[lit-ideas] Re: Christmas Trees
- From: "Veronica Caley" <vcaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:41:46 -0500
Does anyone on this list have any suggestions about what to say to someone
at this time of the year whose religious affiliation, or lack thereof, is
unknown?
Didn't this whole flap about 'happy holidays' start with right wing
Christians who were upset with the White House Christmas card which said
'holidays' not Christmas. Don't these people know that Bushes, now and in
the future, need to get elected?
The global corporations are significant job producers, here and abroad. If
we all stopped purchasing gifts, we would put people out of jobs. And
believe it or not, a lot of people spend very little and also make some
gifts, including food.
Some people don't have it to spend either. In Michigan, unemployment is
very high. I was in a low cost chain last night, not Wal-Mart, and I was
astounded at how few people were in there. From there, we went to a low
cost restaurant, and there was hardly anyone there either. People here
need to be wished well, in whatever form.
Veronica
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 12/17/2005 1:02:02 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Christmas Trees
>
> Andreas quoted the NY Times: Religious
> conservatives are using Christmas for a political
> purpose: as a cudgel to push the prayers and
> displays of their own form of Christianity into
> public spaces, including public schools, and to
> make America more like a theocracy.
>
> ________
>
> That may well be, but it's still no reason to
> embrace the global corporate generic "holiday."
>
> Christmas Trees should be called Christmas Trees.
> One does not achieve inclusiveness by rendering
> everything generic. That only serves the interests
> of global corporations.
>
> Inclusiveness, IMHO, involves wishing people Merry
> Christmas and Happy Hannukah and Happy Kwanzaa as
> the circumstances merit. (At least that would show
> you are paying attention to individual differences
> and are willing to acknowledge them.) One doesn't
> have to be a Christian to enjoy Christmas or a Jew
> to attend a Hannukah celebration. Holidays have
> nonreligious components which are accessible to
> everyone.
>
> Corporate generic style works the other way, to
> ignore traditions and throw everything into a
> neuter and robotic nothingness as "holiday." The
> false dichotomy presented by the NYT article is
> that one must be a true-believer or else an
> offended secular person eager to embrace the
> corporate generic term.
>
> In the corporate route, Christmas Trees would
> become holiday trees, Menorahs and Kwanzaa
> Mishumaas, holiday candlesticks. Plus that
> Maypole Andreas said he danced around would become
> a holiday post. Just as the right-wing is using
> Christmas for a political purpose, certain
> left-wing elements are using Christmas to advance
> the global corporate agenda, only the left-wing is
> being more subtle about it.
>
> Eric
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
