Wilkes Drops Third In Loss To Moravian

Anna Swiderski

Tuesday, November 27, 2001 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 8A 





HAVE YOU HEARD about those people from the south? The ones who are at odds
with the folks from the north who are aligned with the cousins from across the
border who will have nothing to do with allies from that other province? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 As the tribes and provincial powers of Afghanistan struggle to find their
way through the murk of an unceasing conflict toward the distant glimmer of
something resembling fair rule and someday, perhaps, a democracy, we should be
thankful in this country that we not only survive our diversity but thrive
because of it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Afghanistan, the people are at odds - as they have been for years - as
to who will rule and how and why. A liberating Northern Alliance force of
Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities is extricating the country from Taliban
rule while a Pashtun majority in the Kandahar region searches for a common
voice from the fracture of five provinces and even more tribes with names as
diverse as Populzai and Nurzai. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 An attempt to sort the ancient divisions is scheduled to begin today near
Bonn, Germany, as the United Nations leads talks to define a government that
will replace the Taliban. Leaders of various groups that have been waging war
in Afghanistan for more than two decades will attempt to forge a
``broad-based'' government. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The discord and division in Afghanistan should remind the people of the
United States of the miracle we live every day. How fortunate we are to have
and maintain a balanced government designed to include all people and regions
and to receive other ideas and cultures. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 If you haven't yet, read the front page story from the Nov. 25 Times Leader
about the achievements and contributions to this community by people who
emigrated from Syria and Lebanon and other Arab countries. Now, a generation,
two or three later, those families - with names such as Zogby, Moses, Namey,
Albert, Solomon and Elias - are common among the professions of medicine, law
and education, familiar in the board room and the club room. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The United States is coast-to-coast diverse, an abundance of Americans
whose predecessors came from eastern Europe, Wales and Ireland, Poland and
Germany, South and Central America, Asia and Pacific rim nations. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The differences are what make this country successful and admired, rich in
its science, culture and music, holiday celebrations and even in our foods, be
it colcannon or baba ghanoush or garam masala or hallah or wasabi - each from
a culture fused to the American palate. And the American palette is a spectrum
of skin color, our center a sweep of religions, each sustained with fervor.
Some Methodists, some Lutherans, Catholics, Jews and Muslims. Buddhists too.
And others, and some who believe in nothing at all. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 So different, yet it works. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 ``We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, cultural,
political and class division, but a family nonetheless,'' wrote syndicated
columnist Leonard Pitts just after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. And he
pretty much had it right. We don't often agree, but in the end, in this
country, we succeed because we are different, because so many people are
allowed to test their ideas and inventions and enthusiasm and energies. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Some prejudices and disparities die hard, for sure. We have come a long way
but we're not at perfection's doorstep. We're not even in the neighborhood.
But in this country we are together. Pick your analogy: melting pot, salad,
stew. Divide it anyway you want, it all comes back to the reality that if we
are plenty imperfect we are also very much together. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Afghanistan Missing Out By Obstructing Diversity