"Tolerance is the value that was selected to put on here, and tolerance is as American as apple pie"
About this Quote
Jay Inslee ties a civic virtue to a homespun image, arguing that tolerance belongs not at the margins of public life but at the center of American identity. The casual, folksy comparison to apple pie disarms culture-war reflexes and recasts inclusion as something familiar and homegrown. When he notes that tolerance was the value selected to be put on display, he points to a deliberate public choice: what we inscribe on buildings, signs, and proclamations is meant to shape conduct as well as sentiment.
Tolerance here is not mere politeness. It is a framework that protects dissenters, minorities, and newcomers, so that disagreement does not curdle into dehumanization. In practice, it means legal safeguards, institutional restraint, and civic habits that keep the door open for people who do not look, pray, love, or vote the same way. It is the First Amendment as lived culture, not only as text.
Calling tolerance American also invokes an unresolved history. The nation has often failed its own creed: slavery and Jim Crow, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese American incarceration, redlining, and waves of nativism stand as evidence. Inslee’s move does not deny those failures; it names a standard against which to measure progress and a corrective to backsliding. By rooting tolerance in tradition, he argues that welcoming difference is not a partisan novelty but an inheritance we are obliged to steward.
The line carries practical implications. Public institutions that elevate tolerance signal that belonging is not conditional. That signal can steady communities in moments of fear and polarization, when the temptation is to treat some neighbors as less American than others. It also invites skeptics to see inclusive policies as compatible with, even demanded by, love of country.
The reassurance comes with a challenge. If tolerance is as American as apple pie, it must hold when it is hardest to uphold, when tempers flare and anxieties spike. Only then does the value written on the wall become a virtue practiced in common life.
Tolerance here is not mere politeness. It is a framework that protects dissenters, minorities, and newcomers, so that disagreement does not curdle into dehumanization. In practice, it means legal safeguards, institutional restraint, and civic habits that keep the door open for people who do not look, pray, love, or vote the same way. It is the First Amendment as lived culture, not only as text.
Calling tolerance American also invokes an unresolved history. The nation has often failed its own creed: slavery and Jim Crow, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese American incarceration, redlining, and waves of nativism stand as evidence. Inslee’s move does not deny those failures; it names a standard against which to measure progress and a corrective to backsliding. By rooting tolerance in tradition, he argues that welcoming difference is not a partisan novelty but an inheritance we are obliged to steward.
The line carries practical implications. Public institutions that elevate tolerance signal that belonging is not conditional. That signal can steady communities in moments of fear and polarization, when the temptation is to treat some neighbors as less American than others. It also invites skeptics to see inclusive policies as compatible with, even demanded by, love of country.
The reassurance comes with a challenge. If tolerance is as American as apple pie, it must hold when it is hardest to uphold, when tempers flare and anxieties spike. Only then does the value written on the wall become a virtue practiced in common life.
Quote Details
| Topic | Respect |
|---|
More Quotes by Jay
Add to List
