After seeing both the recent news of Osama bin Laden's death, and people's reaction to it, I thought I might put out a word or two on tolerance. First of all, there are congratulations to be made to those that achieved their end of bringing down America's most wanted fugitive.
However, celebrating a victory should not be equated with celebrating the man's death. No one should be glad to hear of a death, even of a man who probably single-handedly caused the deaths of over three thousand on 9/11/2001. For one thing, there is the real possibility that his death has made him a martyr for his cause, which is the very last thing we need.
Yet, I have seen people proclaiming "I wish I had pulled that trigger!".
Hate begets hatred, and whether we like it or not, the actions of the United States in the middle east arena has won us few friends there, to say the least.
I have seen people quoting George Bush as saying "we will not rest until we get him", and giving Bush the credit for bin Laden's defeat, when Bush himself had given up on finding him, and had even said it was unimportant in his "war on terror". The mere fact that Obama is sitting president and current commander-in-chief, and actually approved the action, needs not be acknowledged, apparently.
Of course, their are folks on the other end of the political spectrum that are now proclaiming that Obama has now proven he keeps his political promises, and that "now those nay-sayers will have to accept that Obama knows what he's doing".
Neither political extreme (let's be honest, not even those just barely past the middle on either side) will allow themselves to even hear the other side's arguments, let alone seriously consider their merits.
In addition to this madness we are showing for all the world to see, we now have a wave of militant patriotism sweeping the country again, as we did after 9/11.
One question bothers me: where were the flag-wavers before they heard the news? While I am all for patriotism, I think that waving the flag after defeating the enemy we have been facing for over ten years smacks of belligerence.
Waving it beforehand is defiance, afterwards seems in poor taste.
I think it's time we considered what tolerance means in our modern society. We should have respect for other's opinions, even when they differ from our own; but that is difficult when those opinions are expressed in disparaging terms.
We should be respectful of other culture than our own, and realize the different peoples place different values on different things.
A little tolerance and respect for others might well be the only way we will ever unite, without an outside force like the 9/11 attacks to unite us against a common enemy.
Jesus said "Love thy neighbor" when asked which of the commandments was the greatest, perhaps we should remember that.
