Post by neferetus on Mar 2, 2008 11:47:50 GMT -5
Tolerance. For around the past 20, or so years the word has been rammed down our collective throat. Someone is of a different culture; tolerate them. Someone else's religious beliefs and practices go against our core beliefs; tolerate them. Yet another person's sexual orientation, or political leaning flies in the face of all we believe to be right and true; tolerate them. After all, aren't we all brothers and sisters? Can't we all just get along?
I have to admit, this 'who are we to judge' attitude has gone against the grain of what I have been taught and come to believe. Hitler exterminated 6,000,000 Jews. Who are we to judge? In some backward countries, female circumcision is performed, deforming and crippling the young girl for life. Who are we to judge? Illegal immigrants stream into the country to get a better life. Nevermind that they sap our health and welfare sources and avoid paying taxes. Who are we to judge?
All this sort of stuff just kind of builds up until a person get jaded and pesssimistic, wondering if the world really is going to Hell in a handbasket. Well, while things are bad, they could still get a lot worse. And, while there is certainly a good deal of evil in the world, there's also a great deal of good. So, let's not let our intolerances blind us from that fact.
For example. I've always been sort of intolerant toward peaceniks. Even back when I was a teenager during the Vietnam war, I remained a flag-waver. Anyone, I felt, who protested against the war was unpatriotic and, far worse, un-American. Flash ahead 35 years...
I was out walking about the neighborhood just last week as I usually try to do and passed by this house with a banner poster on its lawn which read: War Is Not The Answer. 'Oh great', I thought, 'here's yet another misguided person who believes that by simply waving a white flag, evil will be brushed off the face of the earth.' A few days, later, I saw the woman whose lawn sported the offending poster, taking out her trash to the curb. We exchanged our nods of hello and I walked on. She was Vietnamese and probably a few years younger than myself. Turns out, I learned from another neighbor, that her husband had been a soldier in Vietnam and she had come to America as a war bride. In the early 1990 Gulf War, her husband had been killed in action, while defending someone else's freedom abroad.
The war in Vietnam had cost her her home and family; the Gulf War had taken her husband. For her, nothing good had come of either conflict. For her, war really was not the answer.
I have to admit, that kind of mellowed me. I don't know how long that mellowing will last, but, so far, so good. Anyhow, now I find myself being tolerant of this poor widow and her lawn banner. Maybe I learned a lesson.
Have there been any instances in your life where you, upon your high horse, have come off self-righteous in your intolerance, only to find yourself eatinting humble pie later on? Talk about it here.
I have to admit, this 'who are we to judge' attitude has gone against the grain of what I have been taught and come to believe. Hitler exterminated 6,000,000 Jews. Who are we to judge? In some backward countries, female circumcision is performed, deforming and crippling the young girl for life. Who are we to judge? Illegal immigrants stream into the country to get a better life. Nevermind that they sap our health and welfare sources and avoid paying taxes. Who are we to judge?
All this sort of stuff just kind of builds up until a person get jaded and pesssimistic, wondering if the world really is going to Hell in a handbasket. Well, while things are bad, they could still get a lot worse. And, while there is certainly a good deal of evil in the world, there's also a great deal of good. So, let's not let our intolerances blind us from that fact.
For example. I've always been sort of intolerant toward peaceniks. Even back when I was a teenager during the Vietnam war, I remained a flag-waver. Anyone, I felt, who protested against the war was unpatriotic and, far worse, un-American. Flash ahead 35 years...
I was out walking about the neighborhood just last week as I usually try to do and passed by this house with a banner poster on its lawn which read: War Is Not The Answer. 'Oh great', I thought, 'here's yet another misguided person who believes that by simply waving a white flag, evil will be brushed off the face of the earth.' A few days, later, I saw the woman whose lawn sported the offending poster, taking out her trash to the curb. We exchanged our nods of hello and I walked on. She was Vietnamese and probably a few years younger than myself. Turns out, I learned from another neighbor, that her husband had been a soldier in Vietnam and she had come to America as a war bride. In the early 1990 Gulf War, her husband had been killed in action, while defending someone else's freedom abroad.
The war in Vietnam had cost her her home and family; the Gulf War had taken her husband. For her, nothing good had come of either conflict. For her, war really was not the answer.
I have to admit, that kind of mellowed me. I don't know how long that mellowing will last, but, so far, so good. Anyhow, now I find myself being tolerant of this poor widow and her lawn banner. Maybe I learned a lesson.
Have there been any instances in your life where you, upon your high horse, have come off self-righteous in your intolerance, only to find yourself eatinting humble pie later on? Talk about it here.
;D
