DEFINITION
Diversity is difficult to define clearly because it is often confused with differences.   Diversity in the context of community is the presence of people from different backgrounds.    A person's background involves an unctrollable factor (such as gender) and/or an extended period of immersion (such as culture) that shapes a person's perspective and place in our society.  This includes cultural background, social class, religious outlook, sexual orientation, age, gender, physical ability, etc.   Differences are characteristics that are either relatively controllable or do not substantially add to a person's outlook on life.  For example, people with curly hair are different than people with straight hair and people that do projects rapidly are different than people who work on a project over a long period of time.  But these differences by themselves do not contribute to widely varied perspective that people have as a result of their background.  Some attributes are somewhere in between diverse and different, making it difficult to distinguish the two.  For example, a very large woman will likely have a different view of the world than a small woman.  But those characteristics alone are likely to shape their world view much less than than a Buddhist's view compared to a Catholic's.
 

WHY WE HOLD THIS VALUE IN COMMON
We believe that diversity within our group will create a strong, enduring community just as diversity within nature creates a more stable and healthy ecological system.  A diverse group of people will help ensure that there will be a variety of perspectives, experiences, and skills in the community for it to perpetuate over time.   However, just as in nature, diversity does not lead to stabilty unless there are interdependent relationships between the components in the system.  For example, if you planted a cactus in the middle of a forest, there would be more diversity, but not any more stabillity within the forest ecosystem because the cactus is not interdependent on other species of plants and animals to perpetuate the forest.   In human systems diversity leads to stability when people are able to mutuallly contribute different skills and perspectives in relationships with others.
 

THE REALISTIC LIMITATIONS OF HOLDING THIS VALUE IN THE CONTEXT OF OUR SOCIETY
The members of Du•má intend to do more than talk about diversity; we intend to move beyond the barriers that seperate us by intentionally nurturing relationships between people from different backgrounds.   Unfortunately, our society place social, economic, and sometimes legal barriers between people who are trying to understand one another's background.  The result is that our society segregates people who come fromd diverse backgrounds .  Thus, the elderly live in nursing homes, children are at school, working-class people live in separate neighborhoods, Jews share their lives with one another because they feel isolated in a Christian-dominated society, etc.  Most people, then, simply don't have an understanding of what other people's lives are like and what their needs are because we haven't had an opportunity to experience living and relating with Hindus, homosexuals, parapalegics, or Egyptian people.  The existence of these barriers and their past and present effect on our lives make the task of creating a diverse community more complex and not fully obtainable.   In particular, we do not forsee including people in our community that do not have a sincere interest in exploring and upholding the values we hold in common.  Nevertheless,  we are doing the best we can to embrace people of diverse backgrounds while providing a model for society to overcome the separation between people in our society.
 

WHAT'S EXPECTED OF DU•MA MEMBERS TO UPHOLD THIS VALUE
From experience we have found that to create a diverse community requires a willingness of members to invest personal energy to understand without judgement what other people are experiencing as a result of their background.
 

THE DIFFERING ABILITY FOR PEOPLE TO UPHOLD THIS VALUE
We also recognize that as individuals and as a group we have a limited capacity to assimilate changes in our lifestyle that lead towards diversity.   Because some people have more time and energy to invest in understanding one another , some people find it difficult to embrace people from different backgrounds while others find it easy.   One's background may also contribute to the ability to assimilate other people's needs and perspectives.  We hope to provide a supportive atmosphere to help one another and the group move towards a more diverse household at a realisticl rate that doesn't strain the social fabric of the community.
 

EXAMPLES
The following partial list provides examples of activities that individuals and/or Du•má as a group believe contribute to diversity.  We have incorporated some of the examples into our daily lives to differing extents; other examples hopefully will be possible for individuals and/or the group in the future.
 

• attending religious services with other members
• travelling to foreign countries
• asking one another questions about their childhood experiences
• reading literature by authors from a different cultural background
• going to a gay bar
• asking one another what our religious beliefs are
• spending a day in a wheelchair
• supporting single parents financiallly
• advertising for members at places that might attract groups of people that don't live with us now reading National Geographic
• thinking about cultural practices and norms that are oppressive
• asking people from diverse backgrounds what would be difficult about living at Du•má
• exploring internalized messages we receive associated with our socioeconomic class
• adopting agreements that encourage diversity
• developing an affirmative action policy for new members
• volunteer at a nursing home
• discuss diversity at a retreat

THE CLOSE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THIS VALUE AND THE OTHER VALUES WE EMBRACE
Diversity is closely associated with other values Du•má embraces.   To create a sustainable community, we must become personally aware of the diverse backgrounds people experience.  To gain this awareness, we can learn from ecologically sustainable systems such as the ocean or a forest.   Embracing diversity involves a sincere attempt at dissolving traditional power relationships and creating a more egalitarian community.  Otherrwise, people will simply leave and the group will be homogenous.