Every person alive is intolerant of something.

Most parents are intolerant of their children misbehaving. Policemen are intolerant of any of us running a red light. Teachers are intolerant of students not turning in their homework. And everyone is intolerant of child abuse and exploitation.

You get the picture. Intolerance is a good thing in a society that has established its moral code on absolutes that can be categorized as simply, right and wrong.

These absolutes don’t shift with social trends, or move when a certain political party is in power. Hence the term . . . absolutes. But we have allowed the term intolerant to be used as a scarlet letter on the breast of those who believe in moral absolutes. In many ways, intolerance is the most compassionate characteristic of a civilized society.

Because to tolerate immorality hurts not only the participant, but those who see that actions don’t have consequences. Intolerance is not judgmental . . . it is sanity out of chaos.

This is Nina May for the Renaissance Women.