America's strength is not our diversity; our strength is our

Hear the solemn and stirring words of Ernest Istook: “America’s strength is not our diversity; our strength is our ability to unite people of different backgrounds around common principles. A common language is necessary to reach that goal.” Here lies a teaching not about division, but about harmony. For a nation is not mighty because it is a gathering of many, but because it can bind the many into one. Diversity, left without purpose, scatters like sand in the wind. But when bound together by principles and given voice through a common language, it becomes a fortress, immovable, unbreakable.

The ancients knew this wisdom. The Greeks were divided into many city-states, each with its own customs and rivalries. Yet when the Persian armies threatened, they set aside their quarrels and stood together under the banner of shared heritage, shared gods, and the common language of their people. For a moment, the scattered became united, and the tide of history was turned. Likewise, Rome became an empire not by celebrating difference alone, but by forging unity under its law, its tongue, and its ideals. The lesson resounds: power comes not from being many, but from becoming one.

Istook’s words remind us that principles are the true heart of unity. A people may differ in culture, in origin, in memory, but if they can hold to common truths — liberty, justice, equality, reverence for law — then they are brothers and sisters beneath one sky. Without this uniting vision, diversity becomes fragmentation, and the nation dissolves into tribes. But with it, diversity becomes strength, not by itself, but by the discipline of unity. The principles are the pillars; the people, diverse as they are, are the stones; together they build the temple of the republic.

Consider the story of the United States at its birth. Thirteen colonies, each distinct in customs and economy, gathered to resist the might of Britain. They were farmers, merchants, Puritans, Quakers, slaveholders, and frontiersmen — a motley of differences. Yet they united around common principles written into the Declaration of Independence: that all men are created equal, that rights are endowed by the Creator, that governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed. Without those words, without that language to express them, there could have been no union, only rebellion scattered and defeated. The words gave unity, and unity gave victory.

The emphasis on a common language speaks to more than speech — it speaks to understanding. For what is language but the vessel of thought? Without shared words, there can be no shared meaning; without shared meaning, no shared purpose. A nation whose people cannot understand one another in voice will soon fail to understand one another in spirit. Language is the bridge by which principles cross into hearts. To protect a common language is not to erase difference, but to ensure that difference may speak and listen within the same house.

The lesson here is clear: diversity is a gift, but it is not in itself the source of strength. The source of strength is the will to unite, to find the bonds of principle that bind the many into one people. Without unity, diversity is division; with unity, diversity becomes harmony. A choir is powerful not because every voice is the same, but because many voices sing the same song in a common language.

Practical action lies before us. Hold fast to the principles that make unity possible: justice, liberty, truth, respect for one another. Guard the language that allows these ideals to be spoken and shared. Seek common ground before differences, for it is in the common soil that nations root themselves deeply. And when faced with discord, remember that your neighbor’s heritage may be different, but your principles must be shared, or your strength will falter.

So let Istook’s words be a guiding flame: “America’s strength is not our diversity; our strength is our ability to unite around common principles. A common language is necessary to reach that goal.” In them is the wisdom of nations past and the hope of nations to come. For unity is not given — it is forged, it is chosen, it is lived. And where unity stands, no mountain is too high, no storm too fierce, no empire too mighty to overcome.