Congress draws blood in the "War on Christmas"

My planned rant on the facile faith of the song "Christmas Shoes" has been interrupted by disgusted shock over yesterday's blatant Congressional violation of the First Amendment. Last night Congress voted 401 - 22 to "protect the symbols and traditions of Christmas."

Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States would prohibit the establishment of religion, not prohibit any mention of religion or reference to God in civic dialog: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;

(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and

(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions. (text from Library of Congress website.)

Democrat Steve Israel asked the Republican author of the resolution, Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), if she would permit the symbols of Chanukah and other holidays to be included in the protection of the resolution. She refused. The same site quotes several of the Congresspeople brave enough to stand up for the First Amendment and those of their constituents who are being denied equal protection for their beliefs:

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY): "There are people around who need an enemy at all times to try to separate us one from the other as Americans in order to advance their own agenda. ... To tell the truth, it is slightly offensive to see people trying to create a war and claiming they are attacked just so that they go on the offense instead of the defense. This is a prefabricated issue that has no merit. Nobody is attacking the symbols of Christmas. Are you objecting to our wanting to be included because the symbols of your religion are more important than the symbols of anybody else's religion in America? Or is it because you think that the symbols of your religion are more official?"

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Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA): "Madam Speaker, this resolution purports to protect the symbols of Christmas, but what really needs to be protected are not the symbols of Christmas, but rather the spirit of Christmas. The spirit of Christmas demands generosity and goodwill towards others. Instead of legislation that respects the spirit of Christmas, Congress in just these past few weeks has passed a budget that includes mean-spirited attacks on the least of us. For those who are hungry, we are cutting food stamps. For those who are sick, we are cutting Medicaid. For those who are in prison, we are imposing senseless mandatory minimums. For others we are ignoring increases in heating costs and cutting student loans. At the same time we are cutting those programs to help the least of us, we are cutting taxes for the wealthiest in society. Madam Speaker, we ought to express our passion for Christmas through deeds, not words; and we should not be distracted from our responsibility to uphold the spirit of Christmas as we consider the effects our actions on the Federal budget will have on the least of us during this holiday season. For these reasons I oppose this resolution."

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Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY): "For someone who does not celebrate Christmas, the question looms: Why? Why not say to someone who wants to make this inclusive that, indeed, we are going to make it inclusive? The symbols of Chanukah are not valuable? Sure, they are, I think. The symbols of Kwanzaa are not valuable to some? Sure, they are. I cannot imagine why the gentlewoman who is the sponsor of this, who says that she speaks from a sense of inclusion, would not want to include those. Are those not worthy of being protected? What is the message that is being sent?"

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Congressman Dingell, who voted for the resolution, nevertheless raked it down in a satirical poem on his webpage.

The "War on Christmas" just drew blood. So much for "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." There are a lot of Jews on my friends list who are furious that Congressional support has been point-blank denied for "the use of [their] symbols and traditions."

And even if O'Reilly gets wind of this and trumpets it as a great victory, we all know that he's going to be screaming about the same "war" next winter holiday season, just has he has for the last two.

Rep Bobby Scott said it best. If you want to keep Christ in Christmas, the best way to do so is to act in a Christlike manner. Not to fulminate about what to call a decorated tree - ESPECIALLY since said tree wasn't a Christian tradition in the first place!

x-posted to dark_christian

New Community

On Dec 6, 1989, a crazed man ran into a college in Montreal, separated the engineering students by gender at gunpoint, and screamed "I hate feminists!" before shooting 14 women to death. Men in the area began wearing white ribbons to show their opposition to violence against women. This turned into The White Ribbon Campaign, run by men and aimed at men, with the intent of eliminating male violence against women.

On December 6, 1991, the first White Ribbon Day was held in Canada, in rememberance and in pledge to do something about violence against women. The White Ribbon Project soon went international.

On December 1, 2005, _white_ribbons went online to bring the project to LJ. From their info page:

This community is for White Ribbon Campaign members.

Count us as "anyone who wants to open awareness of rape/sexual assault and promote personal responsibility to men". We do want to talk to men, but we also want to listen to women. If you are female, we are glad to have you on board as well.

I know how hard it is to get a community running on LJ, so please help spread the word (and men reading this, please consider joining). This is a worthy cause. They are a brother community to nopity - as in No Pity. No Shame. No Silence.

(no subject)

Goodbye John Spencer. It was a pleasure to have met you, and many people will miss you.

Wins and Losses

Damnit, I missed the Daily Show last night because I expected it to be rerun at 8 tonight like it always is. Instead, I've got some lame comic that I couldn't care less about instead of Jon's commentary on the "War on Christmas" and the Senate vote today. Loss.

On the other hand, am now posting from my spiffy new cablemodem on my spiffy new computer. Win.

Have fake nails. Don't know for sure if that's a win or a loss. Am still getting used to them. It is a nice treat to have the polish still on 24 hours after the manicure, though!

Have tickets for tomorrow night's show of "Something Dickens This Way Comes." Definate win. That's a show so wierd that even if it stinks, it'll be worth being able to talk about. (I felt the same way about Titus: The Musical)

Will be able to get my Christmas cards done (and mark all the Bookcrossing books for release) while kicking Go'ould booty at the game tomorrow. Win and win.

Need to find present for someone I forgot to put on my list - and she doesn't have a wishlist. Blushing loss.

Still owe RtE a review (loss, but I just sent them 3 others, so they've got their minimum and more this month.)

Still, in spite of losses, feeling pretty good about things right now. And maybe on Monday they'll rerun that Daily Show for me. And now I'm off to download and watch that video of the guy who wired his lights to "Wizard in Winter" because I CAN!