Temple of Tolerance: Essential To Who We Are
Obama Backs Mosque Near Ground Zero
I can't possibly applaud my President loudly enough. At the same time, I'm a bit surprised that we haven't taken the opportunity to really put it to the extremests with the fullest force and conviction. This speech is a great first step. I'll try to very briefly summarize why and how I believe we could do much more.
9/11 was the ultimate expression of intolerance for human differences. It was hateful and cowardly at the deepest possible levels.
The best way to respond to those negative intentions is with an overwhelming expression of their inverse: the ultimate expressions of acceptance, understanding, interdependence, and tolerance.
I propose a Temple of Tolerance to be erected -- on or around the hallowed soil of Ground Zero, wherein We The People of the United States of America invite people of all faiths -- as well as those of no supernatural belief or of steadfast skepticism -- to build active places of worship, learning, and inquiry within a university campus style setting. In such a setting, we will interact with others numbered among at least the top two or three dozen religions in the world, in an everyday living context, helping us to both widen our sphere of understanding and practice what we preach as a nation in a very palpable, pragmatic manner.
What else could possibly be more quintessentially American than to respond to the ultimate expression of intolerance with the ultimate manifestation of tolerance?
Footnote: While I can understand and even appreciate the inverse of this proposal as another viable option in the minds of many respected peers and close friends -- namely, religious superstitious thinking leads to all this violence; so don't invite any of them; just say no to all of them -- I also tend to believe that the paths of human self-discovery and social progress are notoriously uneven and certainly imperfect. Therefore, I believe that this deep Openness is better than Closedness, even if (especially if) we believe that our particular Closed world would be the best of all possible worlds for others. How could we possibly ever make such an assertion and keep a straight face, really?
