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Re: the Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays controversy.
First, it really isn't a controversy. You would think, from listening to talk radio and reading certain bloggers, that the nation is consumed with this issue. Nativity scenes being burned, children bursting into tears if the incorrect greeting is given, stores being boycotted because they're just trying to please everyone and offend no one at the same time, fistfights breaking out. But it really isn't that big a deal. Nobody is being frobidden from celebrating or worshipping whatever-they-call-it in any way they want to. It is just that time of year - the (dare I say it) HOLIDAY season between Thanksgiving and New Year's - there's nothing much going on in the news and they have to find something to rail about for three hours a day on radio, or an hour on TV, or post on the blog thingy.
And...once again...it's all my fault.
In the late 1980s I was operating a little theater company in the medium-sized city I lived in at that time. I was heavily involved in the (shudder) "arts" community. The term "political correctness" was first being coined. When we scheduled a Christmas-themed children's show I got a couple of complaints from Jewish groups. They weren't complianing about the Christmas theme, mind you, they were complaining that their children felt left out. So we brainstormed and made some changes to include Hannukah in the story. Then I got a complaint from a black group that we were leaving out Kwanzaa (which had mysteriously been created out of thin air about that time). So Kwanzaa was in the show too! If we'd had any Muslim or Hindu customers we would have jiggered it around to include them as well. Not to mention the large Zoroastrian community. One thing I didn't receive any complaints about was the fact that we were celebrating religious holidays. Not one complaint from atheists that we were indoctrinating their children. Zero.
And that was the time when I started saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." It was not a denial of the religious nature of this time of year, but rather an inclusion of, and celebration of all different faiths and beliefs.
So I started the whole "Happy Holidays" thing. Mea culpa.
But why do you people have to take what I say and do to such hysterical and confrontational extremes?
