she says. “I sincerely believe that people want to [embrace diversity], but with human beings there are unpredictable reactions, caused by fear and anxiety and uncontrollable anger.”

Kay Lindahl gives seminars on religious diversity. She calls her company the Listening Center and says her program can apply to cultural and ethnic differences as well.

“One of the ways I look at Southern California and Orange County is that it is like a grand experiment,” she says. “There may be places that have more Armenians or whatever than we do, but we have more diversity overall than anywhere in the world. If it can work here, it can work anywhere, in a sense.”

Well, can it?

Not So Much a Given as a Commitment

“It takes a commitment,” she says. “It takes time to develop relationships and trust so we can learn more about each other. We live in such a fast-paced society, we’re not used to things that take time.”

Like Cong, Lindahl thinks most people genuinely believe in America’s professed love of its melting pot. “There’s something deep within us that wants to make it [happen],” Lindahl says. “But now, as we’ve become more diverse, we’ve become aware there’s [more] to be done.”

The government can’t make us like each other. In another context, we talked about winning people’s hearts and minds.

The Times reporter who wrote about the Anaheim fire quoted a bystander as saying, “We need to take all these [Muslims] and send them out of this country. Pack ‘em up, ship ‘em out.”

Just as surely as we know the man wasn’t speaking for everyone, we know he’s not speaking only for himself.

In matters of head and heart, each of us decides on our own.

What have we decided?

“The jury is still out,” Lindahl says. “The verdict isn’t in. It’s not over. We’re still in the grand experiment.”

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.