Monday, May 26, 2008
Intolerant
Normally I post here about my crochet projects. I've been traveling quite a bit on business, and haven't crocheted nearly as much as I would like, so I don't have any projects to post about. Instead, I'm going to post about something that's been on my mind.

I like to think of myself as a fairly open-minded and tolerant person, but lately I find myself feeling rather intolerant and it's disturbing. I'm intolerant with all the intolerance that I've been subjected to. Lately I've felt bombarded with intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and outright hatred, and it's making me irritable.

This country was founded on the principals that all men are equal yet lately I've seen a trend towards separatism and intolerance based on race, culture and religion. This country once prided itself as being a great melting pot. A place where people of any race, religion, or culture could live together in peace. A place where we respected our unique differences and embraced our commonalities. What happened to that?

Maybe I've been blind or maybe I've been lucky because I didn't grow up seeing a lot of hatred and intolerance. Now I do, and frankly it scares me.

I had a religious upbringing. I was taught what my family believed and how we practiced our religion, and that others practiced in their own way. One wasn't better than the other. One wasn't right or wrong - we just had different beliefs and different ways of expressing them, but they were all based on goodness. I was taught to respect others' beliefs. In the past few weeks on many occasions I've been confronted about religious differences and how there is only one right way to think, pray or believe. Frankly, that offends me.

In the past few weeks I have seen spam e-mail spewing horribly hateful white supremest ideas. E-mail so hateful to so many different ethnic, religious, and cultural groups that I wonder who that hateful author has left not to hate.

So I have lost my tolerance. I'm angered and disgusted by the bigotry that I see around me. I still believe that most people are good. I still believe that respecting one another, respecting our earth and our environment, and living for a greater good beyond one's own well-being are the things that make a person good. The color of one's skin, the house of worship that one chooses, the language that one speaks doesn't make a person good or bad - their actions do.

So, I'm questioning the goodness of those around me who preach intolerance, and I'm saddened.

Today is Memorial Day - a day for us to honor the memory of those who fought for our freedoms. They fought for us to have a better country and a better world. Hatred and bigotry will keep us from achieving their goals. They deserve better than this.


1 Comments:

Blogger Sandy said...

I understand why you feel as you do. Unfortuantely you see on TV, you read in the papers and here on the net about intollerances. People shuffing their ideas/beliefs onto others. And is it wrong. What concerns me most is how each little group now things their belief puts them outside the law...it doesn't. Too many separate communities/churches/schools/gated to keep out the rest etc. That builds disrespect, and mistrust.

But...even with all that, I do still belief most people are good, it's just we see more of the bad.

Hugs and hang in there. Hook something and you'll feel better. Promise!

Swing by for a visit,
Sandy

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