Tony Dungy, do you remember your own troubled teen?

Yesterday Tony Dungy tweeted an insensitive comment in reply to some schools in Minnesota putting feminine hygiene items in boys locker rooms. Dungy later deleted the tweet, and I’ll assume that he is remorseful. I’m sure, Dungy, who’s 18 year old son committed suicide in 2005, knows that GSM youth are four times as likely to commit suicide as their classmates.

The thing is — if you are a practioner of the Live and Let Live lifestyle, you never have to apologize or delete a tweet that is insensitive because you want people to live their lives as best they can. And it’s a simple thing we can all advocate for here. We don’t need to go after Tony Dungy, who is by most accounts a kind person. He tweeted something he thought was funny about people who’s lives he doesn’t understand. But he does understand the pain and heartbreak of a lost child — and hopefully that can bring him to do what’s right here and make a comment to offset some of the pain he has caused.

Tolerating other people’s lives and lifestyles doesn’t mean you approve of them, but it does mean you recognize that you have no right to chastise them or make them feel bad. Tolerance takes practice, and practicing tolerance is critical to our mission to let live.