The Myth of Tolerance

Tolerance - a word which initially sparks a feeling of warmth, caring, and understanding. A sense of acceptance - live and let live. These are all worthy of our dedication and commitment. Without tolerance, we would be at each other's throats every time one individual even mildly annoyed another. Gone would be the simplest and most fundamental of human interacion. We might stop opening doors for each other. We might blast our horns when the first car stopped at the red light didn't move fast enough for us. We might bicker over trivialities with co-workers and loved ones. Indeed, the notion of simple courtesy might quietly fade away.

Tolerance is what we learn from our families as an integral part of growing. We learn that the universe does not revolve around us, and that we are part of a family, then a school community, and then a world community. Our relationships with our families begin to define how we we relate to the rest of the world.

This tolerance is an essential, salt-of-the-earth foundation for our relationship with others.

This is NOT the tolerance that I speak of.

Our basic concepts have become distorted. We have taken the notion of tolerance and morphed it into ill-considered acceptance. We accept more and more of what was once thought to be distasteful or abhorrent. It is one thing to accept idiosyncratic behavior, and quite another to accept cursing, drunkenness, poor hygienice habits, or unkindness.

Tolerance means to understand that we are all different, yet all operating under a common set of behavioral standards. We can function withing that set, but we must not wander outside of it.
We see this in schools, and it permeats school culture. We understand that there are children with "special needs," and we tolerate behavior from those students that we would not otherwise tolerate from the mainstream population. Such students can throw computer monitors across the room, stab a teacher with a pencil, harass other students, and cause classroom chaos. Because they are "classified," their behavior is tolerated.

We see this in the public arena, where a young "actress" can drink her way into oblivion, have her photographs sprawled all over the media, and the parents of her young admirers do nothing to stop their daughters from worshipping this pathetic creature. A no-talent rich girl is treated like a world leader - on her way to and from prison.

How tolerant we are!!

Our tolerance extends, most distressingly, to the world stage. We watch imams and and self-proclaimed religious leaders speak of the destruction of all those who are different from them. From Jew-hating "presidents" to 22-year-old fanatics, words of unspeakable hatred bombard our sensibilites, generating both fear and rage.

And we continue to tolerate.

Our tolerance, if do not reconsider it, will surely be our destruction. On the other hand, We the People might consider what INTOLERANCE might propagate. What if we did not tolerate the stabbing of a teacher, cursing in school, throwing monitors, excessive drinking, drug abuse, infidel-hating? What if we actually said, "No more of this?" What might happen then?

What if We the People said, "This is how we want our country to be?" And then acted upon it.