AMERICANS EXIST WITH A CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE FOR TOLERANCE

Those of us fortunate enough to be living on the cusp of a new century and a new millennium are serendipitous witnesses to a new, exciting and most challenging moment in history. As we pass through the last stages of a century that has seen a multitude of wars, monumental changes within our societies and the worldwide transformation from a mechanical to a technological era, we no doubt will be transported into an even more surprising, enlightening and remarkable period of time in the years ahead.

It is, in many ways, the best years of mankind's history, a time when science continues its amazingly rapid record of discovery in a hundred or more different fields of human endeavor and experience. What a distance we have covered since the last millennium, when disease threatened the existence of every child born and when human life was considered so cheap that its loss was seldom noted or mourned.Unquestionably coupled with all the excitement and advancement promised by the next new age, however, is a challenge that our society will carry from this century into the one ahead: the challenge of human toleration, the absence of which can serve to nullify all the advancements we will make in medical and technological fields.

Indeed, without tolerance for one another, whatever comes to our society in the form of scientific advance will be meaningless, perhaps even so abstract as to defy recognition. This can be traced to the discovery in the century we are leaving of weapons so lethal that, in the blink of an eye, all vestiges of human life can be removed from our planet with nothing left but human ash. We have opened the Pandora's box of nuclear weapons and germ warfare so wide that the availability of these awful tools of destruction have been granted to every human being alive today.

The same science that discovered vaccines for mankind's most horrible and debilitating diseases has also created weapons of such destructive force that human life as we know it can be destroyed in only hours, if that long. Those who believe our country, or any other nation in the world, is immune to such destructive force are living in another world and not the one that exists today.The danger to human life comes not only from foreign enemies who hold vastly different views about virtually every aspect of our American existence, but also from radical elements within our own society, even within our home state of Missouri, even within our own communities. When more than 500 young Missouri children are killed or injured by weapons every year, the threat of domestic violence must be the concern not only of traditional sympathizers, but every component of society, whether it be ecclesiastical, social, political, racial or economic.

The danger exists not only in the social portion of our lives, but in the way our collective society views every activity in which we are engaged. Although we proudly proclaim our democratic society, we have grown less and less tolerant even of those fellow citizens who hold opposing political views, and while the struggle between our two major partisan groups has long been traditional, its discouraging discordance and sheer hatred have seemed to intensify in recent decades, threatening the original concepts of our nation's founders. This detestation has become so prevalent in recent times, particularly following the end of the World War II era, that the keystone of our democracy -- namely, tolerance -- has steadily eroded. At times, it seems to have disappeared from contemporary society altogether.It is hard to accept, for example, that elected representatives in Congress from throughout a claimed democratic nation can proclaim such radically different views and purposes, as espoused by members of the two major political faiths. There are times the District of Columbia more closely resembles the gladiator contests of the Roman Empire than differences of opinions by elected officials who share the same heritage and environments. How can these elected officials be so indifferent to the basic concepts of a true democracy and the ideals so fervently espoused and so bravely defended by earlier generations? The answer to this is not easily found, unless our political and military successes, our often uneven economic progress and an insidious complacency now count for far more than we are willing to admit.If our elected leaders are intolerant of each other, they have far more support from their constituents than we care to acknowledge. Every two or four years, some of us (not always a majority, unfortunately) go to the polls to select from a list of names of persons who are virtually identical in their composition and experience. We then spend the remainder of the time finding fault, second guessing and admonishing even the least egregious. Perhaps our politicians are listening to their constituents more than we recognize. Perhaps the intolerance we feel, even subliminally, is the one issue our elected officials are willing to reflect in their official duties. If so, we must change the message, however subtle, we have transmitted to Washington and Jefferson City and even city halls.

I believe strongly that the U.S. Constitution's preamble that promises justice, domestic tranquility, the common defense, promotion of the general welfare and the securing of the blessings of liberty unequivocally mandates tolerance on the part of every American in order to form a more perfect union. Universal tolerance is, indeed, essential if the constitutional guarantees are to be meaningful and relevant to the lives of all Americans. Our nation's Founders made this quite clear.

It is a mandate we dare not ignore nor reduce to meaningless, even hypocritical, rote.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.