Promoting positive messages about diversity.

Hi all!

My husband Leo and I will be working on this lens together. Since we don't have a current picture of the two of us together, and it doesn't seem possible to load two pictures in the bio area, I'm adding my picture here! You can learn more about me under the bio area, after Leo's bio!

Our 2 friends/business partners are on the shy side and prefer to be behind the scenes, so you won't meet them here.

If you are looking for diversity-related info, ideas for diversity-related events, or diversity products, please contact us!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Julie Parvis

The shapes and colors express diversity in its many forms. The square, angled, is both a diamond and a square, and with it askance, it brings to mind "a square peg into a round hole," which we all in our own diversity, have felt at times. The gear wheel is not only a different shape; it also represents working "in sync," the cog and wheel, moving forward together. The circles are embracing the other shapes, bringing us all together as a whole to make a better world. The whole is greater than the sum of its many diverse parts.

We have established National Diversity Day, the first Friday in October (this year, October 1, 2010) as officially listed in the 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 Chase's Calendar of Events. This year marks the fifth anniversary of NDD! National Diversity Day is a day to celebrate and embrace who we are, despite our differences, no matter what race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, or disability. A day to reflect on and learn about different cultures and ideologies. A day to vow acceptance and tolerance. A day to consciously address these areas at educational and religious institutions, as well as in the workplace and at home. National Diversity Day is an annual event on the first Friday in October (Diversity Awareness Month).

We encourage you to hold your own National Diversity Day Celebration, and please send us your digital photos of your event as jpegs and we may show them on our website! NEW! After we receive your NDD pictures, we will send you a certificate of participation suitable for framing and hanging up--great PR for your organization!

Our Embrace Diversity items can be used as part of your own celebrations, as well as other items (such as baseball caps, sweatshirts, key chains, magnets, lanyards, etc.) which are available from our parent company website at http://www.logorhythms.com Please feel free to call us for suggestions at 1-860-854-6758.

For more information and ideas how to celebrate, please see our sister web site at:

www.nationaldiversityday.com

John F. Kennedy:

"If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity."

"The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men."

Robert F. Kennedy:

"Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired."

Jimmy Carter:

"We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."

Jerome Nathanson:

"The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience."

James Baldwin:

"It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate."

T. S. Eliot:

"We can at least try to understand our own motives, passions, and prejudices, so as to be conscious of what we are doing when we appeal to those of others. This is very difficult, because our own prejudice and emotional bias always seem to us so rational."

Martin Luther King Jr.:

"We can choose either to walk the high road of human brotherhood or to tread the low road of man's inhumanity to man."

Rev. Jesse Jackson:

"America is not like a blanket - one piece of unbroken cloth. America is more like a quilt -many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven together by a common thread."

Theodore Roosevelt:

"To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American."

A. Kasravi:

"Problems exist not because people want to have them, but because their beliefs and behavior create them."

These are just a few diversity-related movies we recommend, we will continue to add to it, and welcome your suggestions, thanks!

Movies:
Crash
America Needs Human Rights: Food First
A Time for Justice: Tolerance.org
Dakota Conflict: KTCA, St. Paul, MN
Daughters of Afghanistan: Video Service Corporation (VSC)
Everybody's Ethnic: Learning Seed
Forgotten Fires: PBS
Mighty Times--The Story of Rosa Parks: Tolerance.org
The Children's March: Tolerance.org
Valuing Diversity: Learning Seed
Communicating Between Cultures: Learning Seed
MLK Commemorative Collection: MPI Home Video
Not in My Town: Universal
The Shadow of Hate: Teaching Tolerance
Muslims: The Independent Production Fund Inc.

These are just a few diversity-related books we recommend, we will be adding more to this list. If you have any recommendations, please let us know, thanks!

Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today's Complex World: Dr. Leo Parvis
A Different Mirror: Ronald Takaki
And Don't Call Me A Racist: Ella Mazel
Eyes on the Prize: Juan Williams
The Challenge of Human Diversity: DeWight R. Middleton
Cultural Diversity: A Primer for Human Services: Jerry Diller
The Claims of Culture: Seyla Benhabib
The Diversity Toolkit: William Sonnenschein
The 10 Lenses: Mark A. Williams