Nice seeing you again, Wayne. Thanks for the help, good luck and Merry Christmas.
According to the Mayans, the world is going to end Friday. This prophecy is talked about everywhere from the History and Discovery channels to the National Geographic Channel, and even on the main network news outlets.
This could be the opportunity of a lifetime to max out that credit card, finance that new nine-passenger SUV without the extended warranty, and get the little lady a new fur coat. Yes, a real one. Hey, why not? It doesn’t matter now.
Buy yourself an iPad. Put it on the credit card, and impress the daughters. Even though you have no idea what it is or how to use it, they’ll think you’re fashionable and stylish at least once before you die.
As you read this, there are only two possible outcomes. You have mere hours to live and will soon suffer a fate more gruesome than being a vegetarian at a bacon-cook-off, or the Mayans were wrong, your life will go on into 2013, and you’ll suffer four more years of “Hope and Change” and the introduction of Obamacare.
Either way, you’re doomed, but one fate is quicker and more humane than the other.
Gadzooks! This could be your last Christmas season! Regardless of the Mayan Apocalypse, many Americans try to accomplish the same or at least try to diminish the holiday, and steer America onto a more-secular course. We call it the “War on Christmas,” but they call their efforts our “imagination”
For example, a couple of years ago, we were in Niagara Falls on Christmas Eve. The park, next to the falls, was decorated with inflated and illuminated figures of Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Winnie the Pooh, Frosty and some sort of stupid-looking tiger. No angels, manger scene, wise men, star, Christ Child, nor even Santa were seen.
Is this what we are to become? Are Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh destined to replace the Christ Child and jolly old St. Nick? I hope not.
In addition, we have the governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee. I’m sure this is just my “imagination,” but for the second year in a row, this fellow insists on calling the Christmas tree, at the state capital, the “holiday tree.”
Polls show that more than 90 percent of Rhode Islanders want to use the term “Christmas tree,” but under the guise of “not wanting to offend any immigrants,” Chafee stands fast with his generic “holiday tree” terminology.
That’s a new one. Usually we get the “establishment of a state-sponsored religion” baloney, if a Christmas tree, manger scene or Christmas carol is seen or sung on public property. My goodness, you’d think the republic would crumble.
“Not wanting to offend any immigrants?” By far, most immigrants are Hispanics, and as far as I know, Hispanics are almost 100 percent Christian, and probably more churchgoing than the general population. I find it a stretch that Chafee believes Hispanics would be the least bit offended by the term “Christmas tree.”
Furthermore, I find it insulting that an immigrant, from any land, might find a simple custom such as Christmas insulting. Have we seen any protests from immigrants regarding our holidays?
Have newly arrived Hispanics, Jews, Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists ever made an issue over Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, etc.? Not to my knowledge.
Then why are people such as Chafee creating an issue, when no problem exists? What are their real motives? Why do he and other secularists wish to remove Christ and any reference to God from all things public?
Oh! Of course, it’s the Constitution. I love how they pick and choose and read into and interpret the Constitution to suit their political agenda. I enjoy the fancy footwork and smoke and mirrors that have led us to removing Christ and Christmas from public displays on the grounds of a potential “state-established religion.”
Or, could it be so simple that a public belief in Christ and God, and the adherence to his teaching, means there is a higher power than government? With a God, there is an absolute, not a relative right and wrong, and judgments on that behavior. Furthermore, the consequences of bad behavior must be borne personally.
Would Christ have approved of single parenthood, legalizing drugs, pornography, living beyond one’s means, foul language, abortion on demand, (need I add more?)
WWJD? What would Jesus do, in 21st century America? I don’t profess to know, but I’d bet “the Carpenter cleared the temple” would be an understatement.
CHUCK PINKEY is a retired area businessman. He can be reached at chuck.ontherightside@gmail.com. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Star and its editorial board, but the author thinks they ought to.
