(11/12/2001)

What are some examples of tolerance and intolerance? How does tolerance affect our lives?

by Amanda Reiser

There are so many good examples of tolerance that it’s hard to choose just one. So, I’m going to talk about several.

First, Gandhi. When there were fights, he would always try to speak and listen instead of fight. He was always a peaceful man and taught people to use passive resistance instead of violence. He said and wrote many things about tolerance. Once he said, “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and thetest of our civilization.”

Another person who showed tolerance was Martin Luther King, Jr. My dad has a phrase that described Mr. King’s view. “I can tolerate anything but intolerance.” MLK wouldn’t tolerate whites treating blacks differently. Both he and Gandhi were killed by people who were intolerant of their ideas.

Jimmy Carter is another good example of tolerance. He helped Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty after years of intolerance between the two countries.

My last example is from my own family. My aunt is so tolerant of other races that she married a man from Tonga. After they divorced, she married an African American man. So, I have two cousins that look very different from me, one from each marriage.

I think tolerance is a good thing, but as I’ve been trying, I know it’s hard to be tolerant sometimes. The world would be a better place if everyone was more tolerant.

The Day of No Tolerance

by Harrison Reiser

RRRRIIIIING! Ugh, I can't tolerate that awful sound, you think. You get up and slap the alarm clock, then walk over to the bathroom. Your brother is already there. "I won't tolerate this! Get out!" you yell. He walks out, shocked. At the breakfast table, you moan, "Yuck, I'm not tolerating this guck." Your mom doesn't tolerate your behavior and sends you off to the bus stop.

When you get to school, you can't tolerate the problems your teacher gives you. "Well, I don't tolerate your whining!" she says, sending you to the pricipal. The principal of course doesn't tolerate it either, but then you shout, "I don't tolerate this school!!" The pricipal gives you detention until afternoon recess.
After a miserable school day, you flop down on the couch, flipping channels on the TV. "I don't tolerate this boring junk," you say, turning the TV off. Your mom comes in the room and yells, "I do NOT tolerate this! Go up to your room and finish your homework!!" You stomp up the stairs to your room and angrily slam the light switch.

As you work on your homework, you notice a hard problem you cannot solve. You don't tolerate it and throw your homework out the window. Your dad is outside, mowing the lawn, and barely misses shredding it into pieces. "I cannot tolerate that child!!!" he screams at the top of his lungs. He marches up the stairs and yells, "DO YOUR HOMEWORK NOW OR NO DESSERT FOR TWO WEEKS!!"

Once done with every last problem, you get in bed. Your mom comes in, turns your light off and tucks you in bed. When she leaves, you think, Phew! I'm glad not every day is like that.

November 16 has been proclaimed the "International Day of Tolerance" by UNESCO. What can you do to learn to be more tolerant?