| |
Merry
PC Christmas
by Peary Perry | |
Was
there such a thing as ‘political correctness’ fifty years ago?
Were we
just insensitive to other people, cultures, religions or lifestyles or were we
just muddling through life the best that we could, while trying not to hurt anyone’s
feelings? I just don’t remember everyone in the world wearing their hearts on
their sleeves and all of us having to tiptoe around each and every word that came
out of our mouths.
Take for example, this Christmas season. In my family,
we celebrate Christmas. We always have, and I suppose we always will unless someone
joins our family that thinks differently. If and when that time comes, I’ll worry
about it and deal with it then, not now. We send out Christmas cards. We don’t
send Holiday greetings, season’s greetings or winter greeting cards. We sing Christmas
carols and we celebrate this time of the year in memory of Jesus Christ’s birth
2005 years ago. If Santa creeps in, well so what? As long as we know that Santa
and Christ aren’t the same, then leave us alone.
Before you grab your
pen and paper to drop me a note and tell me that Christ was born in January or
July and that the celebration of Christmas is some derivative of an ancient Druid
tradition, let me say that I don’t care. This is the time of the year that we
choose to celebrate and what we believe and let’s let it go at that. Who cares
if it’s correct or not? What difference does it make? Aren’t we trying to pick
a place in time where we can observe certain customs and recall certain memories?
Isn’t it the spirit of the celebration that counts? If I believe a plaid pair
of pants goes with a striped shirt, isn’t that my choice not yours?
Now,
having said all of that, let me say that if you wish to celebrate Passover, Hanukah,
Kwanzaa, or Ramadan, then more power to you. If you send me a card saying “Happy
Ramadan” with your name on it, I’ll thank you. If you send me a card with “Happy
Hanukah” on it, I’ll thank you as well. You can send me a card with Happy Holidays,
Seasons Greetings or Happy Winter whatever and I’ll still be happy to hear from
you.
If you are so inclined to go naked with a potted plant on your head
and march around an oak tree in the dead of winter in four feet of snow and you
think that’s where God lives, so be it. You have my blessing. I may not agree
with you, but if that’s what gives you spiritual strength and makes you want to
become a better person to the entire world, including me, then go for it.
I refuse to change my winter celebration to something other than Christmas, just
so I become politically correct and don’t ‘offend’ anyone. What other people believe
in doesn’t offend me, so why should what I believe in offend them? Don’t I have
as much right to believe what I want to as the next guy? Do we have to be so “PC”
that I have to keep my mouth tightly shut for fear that I might say something
or believe in something that others don’t?
Perish the thought. If that
was the case, then I dare to say that we’d still be paying taxes to England after
some 200 years because we were afraid to ‘offend’ old King George. It wouldn’t
have been correct to say some of the things we said about him in the Declaration
of Independence. It might have hurt his feelings. So much for political correctness
in the year 1776.
Now, before you go off on how commercial Christmas
has become, let me make one final point. Most of the holidays have, they put it
in the stores and we shop. But guess what? We don’t have to buy the stuff.
I
like okra, and hate Italian operas… you might not. You might hate okra and love
operas. Does that make either of us bad people? I don’t think so. It just shows
we have different tastes and concepts about food and some forms of music.
The same goes for holidays and religions, you keep yours and I’ll keep mine.
Merry
Christmas to all. | | |
