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Politics : I Will Continue to Continue, to Pretend.... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (16263)	12/2/2005 3:26:52 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

I think, this attempt to fade Christmas into a nondenominational winter holiday stems from a twisted notion of courtesy -- from the idea that tolerance and respect for minorities require intolerance and disrespect for the majority. De-Christmasing Christmas by Jeff Jacoby Townhall.com Dec 2, 2005 When a commotion erupted over the fact that the 48-foot white spruce installed on the Boston Common -- an annual gift from the people of Nova Scotia -- is identified on Boston's official website as a "holiday tree," the city's commissioner of parks and recreation sided firmly with the critics. "This is a Christmas tree," Antonia Pollak declared. "It's definitely a Christmas tree." At least that's what she told the Boston press. According to CBC News, on the other hand, she took a rather different line with the Canadian press: "A lot of people celebrate various religious holidays but also enjoy the lights, and we're trying to be inclusive." Meanwhile, Pollak's boss said he intends to call it a Christmas tree, no matter what it says on the City Hall website. "I didn't write the website," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino told the Boston Herald. "If I had, it would have said Christmas tree." He must not write the mayor's weekly column, either. The current one is about the lighting of Christmas trees all over Boston -- yet not once does the word "Christmas" modify the word "tree." And so it begins again -- the annual effort to neuter Christmas, to insist in the name of "inclusiveness" and "sensitivity" that a Christian holiday celebrated by something like 90 percent of Americans not be called by its proper name or referred to in religious terms. We all know the drill by now. Instead of "Merry Christmas," store clerks wish you a "happy holiday." Schools close for winter break. Your office throws a holiday party. Sometimes the secularizing impulse goes to laughable extremes, as when the elementary school play is titled "How the Grinch Stole the Holidays" or when red poinsettias (but not white ones) are banned from city hall. Sometimes it springs from clanging ignorance, as with the New York City policy that prohibited the display of Christian nativity scenes on public school grounds, while expressly allowing such "secular holiday symbol decorations" as Jewish menorahs and the Muslim star and crescent. And some of it is fueled by anti-Christian bigotry or sheer misanthropic bile. But mostly, I think, this attempt to fade Christmas into a nondenominational winter holiday stems from a twisted notion of courtesy -- from the idea that tolerance and respect for minorities require intolerance and disrespect for the majority. Better to call the company shindig a "holiday" party, this line of thinking goes, than to risk offending the few non-Christian employees by calling it a Christmas party. Better to ban all Christmas carols from the school concert than to take the chance that a Jew or Muslim or Hindu might feel excluded. Better to remove the Christmas trees from all the dormitory dining halls because a single student complained -- as happened last year at the University of Illinois -- than to politely inform the student that the trees will be removed after the Christmas season ends. "We're trying to be inclusive," says the Boston parks commissioner, explaining why the white spruce that was sent from Nova Scotia under a giant banner reading "Merry Christmas, Boston" became a "holiday tree" on her department's website. But suppressing the language, symbols, or customs of Christians in a predominantly Christian society is not inclusive. It's insulting. It's discriminatory, too. Hanukkah menorahs are never referred to as "holiday lamps" -- not even the giant menorahs erected in Boston Common and many other public venues each year by Chabad, the Hasidic Jewish outreach movement. No one worries that calling the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by its name -- or even celebrating it officially, as the White House does with an annual "iftaar" dinner -- might be insensitive to non-Muslims. In this tolerant and open-hearted nation, religious minorities are not expected to keep their beliefs out of sight or to squelch their traditions lest someone, somewhere, take offense. Surely the religious majority shouldn't be expected to either. As a practicing Jew, I don't celebrate Christmas. There is no Christmas tree in my home, my kids don't write letters to Santa Claus, and I don't attend church on Dec. 25 (or any other date). Does the knowledge that scores of millions of my fellow Americans do all those things make me feel excluded or offended? On the contrary: It makes me feel grateful -- to live in a land where freedom of religion shelters the Hanukkah menorah in my window no less than the Christmas tree in my neighbor's. That freedom is a reflection of America's Judeo-Christian culture, and a principal reason why, in this overwhelmingly Christian country, it isn't only Christians for whom Christmas is a season of joy. And why it isn't only Christians who should make a point of saying so. Jeff Jacoby is an Op-Ed writer for the Boston Globe, a radio political commentator, and a contributing columnist for Townhall.com. townhall.com

To: Sully- who wrote (16263)	12/12/2005 9:38:39 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 35834

A Christmas quiz by John Leo townhall.com Dec 12, 2005 The “winter program” at Ridgeway Elementary School In Dodgeville, Wisconsin, changed the lyrics of the Christmas carol “Silent Night” to the more inclusive “Cold in the Night.” (“Cold in the night, no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite.” ) After this success, the program’s next step will obviously be: a) Changing “O Holy Night” to “Uh-oh! Wholly night!” a song about a lunar eclipse b) Singing “O Little Town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.” c) A song celebrating the comeback of the American auto industry, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Ford.” d) A ditty about hoping for snow at the Panama Canal, “I’m dreaming of a white isthmus.” The modern name for Christmas trees is now: a) Giving trees b) Trees of color c) Seasonal conifers d) Inclusion bushes e) Tall lit-up flora f) Those pointy green things with needles and lights Some schools have ruled that red and green cookies cannot be brought into class in December because the color combination strongly suggests the divisive sectarian feast day of Christmas. Therefore" a) Red cookies may be brought to school. Green ones too. But, please, not on the same day b) A fruit bowl containing just pears and cherries is a serious constitutional matter and should be reported immediately to the ACLU, care of the Christmas erasure desk. c) In December, the San Francisco 49er may not be shown playing the New York Jets, except on black-and-white TV sets. d) All traffic lights must be turned off until January 1. The three wise men in the Nativity scene are objectionable because a) They fail the multicultural test--though one is black, neither of the other two is a disabled lesbian, wiccan or vegan. b) “Wise Men” should be “Persons of Wisdom” c) Describing the first people to come to see Jesus as “wise” implies that idiots can’t become Christians, which experience tells us is just not so. Christians believe Jesus came down to earth and made himself human in order to encourage a) Consumer confidence b) Season’s greetings c) A festive period between bowl games d) His birth scene to be surrounded by plastic reindeer, elves and court-pleasing woodland creatures e) Frenzied end-of-year gift giving f) Religious songs that are easily converted into weather songs in Wisconsin g) The ACLU Christmas-erasure desk It’s beginning to look a lot like: a) Christmas b) Hanukah c) Kwanzaa d) Indianapolis is a lock to win the Superbowl Before backing down and permitting a full Nativity scene, a public library in Memphis agreed to allow the scene, but only if the baby Jesus, Joseph, Mary and the wise men were removed. This left a shepherd boy and some farm animals. Next year the library will accept a Nativity scene only if it consists of: a) A shepherd boy and some chickens b) A shepherd boy and some ferrets c) A shepherd boy explaining that the head librarian in Memphis thinks with a brain that may or may not be the result of Intelligent Design. John Leo is a columnist and editor for U.S. News & World Report and a contributing columnist on Townhall.com. Copright © 2005 Universal Press Syndicate townhall.com