Tolerance (tf)

Nobody seems to have tolerance for anything anymore.

If somebody is different, or just looks different, people pounce.

Agreeing to disagree is a quaint little saying. Folks don’t really agree to disagree anymore. They just clutch signs and take turns yelling at each other over rope-lines. Especially if there are cameras around. Everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame, so if to get it they feel the need to wave a sign bashing gay people or Planned Parenthood, well so be it. They can settle in a few hours later with their loved ones and watch the 6 O’clock news. So proud. “Look dear, there’s Mommy! See the foam coming out of her mouth?”

Civility? What’s that.

For the record….I should share my thoughts on the hot social issues of the day. I shall be succinct.

I am pro-choice. I don’t know when “life” begins. And as a man, it seems a bit cheeky to lecture a woman on what she wants to do with her own body. The day I become pregnant, maybe I’ll feel differently.

I have no issue with somebody who is “pro-life”, as long as they don’t pervert the meaning by being pro-war and pro-death penalty. You’re either all in, or you’re out. And when a child is born and you support every draconian measure to cut social services for that child…well….you lose a butt-load of credibility there too. You can’t love the fetus and then treat the actual child as a good for nothing future crack smoking lazy-ass drain on your taxes. Not sure that’s what Jesus would do.

If you are legitimately pro-life…in all its various permutations, then I salute you. You are surely a better person than I. But I haven’t met you yet. Show yourself.

If you’re gay….good for you. I hope you’ve found your life partner. Your sex life doesn’t concern me anymore than the sex lives of my heterosexual friends. That is, it doesn’t concern me at all. If there’s one thing we should all agree on it’s that what 2 consenting adults do in their bedroom is nobody else’s business. It really is as simple as that. Get married. Become parents. Sleep on the couch when your partner is pissed at you. Fight over the toilet seat. I see no reasons why heterosexuals should have all the fun.

I’m not sure why gay people threaten certain conservatives so much. More and more it seems that those who are the most vociferous in their condemnation are trolling airport men’s rooms…..so perplexed are they about their own sexuality. A bit of overcompensation to throw off the scent of the dogs. These folks are the holy grail of Psychiatry, and are the main reason why gay-bashers seem so cartoonish these days. Like book-burners without matches. Really fellas, it’s time to find a new boogeyman. The lesbians across the street are harmless.

Our national discourse has become positively poisonous. The upcoming Presidential election will surely divide us even more, if that’s possible. It’s no longer ideological differences, it’s red-in-the-face hatred. As a nation we so distrust each other that the majority seem willing to kill a national health-care mandate just so they can ensure that the less fortunate don’t get anything for “free”. They are helped along in this by a brazenly partisan Supreme Court, who recently ruled that it’s now completely legal for Police to do an anal probe on somebody stopped for a (perceived) traffic violation. We greet such news with a shrug, not because we approve of it, but because, considering the 5 conservative zealots on the bench, we’re not surprised by the ruling in the least.

We are at least tolerant, therefore, of the intolerance of others.

We seem incapable of living by the “golden rule”…..that catchy saying that kinda covers all the important and non-redundant stuff Moses found on that rock back in the bible days. The “do unto others” thing.

Seems to me that if we can’t do unto others, we can at least mind our own damn business. If you’re against abortion don’t have one. If you think birth control is a sin, cross your fingers and roll that dice. If you don’t like gays, stay away from them. If you don’t want government in the heath-care arena, go bleed in front of a private clinic. If you think Obama is the anti-christ, vote for the guy who believes in the angel Moroni.

But please do so quietly and respectfully. Nobody ever had their mind changed by getting screamed at by a guy with a sign.

–Tom Flannery

~ by admin on April 11, 2012.