26 February 2004
Dear Diversity Committee members,

"Bravo" for the good work you've undertaken. I hope to be part of it somehow, but that could be a challenge as I'm almost never at work during the day.

I doubt you've thought much about a Web site yet, but I will volunteer to create one if you'd like, once the committee has generated enough information to make it necessary. I have been making personal Web sites for the past five years; I also created the newsroom intern Web site, which is now under the care of Marge Frazer; and I am also working on a Web site for the Guild, which should go live this spring.

In regards my own interest in diversity, I'm on a decade-long project to understand the nature of belief and the consequences of certainty. I see certainty — which I define as a total and absolute conviction in the incontestable "truth" of some viewpoint, often connected with gender, race, religion, politics or nationality — as one of the major obstacles to diversity.

Since the majority of people tend toward certainty and close-mindedness, we require freethinking diversity committees to suggest a better approach. In a similar manner — but perhaps approaching from the opposite direction — my critique of certainty is meant to shake the foundation of absolute conviction: Loosen the grip of certainty and you get diversity by default.

Below you'll find a link to my 2004 Web site. The diversity-minded person might be interested in at least three portions of the site:

First, the Quick Quote sections. One click opens a quote window, and I can guarantee that almost every quote will resonate with your diversity project in one way or another. LINK

Second, philosopher Bryan Magee provides an interesting look at one of the origins of diversity. LINK

Third, a review of "Doubt, A History." It doesn't look like The Plain Dealer is going to publish this review, but you can read it on the Web site. I think it's a fascinating book. Highly recommended. LINK

Once again, thanks for your good efforts in forming the committee.

Jon Fobes
assistant news editor
night news desk

PS. A few Quick Quotes to stir your interest:

"It should be borne in mind, of course, that there is an inevitable discrepancy between the truth of the matter and what one thinks — even about himself." — Henry Miller

"I divide men into two lots. They are freethinkers, or they are not freethinkers. Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless. A man may be a Catholic, a Frenchman, or a capitalist, and yet be a freethinker; but if he puts his Catholicism, his patriotism, or his interest above his reason, and will not give the latter free play where those subjects are touched, he is not a freethinker. His mind is in bondage." — Leo Tolstoy

"There is no Archimedean point outside ourselves where we can stand in order to take up our critical viewpoint, in order to observe and analyze all that we think or believe by simply inspecting it, all that we can be said to take for granted because we behave as though we accepted it — the supposition is a self-evident absurdity." — Isaiah Berlin

"The row over 'The Satanic Verses' was at bottom an argument over who should have control over the grand narrative, the Story of Islam, and that the power must belong equally to everyone. That even if my novel were incompetent, its attempt to retell the story would still be important. That if I've failed, others must succeed, because those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts." — Salman Rushdie

"The novel's spirit is the spirit of complexity. Every novel says to the reader: 'Things are not as simple as you think.' That is the novel's eternal truth, but it grows steadily harder to hear amid the din of easy, quick answers that come faster than the question and block it off. In the spirit of our time, it's either Anna or Karenin who is right, and the ancient wisdom of Cervantes, telling us about the difficulty of knowing and the elusiveness of truth, seems cumbersome and useless." — Milan Kundera