We Can Build a Beautiful City: A Free Society Requires Tolerance (Part Three)
--
This is the third of a four-part series called “We Can Build a Beautiful City.”
How do we build a beautiful city when we are so divided and increasingly hostile to each other? In this four-part series, I am seeking to address a set of challenges that will hinder our ability to rebuild our communities: outsourcing, ambivalence, intolerance, and tribalism.
There are solutions to each of these challenges that require courage and creativity.
- The solution to outsourcing: Each of us must take personal responsibility for our collective freedoms
- The solution to ambivalence: Each of us must hold firm and true to our personal beliefs
- The solution to intolerance: Each of us must tolerate disagreement
- The solution to tribalism: Each of us must desire to be a blessing to all
In the first part of this series, I proposed that each one of us, as individuals and as local people, need to take responsibility to solve those complex issues our governmental institutions cannot. Legislation has its limits. Further, our local communities should not be held captive to the divisive national rhetoric. We can and should tackle vital issues head-on together.
In the second part of the series, I encouraged our communities not to give in to the spirit of ambivalence and apathy, but seek the truth together. We need not fear where the truth will take us because finding the truth will set us free. Individuals and groups need to be free from the fear of holding and expressing their beliefs. This free expression of belief will enable us to have civil dialogue and learn together so that our communities might grow and thrive.
The beautiful city is not void of disagreement, but she is free
We need not be naive about the pursuit of truth. Civil dialogue can lead us to better understanding, empathy, and even compromise, but there will inevitably be disagreements. We should not be frightened by the prospect of disagreement, but welcome it as one of the gifts of a free society.
