April 2000 newsletter

Tolerance

What is it?

"Recognition of and respect for the opinions, beliefs or actions of others." Websters

"...tolerance is not...indifference. It consists of valuing the right of another Path up the mountain... person to hold beliefs that you know absolutely to be wrong." Anon

"The...ideal is not that we all agree with each other, or even like each other, every minute of the day. It is rather that we will respect each other's rights, especially the right to be different, and that, at the end of the day, we will understand that we are one people,...one community, and that our well-being is inextricably bound up with the well-being of each and every one..."
Arthur J. Kropp, former U.S. Surgeon General

"On 1999-JUN-22, President Clinton commented on the gradual, step-wise descent into genocide in Kosovo. He emphasized the symbolic role that the U.S. Armed forces played. Within the military, there is respect for religious diversity and freedom for minority religions. He gave a congratulatory talk to troops at Aviano Air Base in Italy, recognizing their efforts during the air war against Yugoslavia. He said in part:

"...tomorrow's dictators in other places will have to now take a harder look before they try to destroy or expel an entire people simply because of their race or religion...

I want to say a special word of appreciation to all of you in our Armed Forces for just being here. If you think about -- I want you to really think about it -- you think about what Kosovo is all about. People were taught to hate people who were from a different ethnic group than they were, who worshipped God in a different way. They started out by being afraid of them and misunderstanding them. Then, they came to hate them. And then after hating them for a good while, they came to dehumanize them.

And once you decide that someone you're looking at is no longer a human being, it's not so hard to justify killing them, or burning them out of house and home, or torturing their children, or doing all the other things you have heard. It all starts -- it all starts with the inability to recognize the inherent dignity and equality of someone who is different from ourselves.

The composition of our Armed Forces, with people from every race, every ethnic group, every religious persuasion, from all walks of life, that make up American society -- the fact that our military has all of you in it is the most stunning rebuke to the claims of ethnic cleansing."

From the Declaration of Independence of the United States

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"...a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people".

Go to the United Nations site to read this
51 year old document in its entirity.

World Goodwill

World Goodwill is an organised movement founded in 1932 to help establish right human relations and solve humanity's problems through the constructive power of goodwill. World Goodwill's activities are essentially educational.

The work of World Goodwill is based on the principles of brotherhood, human unity, sharing and cooperation; and on the fundamental rights and freedoms embodied in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. World Goodwill is a world service organisation practising the principle of non-discrimination in race, religion, ideology, and political and economic convictions.

For more information go to:

Lucis Trust/World Goodwill

There are many organizations around the world who are dealing with some aspect of this problem. They need our support to expand the work they are doing. Check out the brief description of these groups on our pages. Then go to the groups own websites to see how you might help.

Before we can work to solve a problem we must understand its causes. Exploring these websites and the information they offer can be a first step toward helping to solve this world problem.

A few groups working to promote tolerance:

Southern Poverty Law Center is a non-profit organization that combats hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation. Its programs include Teaching Tolerance and the Intelligence Project.

http://www.splcenter.org/

Do Something
"young people have the power to change the world"

"change starts with ourselves - when we take personal action to benefit others"

http://www.dosomething.org/

Association for Religion and Intellectual Life/Cross Currents Online provides "the very best thought and writing being done on the world's major faith traditions" as well as recommended resources for better
understanding of religious traditions
and the interaction between them.
http://aril.org/

International Interfaith Centre website describes the aims and activities of this Oxford, England-based organization and offers extensive listings of interfaith resources.

http://www.interfaith-center.org

The North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) is "a non-profit association with a membership of more than 60 interfaith organizations and agencies throughout
Canada and the United States.

http://www.nain.org

Beliefnet.com describes itself as "the ambitious venture-capital-backed multifaith "supersite"
on religion, spirituality and morality."

http://www.beliefnet.com/

We hope you will choose to find out more about these fine groups and the work they are doing for us all.

What you can do to help...

Check out the list from Southern Poverty Law Center's called "Ten Ways to Fight Hate":

For the young people in your life check out the Teaching Tolerance program as well as the Do Something "Kindness & Justice Challenge", which is a school-based character education and service learning program that encourages millions of students to perform Acts of Kindness (helping others) and Justice (standing up for what is right) for two weeks in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday. In 1999, students at more than 17,000 schools in all fifty states performed more than 2,000,000 Acts of Kindness and Justice to keep Dr. King's dream alive.

To learn more about this program go to the Do Something website.