Tolerance is Not Enough

I been thinking about the phrase “We should be tolerant of ______”, fill in the blank with whichever group you like. To tolerate something refers to your capacity to endure pain or hardship. So as tolerate pertains to people, this is not really where we need to go as society.  When we show tolerance, we bite our tongues, try not to say anything rude or have negative feelings about a person, group or situation but we really think that person, group or situation suck and really don’t like them.   This is just a recipe for pent-up feelings that will erupt when given the opportunity or when we least expect it, like the current situation in America.  We hate Blacks (especially our Black President), Latinos, Asians, Christians, Muslims, Atheists, liberals, conservatives, the media, government, corporations, BP, the poor, single mothers, gays, lesbians, transsexuals, the unemployed, women, and many, many more groups of people.  We have a special hatred for political correctness because we can’t just call people names or make fun of them freely.  I think it is time to move on from tolerance to acceptance.  

To accept something is to regard as proper, normal, or inevitable. We live in a big country with lots of different people.  America has always been filled with many different types of people; we have never been a heterogeneous group not even in the beginning.  A lot of misfits from Europe came to land already populated by varied Native America tribes (they were not all the same), add in slaves from many parts of Africa (not all the same either) and America’s melting pot is off to a good start. As time continued, more people came and are still coming from different countries and they’re not all the same either.  Since people with similar interests like to hang out together, we have wide variety of subcultures or groups that have been artificially categorized like single parent families (they should just be called families).   So like it or not, we are all here together and no one is leaving or changing to make other groups feel better. It is time to accept it. Just try it, I’ll start:  I know religion will never go away but I accept that people believe in a god and that is their right even if they think differently than me. I glad I have accepted religious people, it really wasn’t hard.  If we can all just accept that people different from us exist, are not going anywhere, will not change, and have the same rights, America will be a saner, more productive and happier place.

Ciao for Now, Fobbsie