Timm's 2 Cents Worth

There’s been a lot of talk over the past 4-5 years or so about how we must be tolerant.  Tolerance is the thing that will allow us to live together.  I’m not saying that tolerance is bad, but the degree of “tolerance” we supposed to show each other depends on the perspective.  My wife has a t-shirt that has a saying on it that goes something like this: I’m becoming intolerant of the tolerance I’m supposed to tolerate. Miriam Webster defines tolerance in part as “ sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own .”  In other words (and at least in our society) that should mean that someone has the ability to say what’s on their mind.  We don’t have to agree with what’s being said, only that we give others the ability to speak their mind and at least think about their perspective. Tolerance does not mean we have to accept or embrace that belief that differs from our own, and this is where the definition of t...

Ohio State University President Gordon Gee announced his plan to retire as President of the University effective July 1. This decision was based on part of his critical comments he made about Notre Dame.   “He referred to "those damn Catholics" and joked that priests at Notre Dame are holy on Sunday but "holy hell" the rest of the week.” 1   He cited other reasons for his departure, but no one appears to be arguing that his comments about Notre Dame and other situations had a lot to do with the decision.   His comments are offensive; but are they really ? I would say that he hit the nail on the head, at least in regard to most Christians (I wouldn’t say that about priests).  Many of us Christians tend to think the weekly “inoculation” on Sunday (or Saturday, depending on your faith) or the biannual Easter and Christmas services is all it takes to be a Christian.   While only having a relationship with Jesus Christ can provide salvation, we are called as Chris...

My mom used to tell my brother and I about an episode in which there was one candy bar left and we had to share it.  She asked who wanted to divide it.  I, being the oldest and most certainly the wisest, volunteered.  I cut the candy bar into about a 1/3 cut and a 2/3 cut.  HA!  Smart me, now I’ll just take the 2/3 cut.  My mom stopped me and told my brother to pick first.  WHAT?  Of course he picked the 2/3 cut.  (Turns out he wasn't as dumb as I thought he was.)  I was outraged!  Mom, how could you do that?  That’s not fair!  She said life isn't fair, but you can be.  From that point on, when we had the same situation, I think you would have had to use a micrometer to measure the two halves.  It took 20 minutes to cut the darn candy bar, we were being that careful to make the halves as equal as possible. We've heard a lot about fairness lately.  In fact, “fairness” seems to be a rallying cr...