tolerance.

 Today's society says that truth is relative, objective, personal: what is true for me does not have to be true for me, and I have to "tolerate" your opinion.

As an English major, I am here to give you the definition of that word, tolerance.

Webster's dictionary gives us several different options to choose from:
1. An objective, permissible attitude toward those whose opinions, religion, race, etc differ from one's own.
2. Interest or concern for ideas, opinions, etc that are foreign
3. The act or capacity of enduring

Some synonyms we can properly use are:
patience, sufferance, liberality; agree in allowing the right of something that one does not approve; tolerance implies the sufferance of conduct with which one is not in accord.

Now, I understand that the etymology and dictionary definitions of words can be a bit mundane, so let me re-sum all this up for those of you who saw the word "definition" and skipped all of the above.

Tolerance: putting up with people who you disagree with.

The true definition is very different from today's wishful idea.
Daily, individuals are told that they need to be "tolerant" to other religions, but this "tolerance" is in reality turning a blind eye to everything else in the world, and resigning one's self to apathy.

If I disagree with anything someone else says, I am frowned upon and called a bigot or some other nasty name. America was founded on principles that celebrated freedom, whether that be for religion, race, etc. I am considered intolerant if I make any kind of statement in negation of someone else's beliefs, when in reality, this is one of the freedoms guaranteed to me by the American Constitution.

Some words can't change definition- it redefines values of a society. I'm praying for a remembrance of true meanings of words to be put into place, so our freedoms remain all they have been created to sustain.