SOIC+001+(2)

Dave Mehl Testimony ( https://mewe.com/i/davemehl ) (Jan 23rd, 2023) Back in 1974 / 1975, I attended S.O.I.C. (Seattle Opportunity's Industrialization Center) at 23rd and Madison in Seattle Washington. It was a part of “The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act” (CETA), signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973 to train workers and provide the underprivileged with jobs. At that time I was the only white kid in attendance, the rest being black kids. We were first taught simple things like keeping the balance in a check book, and rudimentary trade math. We were taught the value of a good work ethic, and how to show respect for others. One teacher stands out in my mind above all the others, and his lesson is the reason for my writing this. His name was Mr. Xavier. He was a very large very dark man, with a huge afro and a nehru jacket. Very cool. About the second day of class I was called to the front of the class and told to stand next to a black kid about my same size. I thought it was going to be the let's bash whitey day I had feared... but I was wrong. Mr. Xavier told the class to get a piece of paper out and to draw a line down the middle from top to bottom. He turned and did the same thing on the chalk board. “Now” he said, “on the left side of the paper I want you to write everything that these two have in common. After some time he called on individuals in the class to tell him what they had written. “two hands, two feet, two eyes, ears, nose, arms, legs, mouth...” It was quite a long list. He copied everything on the board as it was brought out from the class. “Now,” he said, “on the other side of the paper, I want everything you see that is different.” This took less time. It boiled down to our hair, and our skin color. That was also put on the board. “Okay class,” he said, “ this is your only lesson for today, and maybe the most important thing you will learn here. WITH ALL THESE SIMILARITYS, AND SO VERY FEW DIFFERENCES, WHY CAN'T WE GET ALONG?” Then he went on to say “A population that is fighting amongst itself is easy for the government to manipulate and control. Think about that. You can see it's a tool being used to keep us watching and mistrusting each other, so they can do whatever they want behind our backs.” I have often thought that when the government instructs us to “celebrate diversity”, they should actually have been pushing the “celebrate similarity” line that my wise teacher Mr. Xavier imparted to us in his class. After all, it's only human nature that differences are the things we don't trust. While similarity brings us all together. This wisdom changed my perspective in a huge way. I hope it helps in some small way to bring sanity to human relations in this troubled world.