The whole "War On Christmas" has been a fun roll in the hay these last few months.
But there is a significant aspect that gets overlooked. After you discount O'Reilly's faux outraged attitude, and ignore the sparse smatterings of justification that are used to backup claims of the war, and after you celebrate the season however you see fit, there is something else to consider.
It's time to kill Christmas.
Yes, seriously.
Four main reasons point to the need end Christmas:
- Christmas is primarily a religious holidy. Before it was a Christmas holiday it was a pagan tradition. Then it became a celebration of Christ's purported birth. It is patently un-American for the Federal government to recognize this is a federal holiday. We don't recognize other Christian holidays. Why no easter holiday? To Christians it's a bigger celebration by far tha Christmas. We don't recognize Jewish holidays. Or the Muslim holidays. Or various pagan holidays. If you support Christmas as a "holiday" you are not a patriot.
- The Christmas "shopping season" is a destabilizing economic force that should be curtailed before it becomes even more damaging. In a well functioning economy production should be level or near level to gain maximum efficency. Product releases and lineup changes should be timed for maximum economic efficeny. Instead, Christmas distorts the cycle of production. Product lines are discontinued and new ones lunched simply to feed an overheated hype generated by Christmas. Producers, importers, retailers, wharehousing, trucking, marketing, et all scramble to take a big share of the "holiday shopping blitz". Advertising rates are higher, lines are longer, return rates are higher. Although the retail sector "booms", much of the rest of the economy lags. This all translates into inefficency. And it's wrong! If you support Christmas as a "holidy" you are for ruining our economy and wrecking our competitiveness.
- The recognition of Christmas is exclusionary, and that is wrong. The United States is a multicultural nation. We have no single national culture. We even have no national holidays. (The "Federal holidays" we have only legally have any weight because of tradition, not because of law). Simply put, selecting one tradition - religious aspects of the selection aside - is wrong. Even if Christmas really were some secular holiday, it's wrong. If you support Christmas as a "holiday" you are a racial and ethnically insensitive.
- Christmas is now politically divise, as well as religiously and culturally so. It's a loaded issue now. Sides have to be picked. Lines drawn. Frankly, it's none of GW Bushs, the Congress, the various States, or anyone elses damned business what I do on Dec 25th each year. If I want to sit around and eat myself silly, fine. If I want to attend church services, good for me. If I want to make my employees work, well, oh well. It's none of the Governments damned business, or yours for that matter. This isn't Iran. This isn't Syria. This isn't Europe, Canada, Mexico, Panama. This is the United States of America. And my beliefs, my traditions, and my culture is my own business. Thank you very much. If you support Christmas as a "holiday" you are not a uniter, you are a divider. You support tearing America at the seems for no good reason.
Remove it from the hands of Government. Remove it from the hands of hacks. Remove it from the calendars, the schools, the debate. Let it fade. And let's make Christmas the first battle in the war to get the intrustive, clumsy, dangerous hands of Government out of our personal lives, out of our religion, and out of our culture.
DOWN WITH CHRISTMAS.