Mind Your Business Dec 19, 2013

Did you know that our money used to have "mind your business" printed on it? We should've never taken that off.

There is always such disagreement in Congress on issues that don’t affect anyone—guns, gay marriage, marijuana. But they have forgotten what originally united us—tolerance. I’m not talking about tolerance colloquially as it has come to mean the opposite of hate. I’m talking about tolerance as in minding your business. If it doesn’t specifically affect you, leave it alone. Ignore it. Tolerate it.

Unfortunately, today our response is to legislate things or form groups to oppose things that we don’t like. Note that that is very different from forming groups to oppose things that affect us. Here’s the difference. It’s totally cool to join up as a group and rally for gay marriage because that is fighting an injustice and the end result harms no one. It’s not cool to rally up and get someone fired for voicing their bigoted opinion. I’m not saying don’t speak against it—just don’t call for their head on a platter. If people don’t like it, they’ll ignore it and that person will suffer the effects anyway.

A better course of action is to state your opinion and move on. Don’t support that person. It’s that simple. Instead, you are just as intolerant when you call for their job. And if you don’t support their right to say what they want, who is there to support your right when you say something that other people don’t like?

There are plenty of things and people I don’t like. Instead of trying to get them fired, I focus instead on what I’m doing. Time flies, mind your business.