2 posts tagged “tolerance”

Last night, I went to see a production of Rashomon because a friend of mine was in it.  The play, an adaptation of the Kurosawa film of the same name, tells the story of a rape and murder from 4 different perspectives (the raped, the murdered, the accused, the witness) and deals with the concept of perception v. truth. 

Is there anyone out there who still believes that truth truly exists?  And that people don't create their own reality by what they perceive?  The whole post-modern/deconstructionist/Foucault/Derrida discussion is over.  But it seems it gets brought out and paraded around when we as a country are in a time of war and discontent.  It resurfaced and became trendy in the 80s under Reagan, again under the 1st Bush's Gulf War, and has come around again during the debacle that is our country's politics at the moment.

I think the connection is interesting in that people are searching to understand why others cannot understand them and when the judging of others is completely acceptable (Why won't my elected officials do what I want?  Why doesn't my neighbor understand that he's just wrong?).  When we as a society come to truly understand that people create their own realities, and that there is no actual truth, and that perception is everything, I have a sneaky suspicion people will be more tolerant.  It'll probably never happen - people like being sheep too much to think for themselves and understand themselves enough to comprehend their own perceptions.

But until it does, I think I'm over the discussion. 

I'm not going to write some where was I, or what it meant to me entry.  But I will post this.  Remember those who died, remember those who fought, remember those who are still fighting for things you take for granted in this country that many can't enjoy. 

And, in the words of Josh Lymon, "continue to accept more than one idea at a time.  It makes them crazy."

Tuesday Morning
Melissa Etheridge

Up and down this road I go
Skippin' and dodgin'
From a 44

10:03 on a Tuesday morning
In the fall of an American dream
A man is doing what he knows is right
On flight 93
He loved his mom and he loved his dad
He loved his home and he loved his man
But on that bloody Tuesday morning
He died an American

Now you cannot change this
You can't erase this
You can't pretend this is not the truth

Even though he could not marry
Or teach your children in our schools
Because who he wants to love
Is breaking your Gods' rules
He stood up on a Tuesday morning
In the terror he was brave
And he made his choice
And without a doubt
A hundred lives he must have saved

And the things you might take for granted
Your inalienable rights
Some might chose to deny him
Even though he gave his life
Can you live with yourself in the land of the free
And make him less of a hero than the other three
Well it might begin to change ya
In a field in Pennsylvania

Stand up America
Hear the bell now as it tolls
Wake up America
It's Tuesday morning
Come on let's roll