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?

Medicare Magic

The wonders of government accounting.  Today the good folks in Washington announced that the Medicare Hospital Trust Fund will not run out of money before 2029.  That’s great news for seniors who don’t plan to live more than another 19 years. After that, all bets are off.  In fact they may be off way before that.  

The announcement by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner put a happy spin on what is really a somber picture. The administration, not surprisingly, gives the much maligned Obamacare healthcare overall credit for creating the savings that gives the Fund its new lease on life. Those apparent savings result from reduced benefits for the seniors the program was designed to help. These were the program improvements that senior lobbying organization AARP actively supported.  With friends like the AARP working on their behalf, seniors won’t need an assisted suicide law to accelerate their deaths. So maybe a few cuts now will help the program last longer, albeit with fewer benefit for its supposed beneficiaries. What’s the point of going to the hospital if you’re going to die anyway in 10 or 15 years.

A couple of important details, along with some elderly Americans, were buried in the announcement. First the news relates only to the “Hospital” fund, not to the fund that pays for doctor services which will remain solvent as long as doctors accept Facebook credits in payment, or to the Social Security Trust Fund which will run out of money the next time an auto worker retires.

In addition, Richard Foster, Medicare’s chief actuary, said that the Medicare savings that are supposed to make this good news possible might not be realistic. How much longer will Mr. Foster keep his job?  

But even if the savings were realistic, the administration plans to spend them on expanding Medicare coverage. There go the savings.  But what good is saving money if you can’t spend it on something else. It’s like you deciding not to buy a new car with money you don’t have and instead spending what you just saved by not buying that car on a trip to Paris.  But that’s pretty much how the federal government works.  It spends money it doesn’t have. Then announces it found savings in a program it didn’t have money for in the first place so that it can spend it on another program it doesn’t have money for.  

We just don’t realize how expensive it is to save money.