You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let's call the whole thing off!

The Gershwins knew what they were talking about when they wrote that song.  It wasn’t about vegetables.  It was about intolerance.

In my brief time on Earth, I’ve had the opportunity to observe that mankind tends to be highly intolerant of differences.  We seem to be a martial race, in general.  In fact, if I were an alien circling Earth, I would get my little green ass out of here in a hurry because this does not appear to be a friendly planet.  And then there’s all that goofy weather to deal with.  Oh, fly me to the moon!

More and more, I have been approached by individuals hell-bent on converting me to their way of thinking, be it religious or political.  More often than not, these individuals are coming from extreme positions.  In my experience, when someone adheres to an extreme position, they are either reacting to other extremists who are pushing too hard in the opposite direction or they are so indoctrinated in their beliefs they are incapable of listening to or considering other perspectives.  They don’t understand why everybody doesn’t share the same mindset.

Here is my position on religion and politics:  I believe that, by and large, both were created in order for authority to exercise control over society through fear and trembling. You either conform or you’re thrown out of the Garden.  Or worse.

Has it ever been any other way?  As an example, consider the way man has chosen to depict the Old Testament God – a wrathful megalomaniac who punishes those who disobey Him.  Forever!

God could’ve said, “Damn it, Adam, didn’t I tell you not to eat the apple?  If I told you once, I told you a thousand times, don’t eat the apple.  What are you some kind of wise guy? Okay, what’s done is done.  Next time, have a nice banana instead.  And, Eve, stay away from that freaking snake.”  But, no. The Biblical God throws Adam’s and Eve’s asses right out of the Garden and makes life all about suffering and penance and strange-looking hats. 

Then along comes Jesus in the New Testament and he’s delivering messages of peace and love – and gets hung out to dry for it.  Why?  Politics.  The Romans are thinking, “Peace? Love? We can’t have any of that.  That’s heresy!  We need violence and hate!  It’s in our nature.”  And where was Jesus’ father while all this was going on?  He was probably thinking, “Peace? Love? I didn’t create mankind to be peaceful and loving, for Christ’s sake.  Hmmm.  What’s a reasonable punishment?  I know!  No more suppers for Jesus!”

It is my opinion that man created this avenging God as a mechanism to dominate other men and force them to conform.

But conform to what?  There are seven billion people on the planet.  That represents a whole lot of diversity.  If people are intolerant of people’s differences in general, there will never be peace on Earth. That’s proven out over time.  But now we have gotten just brilliant enough and just insane enough and just self-righteous enough to destroy ourselves. 

I do not wish to offend people who believe in an all-knowing, all-loving God.  The concept of a living God gives people hope and a sense that something greater than themselves is minding the store.  Where would we be without this concept?  On the other hand, I wish that people would stop giving God such a bad name.

I am very grateful that I was brought up in an atmosphere that encouraged tolerance over self-righteousness, spirituality over religiosity and independence of thought over blind faith. I would never say, “It’s my way or the highway” because that would suggest I feel superior to my fellow man and that would be a lie. But neither do I feel inferior.

Rogers and Hammerstein put it this way:

I'd like to teach you all a little sayin',
And learn the words by heart the way you should.
I don't say I'm no better than anybody else,
But I'll be damned if I ain't jist as good!

Tell you the truth, I am a little intolerant.  I have a problem with people trying to jam their political values and agendas down my throat to further their own need to dominate. I don’t need some “well-meaning” stranger coming to my front door to convert me. And I have zero tolerance for sanctimonious assholes who destroy the lives of innocent people in the name of God or in the name of their own misguided causes.  I don’t relish oppression, small-mindedness or arrogance.

I have nothing against religion as long as it’s used to build a sense of community, freedom, tolerance and peace as opposed to rendering all four impossible.  And politicians are politicians, no matter which end of the spectrum they’re on.  Some of their hearts may be in the right place, even if their heads are up their asses.

Can we someday agree that “potato” and potahto” are equals?  If not, we’d might as well call the whole thing off.