Speaking of Tolerance...

After reading Saint Kansas' comments at The Dawn Patrol about the Tolerance.org website, I thought I'd give the tolerance crowd a look to see what's up with them. Hoo Boy.

I consider myself pretty tolerant, really. I married a man who is half Japanese, I have many friends from the left and from alternative lifestyles. I don't agree with any of them on every single issue, but I am certainly a little more than tolerant with them. After all, you can't be tolerant unless you differ, right?

Anyway, one holiday on the bottom of my favorites list is Halloween. Why? Well, it's just a little too wicked for me. My neighborhood is a very popular trick-or-treat spot (children come by the busload!), so I see my fair share of costumes. Frankly, some of them give me nightmares! I really question whether we should expose children to the whole thing, even though I had a lot of fun with it when I was young. If I could, I would change Halloween just a bit to remove the witches and mummies and monsters and blood. There would still be plenty of room for creativity without making it all so scary.

But, tolerance.org has a different reason to remove witch costumes from holiday festivities. Here it is:

"And I cannot count the many variations of the "evil witch" costume I see in stores each year. Those who practice Wicca, an ancient religion with tenets of spirituality and respect for the earth, see these wart-nosed, green caricatures as harmful and offensive representations of themselves and their beliefs. They also are a painful reminder of times when witches, or those thought to be, were persecuted and killed.

As parents, we cannot expect children to take seriously our calls for tolerance, respect and acceptance for others when we grant a one-day exemption from these values each year at Halloween.

Stereotypical costumes send the message that mocking another's culture is acceptable, that insensitivity to those who are different from us is humorous and clever. Such messages linger long after the candy and jack-o-lanterns have disappeared." (more here)