Monday, December 19, 2005
ON FLAG BURNING AND WARRING ON CHRISTMAS
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Breakfast with Bwana
DECEMBER 19, 2005
ON FLAG BURNING, and WARRING ON CHRISTMAS :
When I first arrived in this country, Lyndon Johnson was President. Growing impatience with an unpopular war built to a crescendo. Media coverage, technologically retarded by today’s standards, brought that war and those protests into our living rooms as never before.
One form of “protest” was burning the American flag. I remember my first reaction was one of outrage. When I saw the American flag being “desecrated” in other ways, I was offended and would often shake my head at the lack of respect and indeed, the stupidity of it all. In a sense, I felt that one should be proud of the American flag and NEVER let one’s political views be turned against that symbol of the nation. Of course, I have to confess that my views were somewhat colored by the realization that people had been deported from Kenya merely for criticizing the President, then Jomo Kenyatta, and burning a Kenyan flag was likely to get you jailed and beaten.
In time, my views have changed. While I personally find it abhorrent to desecrate the flag, I have no problem with other people’s exercise of their “right” (or perceived “right”) to burning symbols … or symbolic burnings.
This nation is strong enough to have its flag burned not only by foreigners, but by its own citizens. Remember when the King died and they would say “The King is dead. Long live the King?” I think we can say “That flag is burned. The FLAG flies on.”
Some people … the right wing fundamentalist yahoos, for the most part … will say that we have simply become numbed into accepting conduct that is wrong. This is the same argument they make about how the “gay lifestyle” and “gay culture.”
My response is that when the Constitution gives someone the right to freedom of expression or freedom or religion (or no religion) we need to make sure we are not numbed to the fact that the Constitution is our first defense against numbness. Ultimately, what difference does it make that some nut burns a flag? Or perhaps, he or she is not a nut and has a legitimate beef, the flag being a means of getting attention.
Just as some in this country rail against the emergence of anything they oppose as being evidence of a malignant cultural shift, many people outside the US decry the perfusion of the so-called “American culture” and western materialism into their countries. This is not just the cry of Islamic fundamentalists, it is heard in Canada, Britain, India, Australia, virtually everywhere.
Yet, the right wing yahoo fundamentalists denounce these “foreigners” for lopsided reasoning, the same kind of reasoning they use at home.
So it is with this nonsense about a war on Christmas. Ever since I was a kid, we wished everyone Merry Christmas (or Happy Christmas). Why? Well, for the simple reason, that it was Christmas.
It seems to me that much of this started with the entirely correct and oft-heard lament that Christmas was becoming too commercialized. The response of the right wing yahoo fundamentalists was to hijack the debate and turn it into an opportunity to advance their cause. The noble notion that the season celebrating peace and goodwill should be the focus of the holiday over commercialism should not evoke protest. But, when the right wing fundamentalist yahoos say that the true spirit of Christmas is to promote their religion, we should all take heed.
I remember their shouts that this is a “Christian nation.” When I commented to some friends that this was wrong, they said “No, this is a Christian nation.” I asked my friends, one a Catholic and the other an Episcopalian: “Do you realize that the people – the fundamentalist right wing nuts – who say this is a Christian nation do not include you or any Hispanic or Black person in their definition of ‘Christian?’” The silence was as palpable as quiet gets.
Enough said.
It is not surprising that the reaction of non-Christians to this attempt to hijack Christmas, a hitherto common holiday season for all, into some notion of exclusivity, should have been to take offense. Yet, there are now other characters in this debate and they want to treat the use of the word “Christmas” itself as inappropriate. Whether this comes from Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or atheists, it is just as offensive for them to say that Christians cannot celebrate Christmas, as it is for the right wing yahoos to say that this is a Christian nation.
For me the message of this season remains, as it was when I was a kid, one of inclusion.
Our nation is strong enough for people to wish each other Merry Christmas and no one should feel offended by that.
In fact, while the Constitution forbids government from establishing a religion, or from mandating prayer in schools, it also guarantees that people have the right to say “Merry Christmas.” See, it is your constitutional right to say “Merry Christmas.”
For me, it is also okay if you want to wish me Happy Eid (Eid Mubarak) or Happy Diwali (Shubh Diwali) or Happy Channukha (Octet for Dreidl) or Happy Kwanzaa (Salaama Kabisa) or Sunny Winter Solstice (May your days be longer).
