Intolerant to Tolerance

Intolerant to Tolerance

(Poem by Serenus)

 

They tolerate your gayness

You should be so glad

 They’re indifferent to your difference

They’re not the one’s calling you F*g

 

 They tolerate your blackness

Racism…They’re much bigger

In their minds-They’re colorblind

They’ve never uttered

The word N****r

 

They tolerate your religion

Muslims,

Jews,

And Christians

Believe what you want to believe

They tolerate your decision

 

They tolerate your opinion

They tolerate your facts

They tolerate your voice

They even let you talk back

 

They can stomach you as a person

Isn’t that honorable?

Doesn’t it feel great…

 To be so tolerable?

 

We all need to pull together

And strive to be prosperous

It’s time to move forward

And be intolerant to tolerance.

Reviews

[icelandicblue]

Acceptance is what we all should strive for. I think poems like this are extremely important to help heighten our awareness of the rampant prejudice that permeates our society. We all need to be out there talking about it and examining our own behaviors and perceptions. Thanks for writing this.

[Sirius King]

i totally agree

thanx ice!

[NebraskaHope]

PERFECTO !

[Sirius King]

thank you NH!

[quinfinn]

tolerable....that is the rub, is it not? Serenus, you have plainly presented a picture here which can't be denied or ignored. this is superb. thank you for entering this into my contest......i have good feelings for this piece...

[Sirius King]

i'm always grateful for when you stop by

thank you!

[Emily B]

my parents were horribly prejudiced against every thing and every body . . . tolerance was not much of an option

this isn't my parents world anymore, we can be the difference we want to see

[Sirius King]

its good to know that even though u grew up in that type of environment, you are still able to be open minded...i think tolerance is a good first step, but your right this is a new world and its headed toward acceptance...hopefully :-)

thanx Emily!

[Rita L. Sev]

Such a powerful piece - I completely agree. People act so high and mighty because they "tolerate" or "accept" - like they are doing some great service. Excellent poem!

[Sirius King]

i agree, tolerating something without any real action of acceptance behind it, can be just as damaging as being intolerant.

thanx Rita!

[nigrum homonculus]

need more of this in the UK. people's veiws on the word tolerance here are seriously warped. good write man. yet again i enjoyed reading

[Sirius King]

unfortunately its a problem in the US too, we try to make it seem like everyone and every belief is accepted and "tolerated", but every once in a while an incident occurs to prove that to be false...then we are forced to face the problem head on.

thanx again Phil!

[Trigorin]

There's obviously a great deal of emotion behind this piece, and I think you've presented it fairly well. One criticism I have - don't censor yourself. Art can't be censored. There should be no limits to art, and if you're imposing those on yourself just because it's not polite to say the words 'n****r' or 'f*g', you're taking away from a great deal of the power of the piece, and from the shock value of seeing those words printed plainly. I think that might help you here.

[Sirius King]

I agree 100% with what your saying, i normally don't censor myself...I im not really sure why I chose to here....

thanx for checking it out! :-)

[SHEEMA HUQ]

you have such a way with words
would use of rythmn, as you tackle
life's pressures, great

[Sirius King]

thanx again :-)

[bob, small b. aka invs]

tolerance is still a huge step up from open bigotry, hatred and institutional prejudice. i'll take tolerance, but you're right. it is time to move forward.

[Sirius King]

true, its a step in the right direction...thanx

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"tolerance" is just another word for prejudice!

well said, my friend.

jacob

[Sirius King]

very true, thanx Jacob!