A Healthy Approach to Reaching Tolerance

Once upon a time, Ignorance and Fear of the Unknown got married and had children. They named them Prejudice and Bigotry.

This is not a fairy tale. It is a true story. Prejudice and Bigotry survive to this day, as do Ignorance and Fear of the Unknown. They reproduce wherever people who are ignorant of other people's religions, races, nationalities or anything else that makes them different from the masses are afraid to learn more about them. They deliberately avoid them, or worse. They discriminate against them out of fear that they won't know how to deal with them as the equals they should know they are.

The days of men selling their brothers as slaves are ancient history, but the practice of looking down on people who have different lifestyles, skin colors or even gender continue. Since most people grow up in environments that include both genders, this last one is especially interesting. So is prejudice against people of different ages. Whoever lives anywhere near an average number of years will have belonged to each of the age groups, yet many will be prejudiced against one or another of the groups somewhere along the way. Most will have been victims of the same sort of prejudice at least once.

Tolerance.org is devoted to eliminating bigotry and prejudice. The word "tolerance" does not mean putting up with things of which you've never been particularly fond. It means acceptance and respect and appreciation of differences in people. Unfortunately, there is not another word in the English language that describes living in an open-minded manner and respecting differences of opinion and life. There are many articles about how to teach and practice tolerance and how to recognize and react to acts of bigotry on www.tolerance.org. There is also a map of the U.S. which shows where to find social justice groups

Even if there is not a group in your area that promotes tolerance, or if the time schedules of the groups and you conflict, you can learn about ways to practice tolerance. Reading about how to speak up when you see acts of bias, or just speaking up and pointing out that they are wrong is a start.

Realizing that it is quite possible to respect people while not agreeing with them on everything is something that is difficult for some to learn. In days of old, it was possible to live without interacting with anyone except one's own small group. In this era though, this is virtually impossible unless one chooses to live in a cave. A cave is not likely to be a place to live happily ever after.