Some Thoughts on Tolerance, "Current TV", Seeds of Tolerance, In The News, The Mighty Woofables

One more day till the weekend blogger friends, Happy Thursday. After yesterdays posting on self esteem, today I want to talk a little about tolerance, and a great new video forum that I just found today and have been spending too much time looking over already this morning. I looked up tolerance in the dictionary this morning and here are the definitions I found:

1. The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.

2.
a. Leeway for variation from a standard.
b. The permissible deviation from a specified value of a structural dimension, often expressed as a percent.

3. The capacity to endure hardship or pain.

4. Medicine.
a. Physiological resistance to a poison.
b. The capacity to absorb a drug continuously or in large doses without adverse effect; diminution in the response to a drug after prolonged use.

5.
a. Acceptance of a tissue graft or transplant without immunological rejection.
b. Unresponsiveness to an antigen that normally produces an immunological reaction.

6. The ability of an organism to resist or survive infection by a parasitic or pathogenic organism.

Don't we all fall into one of those definitions categories at one time or another? Don't we all have our own unique belief system, though maybe handed down from our parents or our enviroment? Would someone call what you practice sometimes strange? Aren't we being pigeon holed into being a second class of citizen, and usually put into a percentage? (gay population is supposedly around 6-10%) Haven't we all endured some type of hardship or pain in our life? Don't we all have some physiological response to the poisen being spewed by some organization or the other? And don't we all try to resist or survive the infection by a parasitic group of hate mongers towards our religion, sexuality, opinions and beliefs?

Tolerance is something all people deserve, tolerant of someone's opinion, gender, sexuality, class, whatever. And unfortunately we sometimes must tolerate even the most closed minded and vicious viewpoints. Our rights in this country, USA, are founded on free speech principles, meaning we have to be tolerant of anyone's right to express their opinion, but we DO NOT have to agree with that opinion. That is why we cannot be silent. Respect the RIGHT of others to voice their opinions, but exercise YOUR RIGHT to dispute it and offer your own thru word or personal action. Get involved!!

This new video forum I was talking about is called "Current TV." Current is a national cable and satellite channel dedicated to bringing your voice to television. Current is about what's going on: stories from the real world, told by you. They call it viewer-created content, or VC2. Right now, VC2 makes up about a third of the channel -- and that share is growing. It works like this: Anyone who wants to contribute can upload a video. Then, everyone in the Current online community votes for what should be on TV. You can join in at either stage -- watch & vote or create & upload. (We've also got online training to help you get the skills you need to make TV!) This is definitely not a traditional TV network. Watching Current, you'll see more, on more topics, from more points of view.

Starting today, Current TV is beginning a campaign, called "Seeds of Tolerance," and in conjunction with the campaign, offering a contest where YOUR video could earn you $100,000 dollars. In partnership with the Third Millennium Foundation, Current TV is offering the chance for you to make a difference and earn $100,000. Between now and August 15, submit a video on the theme of tolerance—any form of tolerance. Whatever story you want to tell, and however you want to tell it. Your video can discuss, homophobia, racism, sexism, economic or social class, disability, age or religion. Guest judges Paul Haggis, Melissa Etheridge, Margaret Cho, and Edward Norton, have volunteered their time to help choose 5 finalist videos. I think this is an excellent opportunity from the more creative bloggers I have met out ther to make a difference and get your voice heard and scene by people all over. Good luck and if you enter, please send your submission over to me as well, and I will GUARANTEE it will get shown, whether a finalist or not.

Due to the long post, I will recommend the following daily news stories without commenting on them.. I thought This, This, This, and This, were pretty interesting.

The website update is going slow but sure due to a lot of outside work demands I have this week, but should be completed by Saturday latest. If you havent checked it out this week, The Mighty Woofables comic strip that I enjoy has been updated. Enjoy your day blogger friends, please leave comments or keep writing me emails, I love to hear from Gay Guru readers..............GG