Tolerance or toleration
a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions,
practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own;
freedom from bigotry.
Seeing this definition I have to ask if many people have ever read it. It seems to me that anytime I hear tolerance used it is only being discussed on one side of the argument. That seems a little self defeating to me. The more noise, arguments and publicity given to whatever folks choose to complaint about merely serves as more fuel on the proverbial fire.
We praise our country as being free while at the same time we seem to seek to restrict opinion and speech if it doesn't agree with this week's cause. When did the ability to have an opinion and state that opinion become wrong? Good, bad or neutral every person has a right to their own opinion and should not be persecuted or prosecuted for expressing that opinion.
Preach not with one hand while the other swings a murderous sword.
I have heard many people preach The Word of God one day and swear blind allegiance and willingness to bring violence against the "enemies" of their friends the next day. To you I ask "Where in the Bible does it tell you this is right?"
When I was a boy I was taught quite simply if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. There is a fine line between this and expressing your own opinion. We all know there are many people that profess hate, bigotry, racism and sexism and wield these as weapons of hate. As horrible as all these may be, none are against the law and all are opinions. Stand for what you believe but think hard about how you do that. Are you doing it from a place of love or a place of hate?
I know I seem to have less patience for people as I get older. I don't know if that's good or bad but I simply refuse to participate in the degradation of human relations that seems to be all around us. When I smile and say HI to a stranger on the street I feel sorry for him that he cannot return the greeting and chooses to look down at the ground instead.
Have we learned Tolerance or have we actually just use it as another way to segregate ourselves from others?
Again, enjoyed reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteThese are my understanding for what the definition for Tolerance meant: 1.Sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own. 2.The act of allowing something. and 3.The capacity of the body to endure or become less responsive to a substance (as a drug) or a physiological insult especially with repeated use or exposure.
The English language for words have more than just couple of definitions describing the word. I feel that most people (including myself) remember some or the ones they favor but not all definitions that apply. This also seems to fall with what makes common sense to one person but something else to another. Also, I don't believe a lot of people know the truth or real knowledge to what they are commenting about. Tolerance is a humans right to eat, sleep and breath in America as we all know it.