Intolerance

So today's post does not come from an ethnic point of view, rather the view of a human being. The other day I found myself in a very angering situation. I went to lunch with my co-worker to one of our favorite sushi places. I'm a religious person. My co-worker is a former member of my same religion. Let's just say he doesn't look upon it very kindly. I guess I should also mention that this particular co-worker was my friend in elementary school. We've been in a lot of the same classes since Kindergarten and were close in the last few years of elementary school. We lost contact when we went to separate junior highs and by the time we went to the same high school our interests had been so different that we didn't associate with each other. In fact I had no idea that he went to the same school!

Anywho, in my religion we are asked to not drink caffeinated beverages which includes one of my guilty pleasures; tea (hey! I'm Chinese!! What do you expect?!). My friend/co-worker began to tell me all the properties of tea and how there must be poison or something alluding to the fact that my religion does not smile upon it being consumed. He mentioned that it was just a bunch of leaves and water and that there was hardly any caffeine in it. I asked him why he was so oppositional. He replied that he was not at all and had no idea why I was asking. I told him his tea speech was proving otherwise. He found no fault in his speech and stated that he was simply stating the properties of tea to me. I knew better. He had been stating the properties with a purpose; to somehow prove to me that my religious beliefs were absolutely bogus. Saying that tea "must have poison or something in it" is not stating the properties of tea. He mumbled a reply about how if he were oppositional to anything it would be our boss and her incredible lack of ability to coherently communicate her thoughts to us. I told him to stop taking out his frustrations on me. He assured me that he wasn't. Okay then!

Needless to say conversation lacked. Luckily there was an eccentric woman sitting next to us at the bar and the sushi chef had remembered us from our previous visit. My co-worker remembered that the sushi chef usually had 2 hour breaks before he had to come back and start cheffing again. So he asked him what he was going to do for his 2 hour break. The kid responded that he was going to figure out new and exciting ways to drink sake (Japanese rice wine). He asked if we wanted to join. I pointed to my co-worker and said, "He would!" Earlier we had been talking about how warm sake would have been choice to drink on a cold day like this. I don't particularly enjoy the smell of sake and can't imagine it tasting too much better. The chef asked why I didn't want to. I told him I didn't drink.

Now telling someone in Utah that you don't drink means either one of two things. Either you are a freak of nature or you are a freak of nature Mormon. Yeah. He asked if I was Mormon. I replied yes. I'm not ashamed. He then prefaced his next question with a caution; he didn't mean to disrespect my religion. So I listened to his question knowing that he probably was going to ask something controversial. He asked about how in our scriptures it had been described that black skin meant the more sin a person had committed. Let me tell you right now. If black skin = more sin then count me in on the sin-o-meter. I'm Asian. Asians can have freakin' dark skin. Does that mean I'm chuck full of sin? No. That's not what the Mormon religion states. If any Mormon states otherwise they are mistaken. The color of skin has nothing to do with a person's sin. It only has to do with ancestry.

Unfortunately I didn't get to answer this question. My co-worker/former member of the church I believe in hoped right on to the answer since I was swallowing my drink. He said, "Yeah that's what they used to teach." Then the eccentric woman joined in and said, "The darker the skin the more the sin! That's how it is plain and simple baby!" and something about digging it.

At this point I knew that explaining my point of view would not have been taken seriously and that it would then be smashed and a holy war would begin. I hate confrontation. Nothing comes from it. The people only lean more towards their own beliefs. I'm so sick of people thinking that they know so much more than everyone else. Sure you may be more educated than others but that does not somehow make you omnicient and give you the right to sit and bash how another person thinks.

Alright. I know you're all (all? am I sure that anyone really reads these posts? yeah doubt it but it's always nice to think someone else cares about these issues as passionately as I do) thinking of the recent spat between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the GLBT community. It's like we've forced our beliefs onto them. I personally do not believe in forcing anyone to do anything. I've tried to think of situations where it's a positive situation. I've come up with the following: Forcing an anorexic person to eat, forcing a bolemic person to stay away from the bathroom after eating, forcing a person with evil intentions to drop that gun or knife and walk slowly away from their hostage, forcing chocolate down a chocolate virgin's throat. That's about it. *pop some Cadbury Mini Eggs in mouth* Those situations include someone harming someone else with their actions. Of course self harming is no beuno either. I think the only reason why I back up my church in their fight for Prop 8 is because I'm scared that eventually laws will change until we no longer have the right to have marriages in our church because it would be unlawful to not marry those who are GLBT. That scares me. I don't know if it's a possiblitiy for that to happen since the whole "separation of church and state" deal, but other than that possibility I'm all for GLBT marriage. I'm happy that people want to be together so badly that they'll fight the government to get their idea of true love.

So I guess at the conclusion of this little blurb is that I really wonder what the world would be like if everyone just respected the cultures/lives/beliefs of others. Even when I was a kid I knew that my parents didn't know everything. I knew I didn't know everything. I really don't believe that anyone is smarter than another person. I think we are all experts in some area and when we come together that is when we will benefit from the knowledge of all. Am I asking for an unreachable Utopia of sorts? I guess so. And that makes me sad.


Presidential Highlights
I end this post with some of my favorite highlights from our current President's address to Congress on February 24, 2009:

" What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more."

"But I also know that in a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment. My job – our job– is to solve the problem. Our job is to govern with a sense of responsibility. "

"We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again."

LOVE this: "It is our responsibility as lawmakers and educators to make this system work. But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American. That is why we will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."

"These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children. But it is up to us to ensure they walk through them. In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child. I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home."

"I know that it is easy to lose sight of this truth – to become cynical and doubtful; consumed with the petty and the trivial. But in my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of Americans who are anything but ordinary."

"And I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina –a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, “We are just students trying to become lawy
ers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not
just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.

"We are not quitters.

"These words and these stories tell us something about the spirit of the people who sent us here. They tell us that even in the most trying times, amid the most difficult circumstances, there is a generosity, a resilience, a decency, and a determination that perseveres; a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity. Their resolve must be our inspiration. Their concerns must be our cause. And we must show them and all our people that we are equal to the task before us.

"I know that we haven’t agreed on every issue thus far, and there are surely times in the future when we will part ways. But I also know that every American who is sitting here tonight loves this country and wants it to succeed. That must be the starting point for every debate we have in the coming months, and where we return after those debates are done. That is the foundation on which the American people expect us to build common ground.

"And if we do – if we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis; if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity; if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit, then someday years from now our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, “something worthy to be remembered.” Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America."

Amen. I highly suggest that everyone reads this address. I HATE politics but knowing what's going on in our nation is of VAST importance. I feel like Obama has opened up the communication lines again between the President/Congress to the people who give them their jobs. Take advantage of that.