The War on Christmas

After the September 11th attacks, the news was flooded with headlines including the phrase "War on Terrorism." At first I was unable to grasp the concept of a war on an abstract noun, and couldn't help but picture President George W. Bush and his cabinet sitting at a desk, pulling out some dictionaries, and ripping the word terrorism out of each and every one of them. Later, I became accustomed to (and maybe even comfortable with) this battle against a concept. Of course, not long after that, my definition of the word "war" is threatened yet again, this time with Fox's "War on Christmas."

The so-called "War on Christmas" is the most recent attempt at removing religion from society. You know, like taking "God" off of money, taking "God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and, coming soon, taking "God" out of the word "God." People seem to have this fear of other people's religions-I'm all for the separation of church and state, but there's a balance between forcing religions onto one another and pretending they don't exist at all. The argument behind this war is that stores like K-Mart should not be allowed to put up signs that say "Merry Christmas." Also, no more Christmas symbols can be publicly displayed nor Christmas carols publicly performed (some people were offended by the ambiguity of the phrase "Fa La La La La, La La, La, La"). Even saying "Merry Christmas" to people in public is questionable. Why? Because not everyone celebrates Christmas. According to the people who are fighting the "War on Christmas," banners in Letter-Marts should be euphemized into saying "Happy Holidays." What about the people who don't celebrate any holidays? I agree to an extent that banners should not be limited to saying "Merry Christmas," but rather than listing no religious holidays, why not list them all? I don't think it'd be too much trouble to say "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah," and "Eid Mubarak."

And then there's Fox News. If you watch Fox regularly, they have already scared you into thinking that pagans are taking over the world. I find it hard to believe that Fox has turned "The War on Christmas" into a real headline. But it has; in fact, Fox is the source that created the term. Basically, Fox declared "The War on Christmas," and then went on to complain about it.

The main reason I eventually accepted the War on Terrorism was because although physically impossible, it was a war; as in, there were guns, fighting, and, most importantly, explosions. The alleged "War on Christmas" lacks these three key elements, so now I'm left questioning two things: "What is a war?" and "Is the 'War on Christmas' really a war?" If it is a war, it's definitely a diversion from the historical stereotype...meaning, it is not being fought. What happens instead is extreme liberals who have nothing better to do complain about the public acknowledgement of the word "Christmas." Meanwhile, extreme conservatives who have nothing better to do do the same about the public existence of the abbreviation "X-mas." Is that the latest wartime strategy? Complaining? I can only imagine what will happen to real-time strategy games like Command & Conquer.

As far as people being allowed to say "Merry Christmas" in public: Who cares? Don't we have more important things to do? If change is necessary, saying "Happy Holidays" isn't the right answer anyway. If we want to change a countrywide policy on winter holidays, let's include more religions instead of excluding all of them. For Fox to turn this into a "War on Christmas" pushes the boundaries of the word "war" as well as the word "stupid." People should stop complaining about religious differences and instead embrace them. That said: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Eid Mubarak...Happy Kwanzaa...