Warren Jeffs and the Terrible Swift Sword

Warren Jeffs is not a prophet.  The only message he ever got from God came in the voice of some jurors when they sent him to prison for life.  Jeffs is an abusive pedophile who tried to hide behind religious tolerance to rape children.  He is, however, just one in a long line of people who try to live life outside the rules and then hide behind the law.  So, here I am, on my soapbox, trying to explain a few things to the short thinkers out there.

Tolerance is a double edged sword.  When you protect a citizen’s right to diversity you also, by definition, place the same burden of acceptance upon them.  You may not break the laws of the land, while counting on them to protect you.   That which is given must also be returned, else you lose all.  It is this requisite largess which is truly the sharper edge of the sword.

Living in a free society carries responsibilities as well as rights; and those responsibilities devolve upon the government just as surely as upon the people themselves.  This gives the government power to preserve some rights through limiting others.  For example, we can wiretap a suspected terrorist, usurping his right to privacy, in order to protect the rights of the rest of us to live unmolested.  In effect, the terrorist’s intolerance has imposed a limitation on the rights to which he is due.   

            This country offers unique opportunities for diversity.  Every day we see women in long, concealing robes with scarves covering their heads.  They are proceeding about their business without interference.  Would I be as welcome in any Islamic country in my short skirt, bare head and open toed shoes?  Restrictions of custom and culture which would be placed on me in many nations are prohibited in this country.  Much of the rest of the world does not take our acceptance of sexual equality as a given.  They don’t take our tolerance of race, culture and religion as a matter of course.  Our social and economic mobility is not universally accepted as a desirable goal.  Imperfect as our society is, we have slowly and certainly chosen to codify tolerance in law.

While tolerance is the tool of progress, intolerance is the chief weapon of zealots.  It makes no difference if these people are on the political right or the left.  Nor do I care if they are attacking or espousing a belief I hold dear.  A zealot is a bore with blinders.  Zealots are always obnoxious, frequently worrisome, sometimes dangerous, and they can be deadly.  They refuse to deal in logic.   
                       
Even the way America deals with its political diversity is the envy of the rest of the world.  Those who criticize governmental decisions are free to do so.   Laws may be openly opposed and those who enact them are placed before the bar of public opinion at two, four and six year intervals.  On the world’s stage, this process is viewed as an awesome and sometimes dangerous thing.  Yet, it is America at its best.

Our culture of tolerance is a terrible swift sword.  It is a sharp and sure blade which defends tolerance by attacking license.  Jeff's felt the weight of this weapon this week.  I am just sorry it did not come with his first victim.  Some say that justice delayed is justice denied--yet justice it is.  This optimistic persistence, this dedication to create an ever more perfect union, makes me extraordinarily proud and grateful that I am an American.

Defend justice and keep the faith.

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