Merry Christmas Everyone!

GammaZeta · #1 12-22-2004, 10:22 AM

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas this year. For those traveling, please take the extra time to drive safely, especially with the bad weather in many of the states.

Have a Happy Holiday and a Good New Year!!!!!

Tom Earp · #2 12-22-2004, 11:46 PM

GammaZeta, Back at You Bro!

What He said goes the same from me to all of you!

john1082 · #3 12-23-2004, 12:12 AM

If I had a wish . . .

It would be that each of my Brothers find that which we all seek.

That we find that outward peace that comes from positive, healthy relationships with our friends, business associates, and family.

That we find that inner peace that comes from satisfaction with ourselves, from the resolution of our own conflicts.

That my Brothers experience prosperity in the coming year that they may provide for their families as they desire.

That none of my Brothers have a burden that they cannot carry, and that if they do, they allow me to assist.

That I be allowed another year to share this marvelous journey with the rest of my Brothers.

vkaul · #4 12-23-2004, 02:38 AM

As has recently become cliche:
god bless everyone everywhere. No exceptions.

Does that sound better than:
All I want for X-mas is world peace?

GammaZeta · #5 12-23-2004, 07:45 PM

Merry CHRISTMAS!!!!! The official national holiday that we celebrate is called Christmas, therefore I wish everyone a merry Christmas. We don't say have a great Holiday Weekend for Memorial Day, or eat a Holiday turkey instead of Thanksgiving turkey. We don't wish people a good Civil Rights Leader Awareness Holiday, we say have a good Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We don't have a Holiday Day parade, we have a Veteran's Day Parade.

It seems that all of our holidays have a meaning behind them. Veteran's, M.L.K, Thanksgiving, and so on. So if everyone is calling Christmas a "Holiday", then what are we celebrating? If there's no meaning behind it, then I think everyone should simply not have it off, go back to work on that day, and ACT like it doesn't mean anything. After all, if there is no meaning behind it, why do we have just some random day off from work?

Easter, although not a national holiday, is the most important event/day in the Catholic/Christian religion. People don't say happy "Sunday" instead of Easter, do they? So why are people more offended about Christmas than Easter?

Easter is celebrated by Catholics, etc. for the religious miracle of Jesus Christ raising from the dead. It is a day based in religion. However, Christmas is simply celebrating the birth of a person. Weather that person was truly the son of God or some nutcase or some magician or just a regular guy is up to each one of us to decide. However, he has influenced BILLIONS of people throughout the ages, if you agree with the teachings or not. You may not agree with what President Lincoln or Washington did, but we still celebrate a day for them and recognize their influence.

Ok, well that was my rant. I usually don't like to get religious, etc., but the whole "Happy Holidays" thing is bugging me. I don't like the idea of trying to sanitize a national holiday. What's next, no more Veteran's Day because it offends the hippies? No more President's Day because people didn't like their political parties? No more Thanksgiving because people are vegetarian?

JonoBN41 · #6 12-24-2004, 12:37 AM

According to a recent poll (it was on the Nightly News last night), only 3% are offended when someone says "Merry Christmas" to them, but 48% of people admit they say "Happy Holidays" so as not to offend anyone. Conclusion?

Merry Christmas!!!

In ZAX-mas,
Jono

GammaZeta · #7 12-24-2004, 01:05 AM

Right on! I just had to express my feelings. Although I am not liberal, and not conservative, living in very liberal Massachusetts, where everything must be politically correct, can really bug me sometimes.

You guys have no idea how bad Amherst is/was about protesting and political correctness.

For example: The United Nations flag flies on the Amherst Town Common OVER the American flag! I complained with many others but nothing is done.

Every weekend, and I mean EVERY weekend, there is a protest of 25-100 people on the town common. The amazing thing is it is usually the same people, but each week the issue changes: War, Bush, Gay Marriage, Health Care, etc.

Amherst public highschool banned a play performance of Westside Story because it was racist, but allowed the Vagina Monologues to be performed by it's high school students!

There was an article in the Daily Collegian saying what a coward and idiot the football player that died in Iraq was.

The Umass-Amherst library is named after W.E.B. DuBois, a well known communist.

The list goes on and on...

Some of the incidents I have seen are outright amusing, and others have caused me serious concern about the direction that some people want to take this country.

Anyways, I'll try to remember some others.

