We all know what tolerance means, putting up with things you may not like, but do we know how to use it? We can't love what we haven't experienced personally, all we can do is learn to deal with it. We may not like others because of their sex, their color, their voice, their size, the way they sit, the way they stand, but what we CAN do is learn to put up with it, and move on with our lives.

I created TolerateIt! in an efffort to spread out these ideas of tolerance, putting aside our differences. We must learn to tolerate everyone, even those we don't agree with, and even those who don't tolerate others. Being able to put up with intolerance requires perhaps the most tolerance of all, but it is necessary. We all have a right to our own opinions, but we are all also humans and that must be respected above all else. TolerateIt! was created with these ideals in mind. What I consider the best philosophy on tolerance was said by E.M. Forster. To read it, click here.

"All We Need Is Love" -Or Is It?

Not too long ago, I was one of those "love everyone, hate no one" types of people. You may ask, what's the difference between love and tolerance? Aren't they the same? The answer is no. Tolerance isn't being expected to love everyone, love is too powerful a feeling and can be easily misused. Claiming we love everyone, when compared to the world's population we hardly know anyone, is basically impossible. Love is a passionate emotion, we simply can't feel it for all. But tolerance is a key which everyone has and anyone can use, and easily.

How TolerateIt! Got Started

This past year in my language arts class, I had a brilliant teacher who introduced me to the idea of teaching tolerance instead of love. And so under her we began a project along with all of the other sophmore honors language arts classes: We were going to teach tolerance to the world. We created computer games, skits, lectures, displays, books, exhibit upon exhibit which we showed in one very educational day. It was a lot of fun for me, and very educational. I'm very interested in the Holocaust as being the greatest example of intolerance ever known to mankind, and on this day we got to show not only what the effects of racial and religious intolerances have on people, but also the effects of sexism, age discrimination, child abuse, and many other intolerances. With one group, we created a combination lecture/skit/question-answer session about age discrimination against teenagers, a little-discussed topic which we felt kids our age would relate to. I also worked on some projects involving children of the Holocaust. To see some of the stuff I did, click here. I felt what we learned through that unit was some of the most valuable information we were ever taught in school. During the course of this unit, we also had the opportunity to visit the wonderful Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance, which I suggest everyone visit. Forward to this summer. I began creating a personal web page, and one for my interest in ska music. I hadn't seen much information on tolerance on the internet, so i decided to create a site of my own! So here it is, and i hope you can gain some useful insight here.

What You Can Expect to See

TolerateIt! was not only designed to give information on tolerance, but also allow people have a place to express their postive (and negative) views on tolerance. I'm hoping to include not only some more of my thoughts, but yours as well. In addition to that, you can find links to more resources on tolerance, the Holocaust, and other great sources of valuable information. Soon, you will also be able to see some of the history of tolerance and intolerances created by mankind. Also, be sure to look for what you can do to help promote tolerance around your community, state, nation and world.

A Message

Tolerateit! welcomes suggestions, comments, opinions, writings, and whatever you have to say about tolerance, or anything! Just email skadette@fastinet.net. TolerateIt welcomes all opinions, (positive AND negative!), but it is NOT a place to spread hate. If you feel you need to talk about your hate of yourself, this site, or others, just click here. Thanks for visting TolerateIt!, and I hope you find this site useful!
---Jessalyn Aaland
(to find out more about me, go to my home page)