If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. ~ John F Kennedy

Diversity is Happiness

I was walking today in San Francisco, like I do most weekends. I got off of BART at the Civic Center station and walked up to the library to use the bathroom. When you’re my age and you walk in San Francisco a lot, you know where all of the bathrooms are located. As I strolled into the library, there was a sign on the door that the library would be closed on Sunday for the city’s Pride Parade. As I was walking in, they were setting up for the Pride Festival this weekend.

When I left the library I headed down Market Street, heading for my pizza appointment for the day. As I was crossing past the BART plaza something hit me, God I love the diversity in this city. Above me down the street was the following image.

On the corner I was crossing were a pair of hijab wearing women, and behind but not with them, a hijab wearing woman walking a baby in a stroller. Off to the side a group of German tourists. An old married white couple holding hands obviously dressed for the theater they were heading too. Skateboard riders of every shape and size, construction workers, a couple of homeless people, one in a wheelchair and two addicts over by a building. In this environment I feel completely comfortable and safe.

The true beauty of a city like San Francisco is there is just bloody everything. Walking in San Francisco on any given day and you will hear five to seven different languages and honestly, I’d need more skill to parse apart some of the really similar sounding languages. Walking today I passed restaurants from almost any conceivable type of food. Just counting restaurants I’d eaten at, I passed an Italian sub place, a Nepali and Indian place, a pizza place, an American restaurant and a sushi place. And probably twenty other types of food places that I haven’t yet tried.

Walking through the Financial District and the edge of Chinatown you see this incredible mix of finance and business people walking alongside elderly Asian folks, non-Asian locals and tourists. It’s a mix not just in race, but financial means, attitudes and political affiliations. It’s not unusual to be standing on a corner with a gay married couple walking the dog, a guy in a suit and someone with purple-pink hair and multiple piercings, and I know this because it happened today.

This mix is such a beautiful thing, it brings a uniqueness to everything that happens in the city. The art, the food, the entertainment and just the way things get done. I can’t imagine life without it and what it brings. It makes for very happy days my friends. ~ Rev Kane