Define tolerance

4 October Assignment ‘ Tolerance’ has been defined by the Webster’s Dictionary as the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behaviour that one does not necessarily agree with. The United State of America is composed of a number of different kinds of people belonging to different backgrounds and walks of life. However, what binds them together is the Constitution that states that every individual must be treated equally with justice and liberty for all. However, the question of what may be tolerated by people comes up because of conflicts among thought processes that people possess. Thus, this paper helps to provide an insight into the meaning of tolerance with respect to recent events that have taken place in history where people have been shunned by society on the grounds of limits of tolerance.
America has a diverse society full of individuals who need to be respected for who they are. In the recent past, the Muslim community was barred from constructing a Mosque near Ground Zero where the Twin Towers had once stood only because of the allegation that it was their religion that had brought about harm on the rest of American society by the bombings. However, this is a false accusation because people need to be tolerated no matter what religion they follow; others need to understand that just because they follow the same religion as the terrorists did, they are not part of the same way of thinking or way of life.
Americans as such are losing out on their tolerance levels towards accepting other people within their society. They fear losing out on their individual identities. However, they need to understand that accepting and tolerating other people will only expand their culture and further give others a chance to experience the same. At the end of the day, everyone is a human being and thus there arises no question of a superiority complex that many people live with. It is imperative for every man to be tolerant towards another’s dreams and ideas as well because everyone has certain desires that they want to fulfil.
Tolerance should stop stepping in only when one’s needs and wants conflict and do not coincide with another’s to a reserved extent; this means that when people start hampering each other’s lives then others should stop being tolerant towards them. It is obvious that one will not be tolerant towards terrorists, however, other Muslims around the world have not done any harm to anyone in a personal or derogatory manner and thus it does not make sense to bar them from building their mosque.
Similarly, there are a number of prevailing issues in society today where it is not acceptable for people to carry out a number of actions, like pornography, sale of illegal contraband substances, arms and ammunition. However, these still take place and people are tolerant towards the same to an extent; these are the aspects that people should not be tolerant towards normatively. It is not right to be intolerant towards a person’s feelings because they are hard to deal with and justify and thus are best left to each one, on his own.
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