I want to know your opinion. (1) What exactly is tolerance? (2) Where's the fine line between taking a stand for what you believe and intolerance? (3) Can we really preach tolerance, yet turn around and complain when a law or rule is enacted in the name of tolerance? (4) When, if ever, should we be intolerant of tolerance? In the name of fair play, I'll answer my own questions.

     (1) Tolerance is defined as "sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from one's own"; "the allowable deviation from a standard"; and, "capacity for enduring or adapting". - The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 1989. To me, tolerance is allowing other people to live their lives or believe what they want to believe unless their actions or words go against the laws under which we live. Tolerance means the elimination of prejudices based on gender, race, religion, nationality, etc.
     (2) To me, the fine line between taking a stand and intolerance lies at the point where we infringe on the Constitutional rights of an individual or group. If you live outside the United States, that means infringing on the person's rights as outlined by your government. Some people see my choice not to link my websites to certain other sites, those containing what I believe are false Christian teachings or the teachings of other religions, as intolerance. In my opinion, this is me taking a stand for the truth. It would be intolerance if I got involved with a group working to censor such sites and eliminate them from the internet.
     (3) We can't stand up and try to convince other people we should be tolerant of everyone, yet turn around and start whining when tolerance is accepted and incorporated into the laws of the land. I've heard so many people complaining about the elimination of Christian symbols from public buildings. These same people would "pitch a fit" if the Christian symbols were allowed to remain, but in the name of tolerance symbols from other religions were allowed to posted. Whether or not you consider America a "Christian nation", tolerance has to go both ways. If it doesn't, one side or the other is being intolerant.
     (4) This is related to number 3. To put it in the simplest form: It's intolerant of anyone to tell me I have to tolerate everyone else's opinions, beliefs, foul language, or whatever then not tolerate my opinions, beliefs, or whatever because they come off as sounding intolerant of other people.

     The only way we're ever going to all get along and be completely tolerant of everyone else in this world is when we all get some kind of brain implant which makes us all believe the same, talk the same, and act the same. I don't know about all of you, but I'd rather live with a little intolerance and be in a world where people aren't all carbon copies of each other. We can try to understand each other and learn from each other, but I'll never compromise my beliefs and my integrity by doing something which goes against those deeply held beliefs. If I'm being intolerant, that's just how it's going to have to be.

     Whether you're a Christian or not, there's no room for racism in this world. There never was. Ask yourself why you look at certain people and automatically dislike them. Most people can answer that question in one of two ways. The first is they've had personal conflicts with a person from a certain race or nationality. The other reason is because they've been raised to hate certain people because someone in their family or people in their community are racist. We learn by the example of the people around us.
     Don't base your opinions of everyone within a group by what you've seen in a very small part of the group. If I did that, I'd hate everyone. I'm serious! In 42 years, I've been around a lot of different people probably covering every known group of people in this world. This means I've met and gotten to know people from different countries, religions, lifestyle groups, careers, etc. I'll be the first to admit there are some people within all those groups I don't like and don't want to be around. But I'm not racist, a bigot, or ready to label everyone within those groups as a lesser human being.
     The worst thing you can do is hate an entire group of people because you've been taught those people are something less than human or because you think some people don't belong here - wherever "here" is for you. Look at the way hate groups such as the KKK and skinheads act. Just because you may not go that far, take a look at your own actions and listen to your own words. I have an aunt who will tell you she's not racist, yet she'll say things like "I like black people. I think everyone should own one". That's racism! My grandmother tried to avoid Asians - all of them. Why? Because when she saw an Asian person, her first thought was Japanese. Her second thought was they bombed Pearl Harbor. That's racism! The hate groups yell about how all non-whites should be sent back to Africa or Mexico or wherever. What they overlook is the fact many of these people and their families have been citizens of this country for many years. Wanting to ship them home because someone feels those people weren't originally here is racism!
     Historical facts in the US: White, European ancestry is NOT the original culture and people in this country. If anyone should be yelling to ship people back to where they came from, it's the Native Americans or, to be more PC, the First Nations. The natives were the frist focus of racism. Then we look at dark-skinned people (I'd say African-American, but not all of them were originally from Africa). Slavery led to a belief these people were more closely related to animals than humans. Japanese-Americans (and other Asians) were rounded up during the world war and placed in interment camps for no other reason than racism disguised as protecting the US from attacks within by anyone of Japanese or Asian descent. Now it's Latinos (not all of which are Mexican or Cuban) and people of Arabic descent. People are looking at every Latino or Spanish speaking person as an illegal alien (an often misplaced assumption) and every person who looks like they're from the middle east as a terrorist.
     We may never be able to completely rid this (or your) country of racism because there will always be people who have inferiority complexes and can only feel better about themselves by degrading other people. What we can do is get rid of racism in our lives and teach our family and friends to base our opinions on people as individuals and by seeing they all have worth - and not just as a scapegoat, to be the focus of our jokes, or as cheap labor.