Tolerance?

Every so often you see something that makes you wonder.

It could be something good or something bad, but it just doesn't fit into your version of reality so you have to adjust.

Now, I used to think that religious people had principles that led them, such as love thy neighbor or do good works.

Now history shows that religious people have performed some of the worst abuses, and in certain countries still do.

Stoning sinners, burning heretics, wiping out entire populations of heretics, were clearly things that had ties to religion.

However, naively I guess, I felt I lived in a country, and a time where we acknowledge differences but accepted other people's rights.

Now accepting someone's right to be "wrong" can be hard, especially if you think it condemns them to hell.  However, you tolerate their beliefs and they tolerate yours.

Agree to disagree is sort of the phrase I would use to describe our current state of affairs in this country.

However, more recent events have revealed that the intolerant side of religion is alive and well.

I'm not just talking about the anti-abortion advocates who have an argument about protecting the unborn,  This extends to questioning the lifestyle choices of others.

I also find their insistence that this is a Christian country rather intolerant.  If you consider the Vikings, the first Europeans here weren't even Christian and the Native Americans weren't.

Its not very Christian, at least my version of Christianity to give out smallpox infested blankets or to enslave people or to routinely massacre Native American women and children.

Then again maybe it is, maybe it is.

Makes you wonder.

Tolerance

A lot of people claimed that American values were in danger and to some extent the election was impacted by people who wanted to restore these values.

Now the only value that has ever made America great was tolerance.

However, they are confusing American values with intolerance for others

Now if you don't go into the armed forces your chances of being hurt by a foreign terrorist are slim.

If you don't live in one of the likely targets (generally big cities) the chances become much slimmer.

In fact the likelihood is almost non-existent for most Americans.  Not zero, but pretty slim.

We have however made a big deal out of it and certainly we should never let our guard down, but the real danger is that some troubled person who is here legally will become radicalized and do something, i.e. the Boston Marathon or the Orlando Nightclub.  They might have nothing to do with Islam.

The people coming here to escape fighting or to start a new life are not the ones we should worry about, especially since they are already extensively vetted.

In general they are more invested in making a new life for themselves. We all  know that being an immigrant has always been difficult, leaving what you know behind and starting over amid challenges and hostility. 

If something in your life isn't going the way you want it to, its unlikely to be an immigrants fault.  Not the refugees, not the ones who come here on visas, and not the ones who come here without documents.

There are of course criminal elements that operate in multiple countries, like the Russian mob or Mexican cartels and they are criminals.  Some of the people moving back and forth have associations with these groups and others, smuggling people, drugs and weapons etc. and we should do what we can to stop them.  However, the person with a family who works in a low paying job to support his family isn't the problem.  In fact, more of them are leaving recently, the ones who are staying are invested in this country and have become Americans.

The hate and fear exhibited by so many is simply wrong and in-American.  Lets restore the true American value of tolerance and stop being paranoid.

The Intolerance of Americans

One of the things that seems clearer and clearer over the years is that most people in this country really don't believe in American values as expressed in the Constitution.

They don't believe in freedom of religion unless its freedom to be a Christian.

They don't believe in freedom of the press, they prefer lies.

Concerning due process, they don't care if the police gun down "certain people" in the streets.

Many of them aren't all that found of equal protection provisions.

They don't really want the checks and balances provided for, prefer a strongman who does what he wants.

The list goes on unfortunately.

Luckily, the constitution was written for exactly this situation, to protect the individual from the mob.

Of course, the courts are therefore driving these people crazy, protecting people who they don't think deserve protection.

It makes them so mad they drop their Christian values too, which require us to love one another.

Hate the sin but not the sinner is forgotten by them as they have a whole lot of hate to go around.

Except they have a lot of love for the people who actually oppress them, the business people and owners who shut down the factories and the coal mines to maximize profits.

Somehow they think it was the Government, and the Government is generally controlled by those people, so they let it happen. 

But it was done to make more money, not to promote some Government policy. 

Free trade is loved by big business which pretty much guarantees it isn't going away. 

What will happen is that business will have to pay less taxes so benefits will go away.

The deficit will increase.

Those Americans will have to learn a skill or get used to scrubbing rich people's toilets.

No one is going to care except when they need you to vote, and since you buy into all the lying, that's not a big problem either.