1. What is Tolerance?
An easy way to understand the precept of Tolerance as the foundational principle for liberty-for-all is
to know that it is the opposite of intolerance. In an intolerant society liberty can’t flourish or even
exist. Intolerance is the enemy of democracy and freedom.
Because Tolerance is a reciprocal dynamic it demands respect, stimulates equality, fosters peace
and engenders harmony in difference. In other words, the principle of Tolerance is the friend of
democracy and the common theme for civic cohesion or unity.
As per constitutional promise of 1791, the U.S. government could “make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It pledged that citizens could have
freedom of religion but also be free from religion because Congress could not impose a state (i.e.,
federally mandated), privileged or preferred religion on U.S. citizens.
The conception of American freedom, therefore, means that civil secular law takes precedence over
religious jurisprudence, traditions and behavior – that religion answers to the secular state. All
religions and races however became only “equal and free” effectively through the Bill of Rights
Amendments of 1868 and 1865 respectively.
Where intolerance grows, Tolerance fades. Enabling intolerance (e.g., racial supremacy or religious
coercion/compulsion) through complacency or by remaining silent ensures that liberty-for-all will
wither.
https://www.facebook.com/GovernorsIslandTolerancePark/
"You fit in here. Right here. You're not Muslim or American.
You're Muslim and American."
(President Barack H. Obama - February 3, 2016)