Tolerance is a two way street

Tolerance, noun form of the verb, tolerate, which is to allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of something that one does not necessarily like or agree with without interference.


Actually, when you think about it, it's not a very nice word.  It essentially says, I don't like what you are, or what you represent, but because for any number of possible reasons I'll not try to stop you from doing or saying or believing whatever foolish nonsense you subscribe to.  


It's one of those great ideas that grew out of the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and was subsequently imbedded in the armory of our American culture to be pulled out periodically by politicians and preachers to bludgeon the rest of us into meek submission. 


Although our nation's history is rife with examples of racial, economic and religious intolerance, either official or unofficial, the reality is that today, America can stand as a beacon of not just simple dictionary-grade tolerance, but of true inclusion, where most everyone is viewed through the same clear lens---we're Americans. Of course, this inclusion is not automatic. It comes with a simple set of rules, including: if you want me to put up your stupid beliefs....political, economic or religious, you better put up with mine.


Today, some of our leaders are proposing that we should live up to this ideal by extending the privileges inherent in it to people who don't extend it to others. We are being told that we should show that we love our "neighbor" even though our "neighbor" not only believes our values and ideals are worthless but that our lives are worthless as well.  That we should set a good example by extending to a particular group, benefits and privileges, that under similar circumstances, it would not extend to the rest of us.


In the name of American idealism, we are being asked to welcome the creation of an Islamic center near the World Trade Center site where more than 3,000 innocents were killed in the name of Islam fanaticism.  It's all wrong.  It's the wrong facility, to be built and funded the wrong people, in the wrong place, for all the wrong reasons.


It's simply naive to believe that we can uphold American ideals only by extending them to people who have shown how much they despise those ideals.  It's not a contradiction of our values to ask someone or some group to respect what we as a nation hold sacred.  If we don't respect and value it, why should anyone else?