Diversity is more than a left-wing buzz word meaning respect everyone, no matter how different they are from your family and friends.

Diversity is no panacea: political differences, war and peace, and horrible crimes will spark retaliation.  Being nice has its limits.

Diversity has its serious side; ignoring the need for it has caused gut-wrenching catastrophes. World War II and Hitler’s death camps attempted to banish diversity from Germany with genocide. American soldiers liberating concentration camps were stunned by the ovens mass producing thousands of executions and the ghastly sight of prisoners reduced to skin and bone because their keepers starved them. The ghastly pictures were convincing evidence that World War II was a battle against evil.

Hitler was exterminating Jews, communists, homosexuals and others on his list of undesirables. It was an extensive list including Gypsies and Jehovah’s Witnesses. A catch-all group was accused of “asocial” or socially deviant behavior. There was no judicial review.

This prodigious campaign in Germany to produce political and racial purity abandoned diversity and substituted hate. After the war, for example, it was no longer possible to think that antisemitism was harmless. Diversity demanded that ethical people recognize that we are all different but as humans we have common frailties and strength. This view was embodied in the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. Rights no longer had a nationality; every human being should be protected.

If Hitler’s deadly campaign to create uniformity was crushed by the Allied victory in 1945, it has an idealistic cousin that is harder to recognize. The international principle of self-determination often promoted homogeneity rather than diversity. Dressed up in democratic principles, many thoughtful people tried to create new nations with minimal diversity, especially in the years following World War I. All too often, national boundaries were determined by a common language, even if neighboring peoples had spoken different languages for centuries. German speakers and Slavic speakers had lived cheek-to-jowl. Each preserved their separate identity but satisfied the pragmatic justification for diversity by living and working peaceably.

When Woodrow Wilson and the Treaty of Versailles insisted that these language groups form separate nations, they were creating problems. Differences that should have been resolved peacefully were manipulated to create political differences. Manufactured conflicts allowed Germany before World War II to justify annexing territory because people spoke German.

Diversity is the way people learn to live with each other and avoid hate and terror. It is part of the larger problem of protecting minority rights from majority tyranny.

Freedom Democrats seek to protect people who party, including sex workers and drug users. Groups that face government hostility especially from the criminal law and its agents. They are trying to banish behaviors that have existed for centuries. It is not complicated. These groups should live with others in the U.S. on a peaceful basis. A person who earns his/her living by charging for sexual favors can be just as good a neighbor as a person who leads a more conventional life.

Freedom Democrats believe a person has the right to chose how they get high. A morning pick-me-up from a cup of coffee is a close cousin to a person who uses the currently illegal drugs to get high. Diversity is advanced when people who use substances like opiates and amphetamines receive the same medical care as everyone else. Most significantly, working with healthcare professionals reduces the chance of overdose deaths and related infections.

Currently the law gives the formulations of these medications to criminals. The users have the same right as everyone else to medicine prepared by pharmacists in uniform doses. Do this and the health issues surrounding drug use decline precipitously. With respect for diversity, the drug problem becomes solvable and the health and well-being of persons in this nation will improve. Freedom Democrats offer policy choices while futile attempts to banish drug provide funds to criminals and magnify health problems.

By respecting diversity, we improve the life of people who party and increase the number who make positive contributions, making it easier for kind people to offer a helping hand. Diversity means we come to terms with the idea that some people party and others don’t. We can all live together.