Michael J. Cohen is a principal consultant at MJC Health Solutions, LLC, and a mental health advocate. He lives in Amherst.

It is an understatement to say that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has recently been in the news and all-over social media. Talk about DEI is everywhere.

In his first month in office, President Trump issued two executive orders around DEI initiatives: Executive Order 14151, Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing, issued on Jan. 20, 2025, and Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, issued the following day. In an official letter, the U.S. Department of Education has also said schools that fail to stop diversity, equity and inclusion programs could lose federal funding. These actions opened up a salvo of lawsuits to fight the injustices that are expressed in them.

New Hampshire has stepped up to fight the injustice. Concerns from New Hampshire educators are at the center of one of the first legal challenges to the Trump administration’s ban on DEI programs in schools. The groups behind the case, local and national chapters of the National Education Association and the ACLU, argue the federal restrictions violate the free speech rights of teachers and students. In a national development, those bringing a lawsuit against the Trump administration describe DEI as “foundational to the nation’s promise of equality for all.”

Diversity — the dimensions of human identity expressed through race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and more — has been shown to help strengthen organizations and communities. Diversity, equity and inclusion also describe three fundamental values of a democracy that many organizations today strive to embody in their culture in order to help meet the needs of their employees, their customers and the communities they serve.

Biodiversity, for example, is “the rich variety of living things that, woven together, support and sustain life on Earth.” This “fabric of life” encompasses humans and animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms. It encompasses the variations in individual traits within each species and the diverse ecosystems they create.

Yet, as we know from multiple reports and research from scientists, biodiversity is threatened by climate change. In New Hampshire, the fight against climate change and to protect biodiversity is being abandoned by our policymakers. The New Hampshire House voted that HB 504 ought to pass. The bill relative to state energy policy does not include a single word about climate change or clean energy options. And, in HB 682, which passed the House, offshore wind industry development was removed from the state’s Office of Energy Innovation. The same bill repeals the Offshore and Port Development Commission and the Offshore Wind Industry Workforce Training Center Committee.

Not only is it our moral responsibility to protect, appreciate and respect human differences through programs like DEI, we must, at the same time, protect, promote and appreciate the biodiversity found in the natural world. It goes hand-in-hand with human diversity; they are inseparable. By endorsing, protecting and advocating for human diversity and nature’s biodiversity, we are contributing to saving all living things.

We are now living in a time when both DEI and biodiversity are under attack, but I believe a majority of New Hampshire residents support protecting human and nature’s biodiversity, regardless of their political orientation or special interest.

One of the most important ways of thinking about biodiversity and diversity is to understand the concept of connection. Not only is it important to consider human diversity and biodiversity as encompassing all living things, but it’s important to understand that these living things are connected and intertwined — people, animals and plants are inextricably linked.

This thinking makes it clear that how we use — or misuse — our land, water and the air we breathe and how we interact with our surroundings or treat one another is all connected. Changes in one part of the system can interact and impact another. Doing harm in one place will impact another. Conversely, when we work to promote diversity, equity and inclusion programs and practices in business, education, religious organizations and in our communities generally, or when we advocate for the protection of the natural environment, we are assuring the fabric of life will endure.

This thinking is expressed more poignantly in Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s statement in his 1963 letter from a Birmingham jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

I’m pleased that New Hampshire NEA and ACLU have stepped up and sued the federal government. We all need to step up and not let bullies push us around, not give in. Collectively, we can make a difference. We can find solutions to our problems and make progress for all. Connected, we can weave our New Hampshire fabric and save our planet and ourselves.