When a Few People Ruin It for All of Us
Ah, a big tip of the cap to this great country we all live in, where we're free to say whatever we want about whatever we want (within reason, there's that whole FCC thing and the yelling "Fire" in a movie theatre bit). However, sometimes I see things happen and it makes me think that some people equate the freedom to express their views with freedom to make sure their views get heard and acted upon. Which leads me to a couple of examples of whiny political correctness that is sure to make your holiday season that much brighter. Or not.
I suppose you've all by now heard about the recent mess in Kensington, Maryland with the ban on Santa. To rehash for those of you who haven't, Kensington is a small town, a bit larger than Camillus, perhaps, and it's near Washington, D.C. Every year about this time, from little towns like Kensington to big important places like Rockefeller Center and the White House, you have Christmas tree lighting ceremonies. In Kensington, the tradition is to have Santa himself do the honors, which of course begs the question: If he's out doing all these PR appearances, how does he have any time to check his list once, much less TWICE? Anyway, two households complained to the town council that Santa was a religious symbol and therefore violated separation of church and state.
OK, I can show you two things wrong with that last statement. First of all, if Santa is a religious symbol, then maybe The Onion is right with its annual Easter decorations gag, and it really was the Easter Bunny who got nailed to that cross. Although Santa Claus does owe some of his origins to Christianity (St. Nicholas, for example), Santa is about as non-denominational as it gets. He delivers toys and flies through the air on a sleigh pulled by nine reindeer, one of whom has a glowing red nose. Is there anything religious about that? People don't worship Santa, he's not mentioned in the Bible, or the Quran, or the Book of Mormon, or even "The Power of Positive Thinking". These two residents in Kensington, however, believed, perhaps short-sightedly, that Santa=Christianity, therefore he's gotta go. While I would like to tell you that revealing the religion of these folks means nothing to the story and is therefore unnecessary, that's not the case, so I gotta tell you at this point that these people are Jewish.
Michael Olesker, Baltimore Sun columnist and also Jewish, referred to this in a recent column of his as a "political headache". Which leads to the second thing I find wrong with all of this. IT'S TWO FREAKIN' PEOPLE!!! Obviously not the first time this has happened, unfortunately; we've seen examples in past Decembers of only one atheist having to open his yap in order to get nativity scenes and the like tossed out, especially if that one person has the much bigger than one-person force known as the ACLU behind him. My point here is that sure these two people had freedom to express their problem with this, but the council also had a right to tell them to (expletive) off. Instead, they dumped Santa and replaced him with a cadre of firefighters and policemen, to pay tribute to the fallen heroes of September 11th. Nice try, but that ain't gonna fly in this case. So, on the big day, reports of anywhere from 21 to 50 people arrived to the gala dressed as Santa. Thankfully, none of them were arrested for "offending the public". However, this also gave the anti-Semitic crowd a chance to display their small minority views, flashing signs like, "If Jews can ban Santa, can we ban Jews?"
This whole tempest in a small town started, innocently enough, with the issue of putting a menorah alongside the traditional Christmas decorations, which I have no problem with. My problem is with the people who think that December was apparently only created for Christians and retail stores, so nobody else can have their holidays observed, at least not in a public place. This situation is currently rearing its ugly head right here in Chambersburg, Pah, where a bunch of fundamentalists are protesting the local hospital's decision to have a Holiday Party instead of a Christmas party, so as to include Jews, Muslims, and whomever else has reason to celebrate this time of year. Well, that rankled a certain minister from a certain local church who gets a certain radio hour on a certain local radio station. She happens to work at the hospital, and so she rounded up some 1800 signatures (and considering this IS Chambersburg, that's a pretty large amount) on a petition to protest this decision. She has yelled long and loud to anyone who would listen (and it's not many, trust me) that somehow deciding to respect all religions means that Christianity is not respected.
There's a certain lack of logic with that statement. Christianity is respected, it's not the only religion respected, but it is respected. This woman, however, would prefer that hers be the only one respected, and you know what the result of this is most likely going to be? No party at all. Therefore nobody gets offended, because nobody gets observed. That's what I don't like, is when people decide that the answer to not including all religions is to EXCLUDE all of them. There's a nativity scene next to the fountain in downtown Chambersburg, the one you have to drive around to get anywhere, and I have no objection to it, even though I characterize myself as agnostic. I would just prefer that if someone wanted a menorah there, put it up. The problem today is that our leaders are so afraid of ANYONE protesting, be it the religious minorities or the Christian "majority", that they often act irrationally in their decisions over just what is the best way to celebrate this time of year. Here's the easiest way to do it: include anyone and everyone who wants to be included, and to those who think they shouldn't belong, yes you have the right to protest, but as I have said in the past in this column, we don't have to listen to you.
