Public Comment – Melanie Scholten, Park Township
Ottawa County Board of Commissioners Meeting

Good morning. I am Melanie Scholten from Park Township.

The letters D-E-I have been tossed around a lot lately by several commissioners during meetings and on social media. It's clear by some of these comments that there's some confusion about what DEI even means. So I'm going to use an analogy using different letters.

BLT. Yes, the sandwich.

Most people like bread. There's tangy sourdough, fluffy white, sweet wheat. But bread by itself can get boring, and a man cannot live on bread alone.

So let's add some crispy, savory bacon, a ripe, homegrown tomato, crunchy lettuce, and smooth mayonnaise. Now you have something. The elements of the BLT work pretty well on their own and paired with other things, but it's this combination of all these ingredients that make the sandwich so delicious.

‍

‍

Dare I say it's the diversity of the ingredients that make it work so well?

Let's also talk about the quality of the ingredients. Anyone in Michigan knows that there's a significant difference between a winter grocery store tomato and an August garden tomato.

So what makes the homegrown tomato so much better? Ideal growing conditions. Better soil. Longer sunlight. Being able to stay connected to the vine until it's ripe. In fact—fact—farmers have to prop up the vines because they become so heavy with large, juicy tomatoes.

But not all plants in the garden require propping. Some require pruning. Others might require more water or more sun. There's nothing wrong with them, it's just how they were created.

If farmers treated each plant equally—that is, with the same amount of sun, water, fertilizer, and attention—very few of them would thrive. If farmers tried to grow onions in the sandy soil of Hart or asparagus in the muck fields of Hudsonville, neither would grow.

Perhaps providing equity in growing conditions makes our summer vegetables, including the tomatoes, some of the best in the country.

And what about that lettuce between the smooth mayo and juicy tomato? It keeps slipping out and just gets left on the plate. But that sandwich just isn't the same without all its parts.

Could the lettuce be placed between the bread and the bacon instead? Is it fair to say that including the lettuce improves the sandwich experience?

So the next time you're tempted to feel threatened by the term—the letters—DEI, just think about that delicious sandwich. There's nothing to fear.

And the next time you're in a committee meeting or a boardroom, look around at others at the table. Is it full of white bread and mayonnaise? Is there some bacon or tomato or lettuce too—or even chips and a pickle?

Just some food for thought.