The Best of 'Everybody Has One'

Painting Over the Asbestos

Originally printed in the Centreville Press August 4th, 2010

One can’t cure cancer by simply painting over the asbestos. 

Europe’s greatest mistake over the past 50 years has been the serving up of tolerance.  Contrary to the popular belief tolerance and understanding are not synonymous.  Understanding is comprehension and enlightenment.  If one understands how or why another possesses a certain belief or practice, it can lead to coexistence.  Tolerance is forced acceptance.  It creates caged animosity.  This is how fires ignite just before reaching the powder keg.

In the United States tolerance has become the word of the century. While some of those who use the word have the best intentions, it can be a dangerous game.  The difference between tolerance and understanding can be discovered by how those words are used in dealing with individuals.  “Bob has his moments, but I understand.”  That’s a fair assessment of Bob.  It is something a friend would say about him.  “Bob has his moments, but I tolerate him.”  That’s not so fair. This suggestion pacifies a part of who Bob is.  If Bob’s spouse said this, he might consider marriage counseling.  While Bob’s wife might be tolerating him, the mailman might be understanding Bob’s wife. 

Two parties do not have to agree in order to understand one another.  Yet in the heart of the illusionary world called “tolerance” two parties neither understand nor agree.  Tolerance is neither an education nor a solution.  The wall of asbestos is still there, only with a nice coat of eggshell over the top.

Humanity has spent far too little time understanding and wasted its entire existence on judgment, exorcism, and brutality.  We judge those we don’t agree with, despite our similarities.  We exorcise those we don’t understand despite the fact that those we exorcise do not understand us.  We brutalize those who offend us, despite the fact that their offense is the result of our offense to them.  It is not making sense.

We use labels to itemize one another extensively enough, that it should make us wonder if anybody is human anymore? 

We have philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, biology, somatology, criminology, eschatology, etiology, anthropology, and cosmetology.  Meanwhile some of us are still waiting for an apology because all of these ologies are creating more reasons to study pathology. 

We have an answer for everything and yet have answered nothing.  These studies are meant to create comprehension and therefore lead to understanding.  The results, indicate ways to comprehension yet once something is diagnosed we don’t educate, but medicate with heavy doses of tolerance.

Political correctness is our version of tolerance.  It is a poison much more cancerous than cigarettes.  It has grown on the walls of American infrastructure for a short time, but has spread rapidly.  Liberty and common sense are choking.  The alternatives to the PC world are flame spewing neo-cons or iron fist idealists.  There is little centricity left in the United States.  Those who do remain in the center are left mute and defined by propagated movements.  These movements are only screaming to paint the asbestos walls another color.  Nobody of any persuasion has even considered knocking the walls down.

With all of this asbestos seeping into our lungs, we haven’t even considered where it all went wrong.  The real problem is that we put up walls to begin with.  We should all be breathing fresh air, looking our neighbor in the eyes, and having conversations, which lead to understanding.  We wouldn’t agree on everything but perhaps we would learn to appreciate our diversities. Perhaps we would accept that universal thing within each of us.  We’re all human, for better or worse.  When we paint over our differences, we paint over our humanity.  That’s my opinion and everybody has one.