I found an interesting article  from the Chicago Tribune about political tolerance, and being respectful of other people's opinions and beliefs, especially when they differ from your own.  It details an experiment done by a 14 year-old girl in a Liberal suburb of Chicago, who shows up for school one day wearing a T-shirt supporting John McCain, and the next day wearing a T-shirt supporting Barack Obama.  Surprisingly, the reactions to her T-shirt from her classmates are not very different than would some of us experience in the adult world or while blogging in the political forums here on ActiveRain.

On the first day of her experiment, wearing a McCain shirt, the student was called among other things "stupid", told she should be "burned with her shirt on" and branded a "filthy rich Republican".  The next day, while donning her Obama shirt, the very same student was told that the students liked her shirt, she was no longer stupid and had "put the right shirt on" that day.   The reporter asks the student's teacher  "whether it was ironic that she would be subject to such intolerance from pro-Obama supporters in a community that prides itself on its liberal outlook."  The teacher agrees that those who are supporting a candidate that promotes equality and inclusion, should not have behaved in such a manner.  Everybody learns a great lesson... I guess until they become adults and start acting the same way

This article deals with children - in middle school - but the funny thing is that the very same intolerance and name calling occur here on a daily basis -in a community of professional adults!  It surprises me how quickly  some people are to call names or insult , when someone  expresses an opinion that is different from their own, (or heaven forbid presents them with pesky facts that seem to contradict the other person's point) .   Now some people are easily offended, and perhaps they should not be discussing sensitive subjects with strangers or potential business partners.  The same can be said for those who result to middle school like name calling as well.  In fact, those who resort to such tactics are really saying more about themselves than the person they are trying to put down. 

Now I know that some people don't think that political discussions have any place on a Real Estate networking site.  They think that you run the risk of alienating 50% of the people who read your blog or comments, since they may have a different political view from your own.  I don't agree.  For every person who doesn't want to shop for a mortgage or refer a customer in need of small business financing to me because they disagree with me politically, there is someone else who will shop for a mortgage or refer a client to me because we do see eye to eye (of course there are some people who don't care either way which political party you support as long as you give them the best deal). But I do think that if you want to discuss topics such as politics and grow your business at the same time that you should leave the name-calling, schoolyard insults, uninformed opinions, and intolerance out of it.  If this 14 year-old girl "get's it" and understands what tolerance is, then surely we should too.