Merry Christmas, and I Mean It

December 8, 2002

by Brian W. Peterson

I’m getting cranky. It’s the Christmas season and I’m not supposed to be cranky. I’m supposed to be happy- in the “Christmas spirit.” But the problem is, it’s “the holidays.” It’s difficult to find people who say “Merry Christmas” anymore. We’ve gone PC in America.

Last Christmas, mere months after religious extremists conducted a brutal attack that killed 3,000 innocent Americans, was the most politically correct Christmas that I have ever witnessed. I noticed that many department stores played only secular Christmas songs. People seemed afraid to offend the few who do not celebrate Christmas and disregarded an American and Western tradition.

Even after Hanukkah had ended, when there were no holidays left except Christmas, people were still uttering the insipid “happy holidays” line. Either the PC police or the radical mullahs had stolen Christmas.

Last year, in King County, Washington, a county executive put out a memo insisting that employees use only “religious neutral” terms and decorations. Such religious bigotry has become commonplace as more and more people grow into adulthood almost completely ignorant of American history, American traditions, and the meaning of the Constitution.

Such bigotry has been likened to not allowing a schoolteacher to talk about race while addressing Black History Month. Imagine the uproar.

Similar incidents occurred all across the country last year, particularly in schools and government offices. In New York City schools, an administrator warned that Judaism and Islam could be discussed, but not Christianity.

After September 11, the bubble-headed left trotted out expressions on top of expressions to advance their “hate America first” views. The left padded their nonsensical “diversity makes us great” with “now more than ever (after September 11).” So we have, “now more than ever we must recognize the diversity that made us great.” This claptrap ignores both the events of September 11 as well as the ideals on which American life is based.

Educated people should be appalled at such ignorance. Instead, the left has bullied the masses by pushing this nonsense to the point that it has become mainstream. Even the educated dare not draw the ire of the politically correct.

This is America. People who choose to celebrate whatever holiday they please are free to do so. But we are now reaping the consequences of a “minority rule” society. Over the past thirty years, we have taken so many measures to make the odd feel normal, the weak feel strong, and the minority feel like the majority, that we must stamp out everything that could potentially make someone feel uncomfortable in public.

It’s not enough that in America people have the freedom to worship and live as they choose. We must also make sure that the minorities do not see anything with which they disagree. But we keep no records of how many people have been permanently maimed by seeing a manger scene on the courthouse lawn. The numbers must be staggering.

Just a side note: How many Christians living in Saudi Arabia have urged the Saudi monarchy to be sensitive to their needs?

It is possible to be a non-Christian and celebrate Christmas. A Muslim friend of mine does just that. He decorates his house far better than I decorate mine. Imagine that, a non-Christian having a merry Christmas and he hasn’t even sued anyone over it.

No matter what you say, no matter what the PC police do, I will have a merry Christmas. I will not let those who hate America and her past sour me like they did last year. I will get over this crankiness and celebrate the birth of Christ. I will celebrate Christmas in the religious sense and the secular sense.

So celebrate whatever you wish, but have a merry Christmas. I’ll be offended if you don’t.

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Brian W. Peterson writes a political column for the Antelope Valley Press (circulation approximately 60,000) in Palmdale, California. He is a graduate of Oral Roberts University, where he majored in TV/Film. Brian’s weekly commentary and newspaper columns can be found at www.LifeAndLiberty.com.

Send the author an E mail at Peterson@ConservativeTruth.org.

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