EDUCATION MATTERS:We're all variations on the main theme

I read somewhere that Republican candidate Mitt Romney's presidential hopes are in the snowball-in-hell category. No way, no how, no chance America would select him as its president.

And that's not because of his political stances (which I mostly disagree with) but because of his religion. The man's a Mormon and in the eyes of millions of Americans, that makes him unfit for the job. In my eyes, that makes those millions unfit to cast a vote. Ditto for many in this country who would not vote for a woman or an African-American, regardless of their qualifications. What is it, I wonder, that makes us want to compartmentalize people? The easy answer is that it is less trouble, less demanding, less engaging, to deal with people categorically than individually.

"So Mitt Romney is Mormon, eh? Isn't that a cult religion? Don't they believe in polygamy?"

So how about Hillary Rodham Clinton? Can she really make the hard decisions being "just a woman"?

Barrack Obama — sounds kind of foreign doesn't it?

Were it possible to disenfranchise all those who think that way, I would be for it. They represent nothing less than a perversion of our democracy with their narrow minds and their restrictive view of humanity. Many of these discriminating voters are paradoxically quite fond of waving the American flag even as they desecrate it with their purified notions of "the right people."

What is more sacred in this country, I would ask, than the notion that one can rise to great heights regardless of race, religion or origin?

We certainly see how the converse of that works with a less than ordinary president (any guesses?) who was born of political royalty.

The point is that all the sterling qualities we look for in a leader are not the province of any particular group. They are qualities that are earned and not betokened by the conditions of one's birth.

On a related note, I received an e-mail recently from a fellow who wanted to tell me all about the contributions of Armenians in Glendale. He seemed like a very bright individual, but very insistent that I pay some sort of homage to "his people."