Over the last year, I have begun to think about mental health differently. Every day I wake up to a world that is seemingly dumber than it was the day before.

I could point to example after example of intellectual inconsistency and each one makes me more and more frustrated. So much so I have had to take a step back from writing and engaging, for fear of my head exploding. As Samuel L. Jackson says in Pulp Fiction “I’m tryin’ real hard to be the Shepard.”

When I was a kid, I was taught to treat everyone as equal. Man. Woman. Asian. Black. Gay. Handicapped. Didn’t matter. Everyone had a skill and everyone was going to do their best to make their life the best it could be and try even harder to make their kids life even better. Jobs were to be earned for merit and skill. Greatness was to be identified by performance.

But the world we live in now couldn’t look further from that one. The President names the race of his cabinet before their skills. The CO Water board sets up a committee to better understand existing equity, diversity and inclusivity challenges in Colorado water issues. It includes 9 of 20 who “are not traditionally engaged in water issues.” WTF?!

The best way to pull together is to stop judging people by the color of their skin but the content of their skills. Forced diversity is making things more divisive. May the best PERSON win.