Richmond - The Editor, Re: "Wong: Chinese vote," News, July 9. In a world in which we really need to start focusing on what all humans share in common rather than what makes us different from each other, it is distressing to be reminded that there are politicians who, in spite of the fact they are supposed to represent all of their constituents while in office, seem to be more dedicated to attending to the welfare of only one particular group in our community, perhaps at the expense of others.Democracy achieves its full value and effectiveness when the people who are chosen to run our governments are placed into office, not just on the basis of their knowledge, expertise, and qualifications, but also their understanding of the fact that they have a responsibility to account for the concerns of an entire community, not just one part of it.History clearly shows that when politicians are elected into office primarily on the basis of their ethnicity, religious ideology, and/or financial and business affiliations, the democratic system eventually gets hijacked into becoming nothing more than an extension of both individual and collective attempts to secure power and prosper from the benefits that go along with it.If such a thing happens in Richmond, and I fear the likelihood increases with every passing election, everyone loses, even those who might be delusional enough to believe they have secured greater power and influence in the community.The more we insist on emphasizing the differences between us and ignore the pressing need to build an inter-cultural society built on a foundation of shared values, priorities, concerns, and goals, the longer we continue to illustrate the inherent weakness in Canada's "cultural mosaic" - an inspired concept of multiculturalism.The thing about mosaic tiles, metaphorically and literally, is that while they can be combined to create a larger picture, by their physical nature they can never be blended or synthesized together and remain perpetually separate from each other. "Multi" versus "Inter": An important differentiation.When I vote in the next election I hope that whoever is voted into office will be motivated by a meta-perspective of what their responsibilities to all the citizens of the community are, as opposed to a micro-view of how they might best attend to the interests of a particular group.Is it naive and overly idealistic of me to imagine that this is possible in Richmond?Well, I for one will certainly be thinking about this issue when I assess the candidates at campaign time.I fervently hope others will as well.Ray ArnoldRichmond
