This is why people need to truly be tolerant

Congratulations! You just found the Easter egg of bonus blog writing. Not that I’m hiding this post; but, if you’ve read my blog before then you know that I usually post on Tuesdays. This is obviously a Thursday. I decided to do a random post talking about some issues that have come up as of late. This issue is more serious in nature, not my usual writing, and some people might not want to read it. Thus, I’m giving you an out right now to go do fun things on the internet like look at cats; however, if you choose to stay and read this, just know you might disagree strongly or get upset with some of the things I’m about to say.

I’ve mentioned this before, but thanks to my mom choosing journalism as her career, I’ve always been encouraged to keep up with the news. I am very aware of all the events that have transpired in the last week or so. While much of the news has been sad, even heartbreaking, there’s been the regular news. In this regular news, a story broke about Chick-fil-A and their funding of organizations that are very anti-gay. As to be expected, the people of the internet were shocked and outraged. Businesses, such as the Jim Henson Company, severed ties and caused the internet backlash even more.

My views about all of this don’t matter because neither party is right or wrong. The great thing about America is that you can have whatever view you want, and it isn’t wrong. Lately there’s been this movement to be more tolerant. People have been preaching that we as a society need to accept people for who they are. The problem is that most people, as always, have taken it to the extreme. It’s no longer that people need to accept the choices another person makes; it’s become “if you don’t wholeheartedly support gay people, you’re wrong because you aren’t tolerant.” That just seems so odd to me. If we are truly to be so tolerant of people, then that includes the stance Chick-fil-A took. It also includes the decision the Jim Henson Company made. You may disagree with it, but we are supposed to be accepting people.

This is where it starts to gets tricky. The next headline was about the mayor of Boston and his letter to Chick-fil-A stating that they are not welcome in that city. From what I can see, the reaction has been completely mixed. Some people applaud what the mayor said, while others are citing First Amendment rights. Again, my actual views on Chick-fil-A don’t matter right now. However, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think it’s in the jurisdiction of the mayor of a city to deny a company the right to build establishments in that city. While legally Chick-fil-A can ignore the letter and choose to set up shop, it’s understood that doing so will harvest animosity in the community.

(Yahoo headline)

So what does this all mean? It means that as always, we are a hypocritical culture. We say everyone needs to have an open mind. Instead, people take that as an invitation to attack those that are different. So I invite you to do some inside reflection to determine whether or not you have an open mind, or you’re just shutting people out. This world can be a cruel place, but only if we let it turn into that. Then again, you can totally choose to ignore what I just said because it is your opinion and you are allowed to have it.