Wednesday, December 14, 2005
It's a Christmas Tree, no matter what you call it
Here's what I wrote on the Co-op City Forum, at http://p203.ezboard.com/fcoopcitycommunityforumsfrm1.showMessage?topicID=398.topic:
Even though I don't celebrate Christmas, I'm no more offended, and no more avoid, a store that sells Christmas trees than I am offended by a store that sells hockey equipment, even though I have no interest in hockey. I just walk past, and if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, or asks me "How about them Bruins?" I take it as it's offered.
On the other hand, quite prominently in the Constitution is a ban on the government establishing a religion -- having a state religion -- and an official government Christmas Tree, by whatever name[*], is closer to that than I'd have it. (My city also has an official creche on the Common this time of year -- way over the line in my opinion, but in the scheme of things this small first step is not at the beginning of a slippery slope, and I've got other fish to fry.)
[*]Emphasize that: Abraham Lincoln supposedly asked "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a horse have?" and the answer is "Four: calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one." If you put up a Christmas tree -- a tradition, though originating in pagan northern Europe, thoroughly part of Christmas -- at least have the honesty to call it a Christmas tree. Calling it something else, doesn't make it anything other than a Christmas tree. And nobody objects to the fact that Christians celebrate Christmas -- the objection is to the notion that non-Christians ought to be celebrating it too.
And on the Volokh Conspiracy, in a thread that started about Hostility to Atheists, I wrote: Dave Barry has said that "Seasons Greetings" (which is a traditional expression, not a watered-down-in-an-attempt-to-be-inclusive "Happy Holidays", although see also McKenzie, Robert and McKenzie, Douglas on what exactly are the 12 days of Christmas) is as meaningful as greeting someone with "Appropriate Remark!" One is also reminded of a grocery store attempting to be inclusive in its weekly circular: "To our Christian friends, we wish a Merry Christmas. To our Jewish friends, we wish a Happy Chanukah. To our Atheist friends, good luck." Meanwhile, those who are calling for the Protection of Christmas Act should take a good look at just what difficulties American Jews have with holding seders, and fasting on Yom Kippur, and building succot. It isn't that hard to practice any religion in this country. OTOH, I live one town over from Lexington, home of one of these creche bans, and my city still puts up a creche each year, and the schools are still teaching, explicitly in the words on one Christmas Pageant song, that everybody has a holiday this time of year, and implicitly, that Chanukah is the high point of the Jewish religious calendar. My children are half-breeds (making them halachically gentile -- it's a long story) and in 2005 we are still facing the issue that I never faced in the Bronx of whether taking part in (one half of) their heritage will subject them to negative social pressure. FWIW, my all-Jewish birth family celebrates both solstices with a passing recognition of the change in the trend of daylight length. And what's with Kwanzaa? How did what is at best an ethnic or cultural statement so quickly obtain the status of millenia-old religious celebrations, while Festivus remains a joke?
And on the Volokh Conspiracy, in a thread that started about Hostility to Atheists, I wrote: Dave Barry has said that "Seasons Greetings" (which is a traditional expression, not a watered-down-in-an-attempt-to-be-inclusive "Happy Holidays", although see also McKenzie, Robert and McKenzie, Douglas on what exactly are the 12 days of Christmas) is as meaningful as greeting someone with "Appropriate Remark!" One is also reminded of a grocery store attempting to be inclusive in its weekly circular: "To our Christian friends, we wish a Merry Christmas. To our Jewish friends, we wish a Happy Chanukah. To our Atheist friends, good luck." Meanwhile, those who are calling for the Protection of Christmas Act should take a good look at just what difficulties American Jews have with holding seders, and fasting on Yom Kippur, and building succot. It isn't that hard to practice any religion in this country. OTOH, I live one town over from Lexington, home of one of these creche bans, and my city still puts up a creche each year, and the schools are still teaching, explicitly in the words on one Christmas Pageant song, that everybody has a holiday this time of year, and implicitly, that Chanukah is the high point of the Jewish religious calendar. My children are half-breeds (making them halachically gentile -- it's a long story) and in 2005 we are still facing the issue that I never faced in the Bronx of whether taking part in (one half of) their heritage will subject them to negative social pressure. FWIW, my all-Jewish birth family celebrates both solstices with a passing recognition of the change in the trend of daylight length. And what's with Kwanzaa? How did what is at best an ethnic or cultural statement so quickly obtain the status of millenia-old religious celebrations, while Festivus remains a joke?
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