March 29, 2001

Brian Camenker sent the following letter to his hometown newspaper, the Newton Tab, for its March 28 edition.

Liberals Use ‘Tolerance’ Like Ketchup

Tracy Fidelman in her letter [March 22], asks an interesting question: “Why are many parents against tolerance classes?” Fair enough.

The answer is that liberals use the word "tolerance" like ketchup. They put it on top of anything that that might not taste so good by itself. These "tolerance" sessions are usually a mishmash of left-wing politics and homosexual indoctrination, aimed at kids who are too young to know the difference. We're told that unless we invert all of our beliefs about individual behavior, then we're "intolerant." 

Tracy, please listen to me. If you were truly tolerant, you would tolerate the wishes of many parents not to be part of all that. Go ahead and immerse yourself (or your kids) into any nutty or bizarre program you desire. I don't care what you do. But leave us and our children out of it. This may seem strange to you, but we are perfectly capable of teaching "tolerance" to our children without your help.

Furthermore, if you continue forcing things at us that we don't want like so many storm troopers, then we will continue fighting back and complaining. And it will continue to escalate to other actions, I guarantee you. (You label our side of the discussion "conservative rantings." Yup, you really learned a lot in those tolerance classes, didn't you?)

You also mentioned the Tufts workshop last year. Let me correct some lies that keep being repeated. First, it was not "illegally" taped. No one has been arrested or charged with any crime. Nor would it hold up in any court.

Second, the current spin from the gay activists is that the children had permission slips to get in. That's complete baloney. Even if they did, no parent was told what unbelievable things would happen to their kids there.

Finally, we're all sick and tired of putting up with the liberal rage, just because we happen to have different opinions. If you don't want us to complain, don't throw this in our faces.