john (nothisisjohn)

It is important to notice that tolerance requires work. If people do not mind what others do, even when what those others do seems strange, alternative and remote, this is not tolerance; it is indifference. But tolerance is an active thing. It involves recognizing the right of others to be different from oneself, and allowing them the space and opportunity to speak from their different perspective and (under the usual constraint of not harming others) to live it out.