December 21, 2004
Tuesday
It’s not Festivus yet, but I am going to air a grievance. The other day I commented on the published whine of a local woman who apparently doesn’t pay much attention to her Jewish heritage until she can’t find a “simple Star of David” within walking distance of her house to add to her “multicultural” door wreath. Today’s newspaper carries an essay that annoys me even more.
This one is from Richard Kuser, an apparently Christian man who also lives in this area. He claims that we are witnessing the “grinching of America” because it is becoming “increasingly offensive . . . to mention the word ‘Christmas’ or celebrate the true Christian spirit of the season.” He blames this situation on the ACLU (which he calls the “Anti-Christmas Lawyers Union”) and the National Education Association for issuing a “communist manifesto” calling for the elimination of any mention of Christmas from public schools. (I don’t know about the ACLU, but I am a member of the NEA and very familiar with Finding Common Ground, the statement it has endorsed jointly with other major educational and faith-based groups. Mr. Kuser apparently has not read this, since it says nothing of the kind.) He even claims that in the very newspaper that is publishing his essay, he can “hardly find the word ‘Christmas’ mentioned anywhere.” He must not be looking very carefully. I found a dozen such mentions in the first two pages of the local news section.
He also complains that eveything is called “Holiday.” “It’s Holiday Lights, Holiday Tree, Holiday Trim, Holiday Accents. . . Holiday this Holiday that.”
I am reminded of an incident that happened about this time last year. I was in a Michael’s craft store near closing time the Saturday before Christmas. I was there to buy a small string of tiny white lights for use in a wreath. The woman ahead of me in line was haranguing the clerk about what she perceived as the store’s collusion in worldwide efforts to eradicate Christmas. “It’s all holiday this and holiday that!” she cried. She went on to lecture him about the true meaning of Christmas. She was agitated, wild-eyed, and, I thought, quite rude.
I looked at the package of lights I was carrying. I’d gotten it from the very display the woman was now ranting about. “Holiday” is the brand name of the decorations.
The clerk, who was about twenty, listened to her patiently. When she finally stopped talking, he asked her if she wanted to speak to a manager. She said she wanted to talk to somebody “really high up.” The clerk gave her a card with the names and addresses and phone numbers of customer service at headquarters. When he gave the woman her change, he smiled and wished her a Merry Christmas. She scowled at him.
I was so impressed with the way this young man handled an irritated and irritating customer that I wrote down his name and contacted company headquarters myself via their website the next day. If anyone had gotten “the true meaning of Christmas,” it was that kid who let the woman vent and did not respond in kind to her hostility.
People like that woman and the crabby Mr. Kuser, who think that Christians are now a persecuted class in this country and who assume the posture of an oppressed minority, are making me tired. They need to get over themselves.
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