To be, or not to be -- tolerant. That is the question.
The International
Day for Tolerance has been observed annually on this day since 1995 to generate
public awareness of the dangers of intolerance. The UN
General Assembly proclaimed 1995 as the United
Nations Year for Tolerance with UNESCO as
the lead organization.
The idea and practice of tolerance was
widely promoted in schools in many member states. Tolerance was held to be an
'endangered virtue' in many parts of the world, particularly those who were
under racial and religious wars, such as those in Bosnia and Rwanda.
UNESCO suggested that five key planks were required to overcome
intolerance: Law, Education, access to
information, individual awareness, and local solutions. Thus, tolerance is a political, legal and
moral duty to protect and preserve human rights. It seems redundant to have this day and
December 10th focus on this self-evident essential priority of human
rights but given humanities resistance to placing human rights above the rights
of governments there should probably be a few other days devoted to such
wisdom.
Long before the UN spiritual leaders and wise nationals have
understood the grand need for tolerance of human differences.
George Washington’s letter to the Touro Synagogue in
Newport, R.I. told Jews in our new nation that “The government of the United
States…gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance… May the
children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and
enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants – while every one shall sit in
safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him
afraid”.
Washington wasn’t lying.
But what he said is yet to be true.
Too many Americans remain intolerant of Jewish people as exhibited recently in Pittsburgh. Jews have experienced
such intolerance and persecution globally for millennium. But they are not alone. Intolerance of others remains alive and growing
within the US in multiple forms as recent
FBI statistics indicate a 15% increase just over just the last year.
I’m guessing that the germ of intolerance resides in our
human genome. That may explain why Neanderthals
are extinct. And, since 1945 and the
world said “Never Again” there has been over 15 genocides taking the lives of
well over 20 million people. And during each genocide the ruling government and the majority of people stood by and did nothing or participated.
November 16th offers us one more day to seriously examine the
costs of global intolerance. It would be wise to figure out why some people
still harbor intolerance for minor tribal, political, national, or genetic
differences. It may be in our DNA but
that doesn’t mean it justifies murder or mass murder.
There are things we can do
to prevent it. The idea of civilization is to overcome our worse
instincts. To squash the brutality of too much freedom or
democracy. We must act globally, or the costs could be catastrophic
to entire human genome types. Shockingly dangerous is the fact that the
evolution of biotechnology is now capable of yielding biogenetic weapons
capable of targeting specific gene profiles with global ultra-genocide
capacity.
But there’s another form of
intolerance that kills more people than genocide. It’s our
intolerance of new and sensible ideas. Our close
mindedness. And we are all guilty of it. Too often we are just too
tolerant. Like accepting without question the views, beliefs
and behaviors of our President or the majority of U.S. policy makers when they
pass legislation that allows US weapon sales to Saudi
Arabia. Hundreds of billions worth in weapons, targeting information,
and bomber refueling - with full knowledge that our tax dollars are paying for
these assets -- and that they are killing innocent Yemeni men, women and
children by the thousands. And even contributing to the literal
starvation of millions more. And we tolerate it. Along
with environmental policies that we know are heating up our climate and causing
a mass extinction of plants, animals and insects. Policies that are
tolerant of our government’s intolerance of immigrants and
refugees. And, excessively tolerance for our U.S. foreign policy and
personal demand for illegal drugs that both yield millions of refugees seeking
asylum in our nation and others.
How is it that we remain so
tolerant of the persistent injustices that are both within our own so called
‘justice system’ and our so called ‘defense and counter-terrorism policy’
abroad?
A more accurate description of
the problem is our selective tolerance. There are certainly things
we should never tolerate, like not taking our pledge of allegiance before our
flag seriously. Ignoring this pledge breach the moment we remove our
right hand from the left side of our chest should be simply intolerable.
Being more tolerant of
views we don’t like or understand may be as important now to our civilization
as being intolerant of actions (ours and our nations) that are inconsistent
with the golden rule.
Use this day (and perhaps
every day) to be more selective about what you tolerate and find intolerable.
Our planet, our species and
our children’s children depend on it.
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