JonoBN41 · #8 12-24-2004, 01:20 AM

New York ain't much better than Mass. - maybe worse. As far as I'm concerned, the term "politically correct" is meant only for politicians (hence the name), not those of us who are not politicians. And who decides what's "politically correct" and what is not? Someone else?

Screw that. The age of wimpiness will have to wait until after I'm dead!

Merry Christmas!!!

In ZAX-mas,
Jono

docroc67 · #9 12-25-2004, 10:49 PM

Merry Christmas to all-

I have used the expression "Happy Holidays" for about fifty years and never thought of it as an issue. Last week at Rotary, one of our members, in fewer words and in less heat, pretty much said the same thing about using "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" as a greeting as I read on this thread. I wasn't real sure why this was a "big deal" to him. I must have missed something in the news that said that there is some conspiracy, Liberal or otherwise, to eliminate "Merry Christmas" from common useage. I don't think so... to me people can say what they want in greeting me at this time of year. I even like "Season's Greetings."

I have always used "Happy Holidays" to greet people in recognition of the fact that we celebrate two holidays at this time of year: Christmas and New Year. I really love this season of light that has been celebrated, in various forms and ways, for thousands of years. It should be a time to bring us together in our hope that light will indeed triumph over darkness. Luckily we live in a country where we can celebrate as we choose without being dictated to by a government or a particular church. We have managed to preserve that freedom of choice for over two hundred years. No mean feat that requires a remarkable level of respect and toleration that has not been characteristic of many people, countries, or churches throughout history.

So, I will continue to say "Happy Holidays" not because it is politically correct but because it simply expresses my wish that everyone take joy in the act of giving and that they have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. Exactly, what I wish for each of you.

Yours in ZAX,
Mike Raymond, ZUZ
Miami University (Oxford), 1967

JonoBN41 · #10 12-25-2004, 11:54 PM

Chip, do you really say that whole line everyone? That's quite a mouthful.

Brother Mike, you're right about the freedom we have. So why do so many of us not think we have that very freedom? If you have always said "Happy Holidays", that's cool. But I think many people today feel inhibited and say that just to be safe and PC. Just yesterday, on Christmas Eve, I ran across at least three people I've known since I was a kid and know I went to Catholic school for 9 years. They said "Happy Holiday"; I responded, "Merry Christmas.

Then there was the lighting of the Holiday Tree at Lincoln Center in NYC on November 29th. I swear it used to be called something else. Maybe it doubles as a New Years Tree, and heaven forbid we piss off the god of the New Year. We really have entered the age of wimpiness.

Years ago people used to win an Academy Award. Now the Oscar just "goes to" someone. The wimpy reasoning is that if there's a winner, then the others must be losers, and that's unthinkable. It might make them cry.

So, you won an Academy Award! Great! "Well not really, it just kinda went to me". Oh, you didn't really win it? "No, it just went to me".

We all know bullshit when we see it, and from what I've heard in the past few days, people are getting ticked off about all this pc stuff and it's time to apply the brakes and stand up for what you believe. That...is individual freedom at its finest.

Vir Quisque Vir

In ZAX,
Jono

RACooper · #11 12-26-2004, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by docroc67
I have always used "Happy Holidays" to greet people in recognition of the fact that we celebrate two holidays at this time of year: Christmas and New Year. I really love this season of light that has been celebrated, in various forms and ways, for thousands of years.

So, I will continue to say "Happy Holidays" not because it is politically correct but because it simply expresses my wish that everyone take joy in the act of giving and that they have a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. Exactly, what I wish for each of you.

This pretty much covers it for me... as a kid even I always said "Happy Holidays" because it was the holidays... the fact that as I got older I realised that not everyone of my friends celebrated their faith the same as me, just reinforced my esire to wish everyone "Happy Holidays" no matter what their particular version was - the spirit of family, peace, and community, to me was the most important element of the season - not the particular faith in question...

Of course to people I know that are Christian I say "Merry Christmas"...

Anyways... I wish all the brothers a safe and happy holiday.

vkaul · #12 12-29-2004, 02:51 PM

No one should take offense at being wished well.

For me, I'd just feel kind've silly wishing someone Merry Christmas, if that person didn't celebrate. I wouldn't wish someone Happy Diwalli! knowing that they don't celebrate it. They wouldn't, hopefully, be offended, but they might be confused

And that's why I wish people Happy _____!! whenever I know what particular blank they celebrate, but leave it a generic Happy Hollidays (Or, if I'm feeling nostalgic for the good *old* days: Happy Solstice) whenever I have no idea whom I'm well-wishing.