The End of Tolerance

I was talking with Hoan, one of the pharmacists, today. I enjoy talking to him because he's one of the only people at work who follows politics, international affairs, movies and music. He is Vietnamese and came here on political asylum, so he also has a unique perspective on this country and life in general. If I had to further describe him I would say that he is intensity personified, yet in spite of his intensity he is very deep and reflective.

We were discussing the presidential candidates today when I asked him what he thought about Barak Obama. He responded by saying, "OK...."
I interrupted, "oh, you think he's OK?"
"No," he responded, and then proceeded to go into a speech about race and the victory black Americans would declare if Barak won, how there would be a march on Washington, and how Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be gloating.
"Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but, seriously, considering the history of what blacks have gone through here, it would be an astounding achievement. It would be a huge deal. "

We went back and forth some more; I honestly can't remember everything he said, but he told me this story about a conversation he once had with a Jewish guy. Hoan first explained that he is Catholic, and said as they were talking the word tolerance came up. The Jew said, "don't you ever mention that word."
After Hoan said this he just kind of stared at me.
"Well, what did he mean?," I said. "There's a lot of ways you can interpret that."
Hoan grabbed two pills off the shelf and set them on the counter about five inches apart from one another. Then he set a sharpie in between them.
"Tolerance or coexisting is this: you stay on your side of the line and I'll stay on mine. You don't cross over and fuck with me and I won't cross over and fuck with you. Keep things like that and everything will be alright." Grabbing the pills and moving them back and forth across the sharpie he said, "But what has to happen is someone has to cross the line. You need to come over to my side and so we can talk, we can empathize, and we can share our stories and learn from one another. Then we can be on one side of the line. That's how it has to be."