Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2006 > December > 13
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Merry, uh, holiday.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The 14 Christmas trees removed from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after a rabbi threatened to sue if a menorah wasn’t displayed as well, are back. The rabbi, who had not asked that the Christmas trees be removed, only that a menorah be added, withdrew his threat to sue this year. “We are not going to be the instrument by which the port holds Christmas hostage,” said the rabbi’s lawyer. Key to the return of the Christmas trees, port officials said, was an agreement that they will “work with the rabbi and other members of the community to develop a plan for next year’s holiday decorations at the airport.”
Is Christmas really threatened, as many traditonalists contend? Well, maybe. After the story appeared, I thumbed through the paper looking for the word “Christmas” in advertising. I did the same with a batch of catalogues that arrived around Thanksgiving. All are quick to promote this as the season where one is expected to purchase gifts. And a couple — Dillard’s and BrandsMart come to mind — readily acknowledge that the gifts are offered for Christmas giving. But my Jos. A. Bank catalogue has a “Holiday Catalogue Sale.” The Honeybaked Ham company president included a warm personal letter to me, their “valued customer,” but didn’t actually use the words Christmas or Thanksgiving — though a later mailing did mention Christmas on the inside of a “Holiday Gifts 2006” catalogue.
It’s hard to blame retailers. We do seem to be a nation of people who go through life looking for opportunities to take offense. I heard a radio account recently of a voter who threatened to file suit to get a polling place removed from a Catholic church social hall because signs there opposed abortion. Now can you imagine a value system so fragile, so ungrounded, that a mere sign would cause it to crumble, thereby possibly influencing one’s vote minutes later? Not long ago, we’d simply have walked on, voted, and acknowledged without offense the Catholic view.
It may simply be inevitable that Christmas is destined to morph into a “holiday” season that gives no offense to any brittle body. Even now, Christmas trees are becoming holiday trees and, as in Seattle, a committee has to be convened to plan “holiday decorations.” Sad. But in a world where bringing down some traditional practice or institution, a la Madalyn Murray O’Hair, represents a meaningful life achievement, Christmas may indeed be a national holiday on borrowed time. Merry, uh, holiday.