Happy Chanukah, Happy Yule, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Ramadan, and oh yeah, Merry Christmas...
I suppose you've all by now heard about the recent mess in Kensington, Maryland with the ban on Santa. To rehash for those of you who haven't, Kensington is a small town, a bit larger than Camillus, perhaps, and it's near Washington, D.C. Every year about this time, from little towns like Kensington to big important places like Rockefeller Center and the White House, you have Christmas tree lighting ceremonies. In Kensington, the tradition is to have Santa himself do the honors, which of course begs the question: If he's out doing all these PR appearances, how does he have any time to check his list once, much less TWICE? Anyway, two households complained to the town council that Santa was a religious symbol and therefore violated separation of church and state.
OK, I can show you two things wrong with that last statement. First of all, if Santa is a religious symbol, then maybe The Onion is right with its annual Easter decorations gag, and it really was the Easter Bunny who got nailed to that cross. Although Santa Claus does owe some of his origins to Christianity (St. Nicholas, for example), Santa is about as non-denominational as it gets. He delivers toys and flies through the air on a sleigh pulled by nine reindeer, one of whom has a glowing red nose. Is there anything religious about that? People don't worship Santa, he's not mentioned in the Bible, or the Quran, or the Book of Mormon, or even "The Power of Positive Thinking". These two residents in Kensington, however, believed, perhaps short-sightedly, that Santa=Christianity, therefore he's gotta go. While I would like to tell you that revealing the religion of these folks means nothing to the story and is therefore unnecessary, that's not the case, so I gotta tell you at this point that these people are Jewish.
Michael Olesker, Baltimore Sun columnist and also Jewish, referred to this in a recent column of his as a "political headache". Which leads to the second thing I find wrong with all of this. IT'S TWO FREAKIN' PEOPLE!!! Obviously not the first time this has happened, unfortunately; we've seen examples in past Decembers of only one atheist having to open his yap in order to get nativity scenes and the like tossed out, especially if that one person has the much bigger than one-person force known as the ACLU behind him. My point here is that sure these two people had freedom to express their problem with this, but the council also had a right to tell them to (expletive) off. Instead, they dumped Santa and replaced him with a cadre of firefighters and policemen, to pay tribute to the fallen heroes of September 11th. Nice try, but that ain't gonna fly in this case. So, on the big day, reports of anywhere from 21 to 50 people arrived to the gala dressed as Santa. Thankfully, none of them were arrested for "offending the public". However, this also gave the anti-Semitic crowd a chance to display their small minority views, flashing signs like, "If Jews can ban Santa, can we ban Jews?"
This whole tempest in a small town started, innocently enough, with the issue of putting a menorah alongside the traditional Christmas decorations, which I have no problem with. My problem is with the people who think that December was apparently only created for Christians and retail stores, so nobody else can have their holidays observed, at least not in a public place. This situation is currently rearing its ugly head right here in Chambersburg, Pah, where a bunch of fundamentalists are protesting the local hospital's decision to have a Holiday Party instead of a Christmas party, so as to include Jews, Muslims, and whomever else has reason to celebrate this time of year. Well, that rankled a certain minister from a certain local church who gets a certain radio hour on a certain local radio station. She happens to work at the hospital, and so she rounded up some 1800 signatures (and considering this IS Chambersburg, that's a pretty large amount) on a petition to protest this decision. She has yelled long and loud to anyone who would listen (and it's not many, trust me) that somehow deciding to respect all religions means that Christianity is not respected.
There's a certain lack of logic with that statement. Christianity is respected, it's not the only religion respected, but it is respected. This woman, however, would prefer that hers be the only one respected, and you know what the result of this is most likely going to be? No party at all. Therefore nobody gets offended, because nobody gets observed. That's what I don't like, is when people decide that the answer to not including all religions is to EXCLUDE all of them. There's a nativity scene next to the fountain in downtown Chambersburg, the one you have to drive around to get anywhere, and I have no objection to it, even though I characterize myself as agnostic. I would just prefer that if someone wanted a menorah there, put it up. The problem today is that our leaders are so afraid of ANYONE protesting, be it the religious minorities or the Christian "majority", that they often act irrationally in their decisions over just what is the best way to celebrate this time of year. Here's the easiest way to do it: include anyone and everyone who wants to be included, and to those who think they shouldn't belong, yes you have the right to protest, but as I have said in the past in this column, we don't have to listen to you.
Happy Chanukah, Happy Yule, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Ramadan, and oh yeah, Merry Christmas...
posted by Dave | 11:29 PM
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