Inside Mesa

Tolerance is defined in the dictionary as follows: 1- The capacity for respecting the beliefs or practices of others. 2- Leeway for variations from a standard. Tolerance is a word I have been hearing a lot lately. It is a word that has religious, philosophical and political implications. Tolerance is a wonderful word, it is a wonderful concept. Unfortunately, it is a concept that is being abused. We are being asked on a regular basis to embrace tolerance, but what are we being asked to be tolerant of? I am not going to point the finger here and say that I am speaking of this issue or that issue. I am going to suggest that before you embrace something, ask yourself if this is really something that we need to embrace as a society. The second definition of the word is a "leeway for variations of a standard." So we have established that we do have standards from which we work. My contention is that we are forever changing the standard, therefore as a society we are forced to tolerate more and more. I suspect that there is an ever decaying ring around that which protects society. I know that in the name of tolerance we have come a long way. We have seen civil rights rise from the ashes of a dream to become a reality. We have moved from the dark ages of aggression to an era of spreading liberty and freedom to people around the world. However, it is imperative that as a society we don’t tolerate too much and as a society I fear that is exactly where we are. Ask yourself if you are comfortable raising your children today? Do you like what your children see daily? Do you like what they are taught in public schools? Do you like the information that is out there at the tips of their precious fingers? Are the stories of teachers having sex with their students comforting to you? Do you like the examples being set by some of the corporate executives that are on trial for embezzling money? Do you like the great political divide that has occurred in this country and the vitriolic language that is being used between the parties? Do you like what the courts in this country have become? You see tolerance is what got us where we are. Good and bad, tolerance has delivered us to this time in history. The danger is that if we begin to tolerate anything eventually we will tolerate everything. Tolerance must be tempered with a societal common standard while protecting individual freedoms. Pretty tricky stuff isn’t it? So the next time you hear someone preaching tolerance ask yourself, where is this tolerance going to lead us?