“Tolerance implies a gratuitous assumption of the inferiority of other faiths to one’s own” Mahatma Ghandi said that. Martin Luther King also spoke of acceptance based on our character. So what is the problem here? Why is it that we spend so much time paying lip service to tolerance and modifying our stance on relevant issues?
I am a conservative, former military and believe in our exceptionalism as a nation. But even before our nation I put the life of one person. Yes wars do diminish us all and sadly there will be people like Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. I cannot put myself in the place of any parent who sees their daughter raped and the emotions that are soon to follow.
Jadedness, bitterness and alacrity becomes imprinted on our souls. We sense our pain and carry that grief and attack other peoples choices. I am not talking about child molestation because the anxiety and fear are relatively justifiable.
If I have a superseding value it is that all life is intrinsically valuable. That means that every single person should have food and housing. I do not want to hear that a child is expendable because of her parents or for that matter, divine providence.
In our military we teach fighting and no fear and that seems to entail a brutality to the perceived or declared enemy. Imagine this scenario but today a child and wife or parent has lost their boy. Let’s say he is 19 and so is she. How do we reconcile that loss when the family member hears of the passing of their loved ones? Remember I made no one the villain because as I see it, it is the politician who gets to make that judgment.
I have what many may consider ‘liberal ideas’ but to be honest I consider to be humane values according to my beliefs. It pisses me off when men abuse women in the name of religion. I am a Christian but it matters not what that belief system is to others.
The men fore example who stoke the flames of bigotry pontificate about the relative evils of those who voted for President Reagan. Many cheered and celebrated his death while shedding tears for Ted Kennedy who abandoned a young woman who drowned. I celebrated neither death nor do I cheer deaths in general. Even Saddam’s hanging was no victory. It was the sad conclusion to a monster’s demise.
I do not respect the Muslim religion per se, but I leave room for the human condition that needs some kind of sacred mooring. A reason to live or even spread harmony in a world of angst and frustration. We do hate child molesters and child rapists! But wait!
That 22 year old woman is part girl but still an adult. Is she intrinsically less valuable than a 17 year old? Any tragedy is a tragedy and not by a degree and even though we are angry and shocked we must remember that they too were babies at one time. What happens next to them predicates how they may respond. Some of this is genetic. Some people that appear high or not particularly lucid may be aphasic, developmentally delayed of brain-damaged in some way.
It is then by proxy that some become monsters and hurt us all. All of us are children in the spiritual sense and we need to be warriors to protect all people. And most of us have some form of prejudicial attitudes towards someone or some things.
The field of Neuropsychology is evolving rapidly and understanding the bizarre might give us clues to who may be the next Eileen Wornos or Ted Bundy. I would think prevention is better than having to execute a person. I for one would rather have my child alive than proclaiming our outrage.
I also have an issue with the judicial system which is a system of classification of individuals with the bottom-line really dollars. Yep, because if you consider a retainer to a lawyer, court costs and other expenses, it is a lucrative set-up. The difference between criminal law and let’s say bankruptcy laws is remarkable. Likewise cops need to know that a person is innocent until adjudicated as a criminal.
What is a criminal? Can a person rise about that classification? No tolerance policies are like the chains that bound Scrooge and Jacob Marley. The take away point is humanity. A debtor who cannot pay back his debt suffers. The family suffers and the parents fight. Caught in this kind of time tunnel, scarred children march forwards will little humanity. We do not ask questions but we need our pound of flesh.
In conclusion we condemn people who are free. They no longer can get a job and you know they will find a way to survive and unfortunately the range of victims increase.
I think we need to man/woman-up and draw lines in the sand. Not for retribution but for compassion and by the way, most conservatives believe in fairness though they may disagree with each other.
Some heroes to me. President Reagan for re-instilling hope and pride in our military. To state clearly how special we are. President Obama for being the first black president. President Carter with his work with Habitat for Humanity. Bob Gibson, the negro pitcher of the St. Louis Cardinals back in the day. His savvy and perceptions kept him human. A private man who had a heart and was singularly focused. HE IS MY HERO EVEN TODAY!!!!
We had Waymon Tisdale and a country singer who enjoyed the presence of each other. I guess we need to get off our asses and stop blaming each other for things out of our control. We should not abuse prisoners because they did awful things but show them what the right thing is.
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