Mike Rosen in studio Friday December 23rd, 2005 with intern call screener and assistant producer Abbey Steinbach.
Posted on 12/23/2005 5:30:10 AM PST by ajolympian2004
The pendulum swings both ways. Last year in Denver, it was Mayor John Hickenlooper proposing to replace the city's traditional "Merry Christmas" sign with one that said "Happy Holidays." The mayor wisely backed off in response to the public outcry, as did the Parade of Lights, this year, reversing its policy barring religious floats. Earlier this month, Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert, issued a directive instructing the architect of the Capitol to drop the name "Capitol Holiday Tree" - adopted in the late 1990s under the authority of no one who's now willing to admit to it - and return to the traditional identity of "Capitol Christmas Tree."
On the other hand, some national retailers, like Wal- Mart, have gone in the opposite direction, discouraging their employees from greeting customers with "Merry Christmas," in favor of "Happy Holidays." It's not that these businesses are particularly political or antireligious. They just want to be as inclusive as possible to avoid offending anyone in order to maximize sales. They've now learned that anything you do offends someone these days, as some Christian groups have called for a boycott of these retail grinches.
My personal preference is "Merry Christmas." Not because "Happy holidays" offends my sensibilities as a Christian, since I'm not a Christian. And not because "Happy holidays" is offensive. It isn't. It's just that the de-Christmasization of the so-called holiday season is an affront to common sense and an unnecessary surrender to the forces of political correctness, paranoid secularization and hypersensitivity. Can you spell A-C-L-U?
Christmas has two dimensions, one secular and one religious, that have overlapped and coexisted for centuries. Some people celebrate Santa Claus Christmas, some people celebrate Jesus Christ Christmas and most people in this country celebrate both. If you're a Christian offended by the commercialization of Christmas, then shun it and focus on the birth of Christ. Some atheists hate the overt religiosity at this time of year. That's their prerogative, and it's everyone else's to ignore their complaints. I enjoy the spirit of the season, the music and the pageantry (both secular and religious), the fellowship and the exchanging of gifts.
For heaven's sake (I'm not invoking religion; that's a common expression), this is first and foremost the Christmas season. There's no need to downplay or euphemize the name. Yes, Hanukkah comes at about the same time, but Jews make up only 2 percent of the population. If Hanukkah were in July, it would fly under the public radar. Kwanzaa? Be serious. That was the fabrication of Ron Karenga, a violent ex-con and Marxist black separatist who, in 1966, pulled the holiday out of thin air because he thought Christmas was too white (someone should have told him that Bing Crosby's immortal White Christmas refers to snow, not race). They've never heard of Kwanzaa in Africa. The vast majority of American blacks are Christians, and celebrate Christmas along with everyone else. The same for Latinos. In the spirit of season, I can even forgive Jose Feliciano for Feliz Navidad.
Yes, you might say that Thanksgiving kicks off the "holiday season," but it's a relative newcomer. Christmas was around well before it. And prior to the birth of Christ, pagans celebrated the winter solstice at this time of year, replete with Christmas trees that obviously were called something else then. Christians repositioned the celebration of Christ's birthday to join the party and compete. Retailers needn't be defensive about the name. They draw in the crowds promoting Santa Claus Christmas.
Check out their ads. You don't see images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on TV or in the newspapers when the stores herald their Christmas sales. It's all about Santa, Rudolph and the reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and one-horse open sleighs. We have holidays all year long but, from a commercial standpoint, the extravagant exchange of gifts is unique to Christmas. We don't do that on Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July, Veterans' Day, Memorial Day or New Year's Day. Excited children don't have trouble falling asleep on President's Day eve.
We're a nation of 300 million people, of whom probably 280 million are just fine with "Merry Christmas." Even a reformed Ebenezer Scrooge exclaimed it. It's been "Merry Christmas" for centuries. How in the world have we been bullied into being defensive about it? Shout it out. No one will arrest you. And if I were Santa, I'd fill the ACLU's stocking with lumps of coal.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA.
The "Silent Majority", silent no more.
Merry Christmas and God bless you all.
Ahhh.. but as I did as a kid.
Of course back then it wasn't "Presidents Day". It was Lincoln's & Washington's Birthday (12th & 22nd respectively) and if they fell during the week we got both days off from 'publik skool'.
And the sleepless excitement was because the neighborhood movie theater always showed Abbot & Costello double features for us kids on those days and admission was only $00.25 :-)
I need MORE COFFEE stat!!
Exactly! That's what I've been saying! I notice the ACLU doesn't get worked up about e*ster, and St. Patrick's Day and "halloween" completely bury Purim and the High Holy Day-Sukkot seasons respectively, and no one even notices.
Way back in the "19th century" none other than a Kentucky redneck named Richard Mentor Johnson (Martin Van Buren's vice-president) called for declassifying the holiday status of sundays because "religion and irreligion have equal rights in the United States" (this was back when the heartland was radical and the coasts conservative). Yet the ACLU, which so enjoys finding villages of eighty people in Nebraska to sue for having chr*stmas parades, can't even bring itself to call for removing chr*stmas day from the list of federal holidays. Hypocrites, all around!
Since it seems that the ACLU is attached to nearly everything that is anti-American in this country, I would think that an enterprising investigative reporter would do well if he/she looked into this group a little closer?
How does the ACLU raise its money? Who are the major players in this group? How many members do they have? Which politicians are card carrying members of this group? Were either of the Clintons ever a member of the ACLU?
I understand it was Newt Gingerich's decision in the 90's with the politically correct name of the Capitol holiday tree. Look what you started, Newt!
Mike Rosen in studio Friday December 23rd, 2005 with intern call screener and assistant producer Abbey Steinbach.
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