Some of the stores have lightened up this year. Hold on to your seats, but sales clerks are actually saying “Merry Christmas" again.  Did you ever think you’d live to see the day?  Nevertheless I don’t think we’ll experience the complete eradication of this nonsense about seasonal greetings anytime soon. There are still plenty of talking heads on TV and radio who tell us that the phrase Happy Holiday is less offensive and more inclusive.

Honestly, we have turned into a nation of spoiled, whinny, bratty, little children who think our constitution exists to protect us from ever being offended.  As a matter of fact, the constitution says quite the opposite.  Why does the first amendment protect free speech?  Because our forefathers knew that speech can offend.  Think for a moment: If no one were ever going to be offended there would be no reason for creating such an amendment.

I grew up Jewish and did not convert to Christianity until I was almost 20 years old in my second year of college.  As a child, I celebrated Hanukkah, not Christmas.  Never did the phrase Merry Christmas bother me. I loved Christmas.  It was my favorite time of the year. I loved the parties, I loved the lights and I especially loved getting two weeks off from school for Christmas Vacation.  (Yeah, they actually called it Christmas Vacation back in those days, maybe because they knew that’s what it really was so they figured they might as well just speak the truth.)   By the way, have you noticed that those who protest Christmas don’t seem too offended when they are allowed to take time off from school or work? And I’ll just bet nobody refuses their Christmas bonus.  But back to Bob, the untroubled Christmastime child. I also loved singing Christmas carols. The music was pretty even though the lyrics were confusing. I really didn’t understand much of what we were singing about, or how some baby in a manger could bring about peace on earth; neither did I understand exactly what a manger was. I did know that Jesus was supposedly the Son of God but I didn’t believe in God and I thought anyone who accepted the Bible was an idiot. Still, if somebody wanted to be an idiot it was no skin off my back.  Never did I feel that any kinds of rights were being violated.  Nobody was forcing me to believe in Jesus or sing about Jesus.  It was simply a non-issue.

I’m convinced that it’s a non-issue today as well, at least for most people, probably well over 98 percent.  Have you ever been to Disneyland around Christmas time?  The place is packed like a sardine can. People come in the thousands day after day. I doubt that they are all Christians.  Instead, they are people who realize our constitution guarantees  religion as a matter of choice.  It does not guarantee that religion will never be mentioned in your presence or that your eyes will be shielded from manger scenes and decorations.

But try explaining this to the Politically Correct loud mouths that are looking for activist judges to prove that old saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”  This is especially true at our public schools. “Kids, we’re going to take some time off from school  It’s for a holiday but please make sure you don’t mention what the holiday is because some celebrate other holidays and some just celebrate the fact that it’s winter.”

Yeah, that’s why we take a few weeks off every year, to celebrate winter.  Sure.  Now I’ll tell one.  And even so, isn’t this discriminatory?  We are leaving out three other seasons.  Supposing somebody wants to celebrate autumn? OK, we do have Spring Break but that was also made up as a smoke and mirror to hide the fact that it’s really Easter.

Incidentally how much longer will it be before the ACLU figures out that holiday means holy day?  Which holy day are we talking about?  Some time in the near future the term holy will probably be dropped as well.  What will we be left with then, Happy Winter?  What if the person is offended by snow and cold and feels his civil liberties are being violated.  How about Happy Day?  This is also a problem because you might be talking to someone who prefers night.  Or you might be talking to a foreigner whose family lives on the other side of the world. He is offended because he knows that in his country it was nighttime when you used the word day.  All right, maybe we can just say, “Happy.”  But that offends anyone who is sad.

Hey I have an idea. Maybe we can just say, “Merry Christmas” and if a person claims to be offended we just ask them to grow up.  Let’s not let the tail wag the dog. Why should the five people in our country who don’t like Christmas ruin it for the rest of us? Just tell them to compose themselves.  They’ll need such composure when they return home and go to bed. Jacob Marley and three spirits might just be waiting for them.

This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.

The Bob Siegel Show can be heard every Sunday from 3:00 to 4:00 PM on KCBQ 1170 on the dial or KCBQ.com to listen live over the Internet.

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