Happy Holidays

[broken_soul6286]

Is anyone else highly offended by the group that wants to replace "Happy Holidays" seen at stores, etc with "Merry Christmas?" You know, the one Bill O'Reily talks about but denies participating in? They're going as far as actually BOYCOTTING stores that wish people happy holidays, calling it Un-Christian. They seem to overlook the fact that NOT EVERYONE IS CHRISTIAN!!! Christmas is already a huge holiday that overshadows Hannukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, and any other holidays I may have forgotten (sorry). Are these people really this selfish that they want to COMPLETELY alienate everyone else but the Christmas-celebrators (because not all Christians celebrate Christmas). What's next, are they going to say that having other holidays this time of year affects how they view their own holiday?

It was either the Daily Show or The Colbert Report that called Christmas the only religious federal holiday and it's true. EVERYTHING is closed on Christmas. Christmas specials flood the tv starting after Thanksgiving (if you're lucky). You almost can't live in America without knowing all about Christmas but how much is said about other holidays this time of year?

See the article: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/targetxmas.asp
and another one found on the same site that makes me laugh: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/target.asp

Comments

I'm with you!

[cherry-pizza.livejournal.com]

last year in Sydney, the Lord Mayor was criticised no end for having minimal xmas decos around the city, and for spending a small amount of money on it all. And her explanation that she didn't want to overpower the other celebrations that people have at that time of year was met with sneers.

It was popular to call her a Grinch, a la the Dr Seuss book. Did anyone stop to think of the last few lines of the book? They say:

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"

The whole point of the story was that it wasn't about all that superficial material crap, but did that stop the wowsers from proving that the whole holiday is driven by materialistic hypocrisy?

[spilled-tea.livejournal.com]

Oh please.
it really frustrates me that people like you bitch about how unfair everyone gets about this whole PC bullshit. Fucking get over yourself. if it's THAT offensive to you, IGNORE IT. Please realise that the majority of this country celebrates christmas, regardless of religion. Also please note that the celebration of christmas isn't really based on the christian values anymore. ALSO please note that Christmas WAS NOT orinially a christian holiday, but rather a pagan celebration of Yule. Therefore, the merry wishings are technically all-inclusive.
And you know what else? The other holidays AREN'T overshadowed. People like you just like to bitch about it being so for the sake of bitching.
I realise this is your personal journal, but also realise that this is the internet and YOU made the choice of making this a public entry.

[virtual-rabbi.livejournal.com]

Just a mite testy, are we? Let's try changing to the next higher size of underwear, and then post again using words of five letters or more. We know you can do it and are willing to overlook this egregious breach of etiquette by attributing it to your tight unmentionables and disastrous childhood. Really, you made some good points. Really. Take a few deep breaths, take the little happy pill the doctor gave you, wait a couple of hours and do try again. We are pulling for you. Truly, we are.

your pal,

Ben

PS - check out my poetry blog and leave scathing coments there---on point, of course---we have big shulders and can take it.

[virtual-rabbi.livejournal.com]

First, it is not completely clear that they do Xmas just to bug outsiders. They really just like it.

Businesses like Target, even publicly held though they are, are private not public entities and can do as they please. If a Jew has a shop and wants to put up a Menorah, so be it.

This is a culture where the majority are Xtians. That means the society will have an Xtian flavor. If you are not an Xtian you may be somewhat uncomfortable with that. So what?

We are lucky to live in a country that provides maximum inclusion for those who want and maximum freedom for those who don't. I think that's great. Secularized Jews are a bunch of crybabies in this regard and they have---horrors--translated this into an ACLU that attacks the majority culture. I think that is terrible. They want to be totally included in the culture and the freedom to be as different as they choose BUT at the same time they never want to feel any discomfort.

Torah-observant Jews are very different than the majority culture and suffer very much for that fact. But you don't hear them complaining about their "rights." That's because the Torah is about serving God. We have OBLIGATIONS to God, our fellow Jew and to greater humanity. The Torah suggests that every person needs to ask, "What is my OBLIGATION as God's servant and representative toward the person/group I am interacting with at this moment?" NOT "What are my RIGHTS and entitlements that I should expect to get from the other?"

If people worried more about obligations and less about their rights, we would have a much better world.

Pardon me for being confrontive in this particular way, but I challenge you (and all Jews) to choose some particularly Jewish act as prescribed in the Torah to inculcate into your daily life. Do something to be a Jew in more than just name every single day. When you have fully integrated that one mitzvah, pick a second one. When you have arrived at a place where you are serving God through the commandments of the Torah to such an extent that all around you are immediately aware that you are a Jew, THEN see if you have any complaints about Xmas. I think this will mostly be a dead issue.

PS - while you are at it, throw out your television.

Your pal,

Ben
Jew-curmudgeon-poet and virtual_rabbi