Merry Cheerz and Happy Bwana Days to all!!
____________________________________________________________________________
Breakfast with Bwana
DECEMBER 19, 2005
ON FLAG BURNING, and WARRING ON CHRISTMAS :
When I first arrived in this country, Lyndon Johnson was President. Growing impatience with an unpopular war built to a crescendo. Media coverage, technologically retarded by today’s standards, brought that war and those protests into our living rooms as never before.
One form of “protest” was burning the American flag. I remember my first reaction was one of outrage. When I saw the American flag being “desecrated” in other ways, I was offended and would often shake my head at the lack of respect and indeed, the stupidity of it all. In a sense, I felt that one should be proud of the American flag and NEVER let one’s political views be turned against that symbol of the nation. Of course, I have to confess that my views were somewhat colored by the realization that people had been deported from Kenya merely for criticizing the President, then Jomo Kenyatta, and burning a Kenyan flag was likely to get you jailed and beaten.
In time, my views have changed. While I personally find it abhorrent to desecrate the flag, I have no problem with other people’s exercise of their “right” (or perceived “right”) to burning symbols … or symbolic burnings.
This nation is strong enough to have its flag burned not only by foreigners, but by its own citizens. Remember when the King died and they would say “The King is dead. Long live the King?” I think we can say “That flag is burned. The FLAG flies on.”
Some people … the right wing fundamentalist yahoos, for the most part … will say that we have simply become numbed into accepting conduct that is wrong. This is the same argument they make about how the “gay lifestyle” and “gay culture.”
My response is that when the Constitution gives someone the right to freedom of expression or freedom or religion (or no religion) we need to make sure we are not numbed to the fact that the Constitution is our first defense against numbness. Ultimately, what difference does it make that some nut burns a flag? Or perhaps, he or she is not a nut and has a legitimate beef, the flag being a means of getting attention.
Just as some in this country rail against the emergence of anything they oppose as being evidence of a malignant cultural shift, many people outside the US decry the perfusion of the so-called “American culture” and western materialism into their countries. This is not just the cry of Islamic fundamentalists, it is heard in Canada, Britain, India, Australia, virtually everywhere.
Yet, the right wing yahoo fundamentalists denounce these “foreigners” for lopsided reasoning, the same kind of reasoning they use at home.
So it is with this nonsense about a war on Christmas. Ever since I was a kid, we wished everyone Merry Christmas (or Happy Christmas). Why? Well, for the simple reason, that it was Christmas.
It seems to me that much of this started with the entirely correct and oft-heard lament that Christmas was becoming too commercialized. The response of the right wing yahoo fundamentalists was to hijack the debate and turn it into an opportunity to advance their cause. The noble notion that the season celebrating peace and goodwill should be the focus of the holiday over commercialism should not evoke protest. But, when the right wing fundamentalist yahoos say that the true spirit of Christmas is to promote their religion, we should all take heed.
I remember their shouts that this is a “Christian nation.” When I commented to some friends that this was wrong, they said “No, this is a Christian nation.” I asked my friends, one a Catholic and the other an Episcopalian: “Do you realize that the people – the fundamentalist right wing nuts – who say this is a Christian nation do not include you or any Hispanic or Black person in their definition of ‘Christian?’” The silence was as palpable as quiet gets.
Enough said.
It is not surprising that the reaction of non-Christians to this attempt to hijack Christmas, a hitherto common holiday season for all, into some notion of exclusivity, should have been to take offense. Yet, there are now other characters in this debate and they want to treat the use of the word “Christmas” itself as inappropriate. Whether this comes from Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or atheists, it is just as offensive for them to say that Christians cannot celebrate Christmas, as it is for the right wing yahoos to say that this is a Christian nation.
For me the message of this season remains, as it was when I was a kid, one of inclusion.
Our nation is strong enough for people to wish each other Merry Christmas and no one should feel offended by that.
In fact, while the Constitution forbids government from establishing a religion, or from mandating prayer in schools, it also guarantees that people have the right to say “Merry Christmas.” See, it is your constitutional right to say “Merry Christmas.”
For me, it is also okay if you want to wish me Happy Eid (Eid Mubarak) or Happy Diwali (Shubh Diwali) or Happy Channukha (Octet for Dreidl) or Happy Kwanzaa (Salaama Kabisa) or Sunny Winter Solstice (May your days be longer).
Merry Cheerz and Happy Bwana Days to all!!
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