Bill O'Reilly, among others, is taking great offense that a lot of stores are asking their employees to wish people a "happy holiday" rather than a "merry Christmas." He's actually getting strident about this, accusing someone (not sure who) of fighting a war against Christmas.
At first I thought a good idea would be to start a grassroots movement to overwhelm O'Reilly with cards that wish him "happy holidays" and send "season's greetings," since he seems to believe these sorts of well wishes are offensive. But maybe it would be better to send him greetings for every holiday he doesn't celebrate, whether religious, national or what-not. I'm sure he'd be glad if we wished him an easy fast for Yom Kippur, or Ramadan Mubarak during the month of Ramadan; not to mention the various Buddhist, Hindu, Zoroastrian, etc. holidays. And let's not forget that the Christian Orthodox liturgical calendar is different from the Western one, so we should all wish that he celebrate Christmas, Easter, etc., at least twice.
I really don't take offense when someone wishes me all the best for a holiday I don't celebrate. They're wishing me well, and that just doesn't happen so much. But it is a bit absurd to wish me a Merry Christmas when my plans for the day are to watch some TV, perhaps contribute a bit to Wikipedia, cook latkes for that evening's dinner, and otherwise hope nothing bad happens in the world to ruin the celebrations of my relatives, friends, neighbors and fellow world citizens of their holiday.
But my six-year old daughter this weekend was in a doctor's waiting room when someone wished the room merry Christmas; and my daughter said (in her inimitable friendly way) "I'm Jewish," and - get this - the lady who wished Merry Christmas, said "well, so am I. I guess I should have wished everyone happy holidays."
This is the problem with Bill O'Reilly's position: it makes an assumption that isn't valid. In the best case, it's simply the majority ignoring the minority; in the worst case, it's a not-so-subtle hint that really, everyone, should be celebrating Christmas if they weren't so damn obstinate and difficult.
WHAT MADE YOU JEWS GET IN BED WITH THE AMERINAZIS? YOU'RE A DISGRACE TO YOUR FOREBEARS.
JESUS CHRIST HAS REMOVED HIS BLESSING FROM AMERICA BECAUSE OF HOW CORRUPT THE CONFUSATIVES HAVE MADE THIS COUNTRY. CAN'T YOU TELL? http://www.mixposure.com/song.php?songid=14027
DON'T BE A CENSORING COMMIE; BE MAN ENOUGH TO KEEP THIS POST UP.
Posted by: DEAN BERRY -- REAL AMERICAN | December 24, 2005 at 11:15 AM
Have you notice that, let see, for 5 years ago it was not rude to say Merry Christmas, but now it is. How come?
Posted by: mo | January 08, 2006 at 05:55 AM