Brilliant!

I just discovered a Robert Kennedy quote that I think everyone needs to read--and to think about, especially as it pertains to their own attitudes:

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not in what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

This crystallizes my dislike of extremism of every stripe, be it religious, political, economic, social, whatever. I confess to being intolerant myself--but what I don't tolerate is intolerance itself. Don't coerce me, and I'll tolerate you, and I'll work to find ways to live in peace with you--but the second you say "It's my way or the highway," I'm hitting the road--to speak out against your intolerance.

Once again, we see the genius of the American system. Compromise is the essence of public life. The government must stand neutral on matters of personal belief, so that everyone's voice can be heard. Call it a "free market economy of ideas." Let the people see and consider all stripes of belief, and decide for themselves what they accept. So long as they give other people room to accept different beliefs, and most importantly, so long as the government, the official power of the state, does not raise one belief set above any other, our system works.

And that's why I so detest the Radical Religious Right. Its members are trying to hijack the government to support their beliefs at the expense of the rest of us. They may have fine goals, such as the saving of all our souls, but just because they think they are correct, they do not have the right to use the power of government to make the rest of us agree with them, even if we do so only "on paper." Too many in the Radical Right think that disagreeing with them means they are being attacked. Far from it. Disagreeing with them may well mean disagreeing with EVERYONE. Disagreeing with them may be the only way to preserve the neutrality of the system for all of us, including them.

Too many of them just don't get the difference between saying "the public schools won't teach your kids about Jesus" and "the public schools can't teach your kids about Jesus." In our system, "can't" is the operative expression. The government must stand neutral, for the sake of its citizens who do not believe in Jesus. Doesn't mean YOU cannot proselytize your neighbors to your heart's content . . . unless, of course, you are becoming a public nuisance or a stalker or the like. It just means you cannot use the government to do your proselytizing for you.

But then again, asking the intolerant to tolerate may be just too much to ask. And so the noble American experiment will collapse into failure, because some of us just can't get out of our own way. And that's incredibly sad.