Speech by Rahil Jivani for Voice your Thoughts 2006 (18th November 2006)

The term “Melting pot” was first used in American literature in the writings of Hector St. Jean de Creve Coeur which was first seen in 1782. ‘melting pot’ quite simply is a metaphor for a mixture of different substances that ultimately become one and the same thing. We can tell no different, what was once unique is now gone. Everything is the same. Everything is one. People up to the time of Jimmy Carter, had one fixation, had one dream, and that was the American dream [which at that time in the inner core was a uniform ideology of one race]. Jimmy Carter the 39th President of the United States of America who was in office from 1977–1981 had the courage and the presence to bring about a new idea, a new concept. He gave the people something new to think about. He gave them the idea of unity through Diversity. Jimmy Carter said, "We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." Today by us all being here is an act of defiance, is an act of celebrating, our differences is an act of destroying the once so called ‘melting pot lifestyle’. Today I would like to call upon the thinking and the likes of Jimmy Carter, Hilary Clinton, Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm S. Forbes and so many others who embraced diversity and who tried to show us, its positive impact to the society. Jimmy Carter uses the definition of the melting pot as blending all our differences and forming a single unit from all the different people that simply have one outlook. One may think that he wants people of the same race, same mentality, but he then goes on to demonstrate a different idea, an idea about how we, the people are all different, just like a mosaic that consist of millions of colors, tons of designs, which all in conjunction create the beautiful work of art. But wait, the one thing here, to note is, that the art work, the mosaic under the surface constitute of millions and millions of combinations and components but yet in one way or the other they are exceptional and unique in every way. This implies although all of us maybe human beings of different races we comprise of different dreams, different aspirations, different hopes and different desires, we are simply, different people of one and the same race and that is MANKIND. In accordance to Jimmy Carter and my own beliefs, I think that MANKIND is the mosaic, is that work of art. We are people who look so similar on the surface but yet beneath it all are utterly unique. We the people should accept our differences and embrace them. We should understand that by us being so different we are able to create a strong mould, we are able to make our life a much better place. Jimmy Carter also once said, "we must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles." For these principles make us who we are, they create our beliefs and they are integrated into us. These principles make us different! Our differences are our gifts to the world. Being different, and yet coexisting in a world in which we are unified by a larger concept of humanity, allow us to create a mosaic, a mosaic that is in every way beautiful. We create something that is beautiful by simply being ourselves. This beauty has allowed us to recognize our true intellectual capacities and has created space for further potential progression to be realized.