For the past month, the editorial pages of the Marietta Daily Journal and other local papers have been filled with the cries of the right-wing whackos and their fake war on Christmas.  Does Bill O'Reilly really think we liberals and progressives are discriminating against Christians?  Since I am Jewish, I can tell him more than a few tales of what religious discrimination is really like.  So I considered the whole thing a joke, at least up until last week.  

I was buying some supplies at a local office-supply store when, in an expression of the season, I said, "Have a happy holiday" to the check-out clerk.  She responded not with a "thank-you" or with a "the same to you," but with a sarcastic "what holiday is that?"  I responded, "Whatever holiday you celebrate."  I was about ready ask for my money back as well as my good wishes, when she responded that her manager was making a "big deal" out of the whole issue and told his staff that they needed to be extra cautious about giving and accepting holiday greetings.  She said she is Christian and has no problem with saying Merry Christmas.  I responded that I am Jewish and could care less whether she celebrates Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, or the feast of Ramadan.  

So what is really going on here?  Have the right-wing-nuts gone mad?  No!  They are just trying to hide the real scandals behind the curtain, just as did the phony Wizard in the Wizard of Oz.  The scary part is that they are succeeding with their obfuscation, at least for the present.

What real scandals, you ask?  The scandal of this government attempting to justify torture.  The fixing of intelligence around the policy of going to war in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  The obscenity of more than 2100 dead and tens of thousands of maimed American patriots returning from the sands of Iraq.  How about the failure of the administration to protect our nation from terrorist attacks, as documented by the 9/11 commission?  The incompetence of the response to Katrina, the indictment of the Senate majority leader, the bribery conviction and resignation of Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham, the indictment of the Vice President's Chief of Staff on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.  The stink that is now rising from anyone who had contact with Republican Lobbyist Jack Abramoff.  But no!  Instead, flood the papers and airwaves with the phony war on Christmas.  Maybe we won't notice the sleaze that oozes from the very heart of this administration.

It is time to wake up and vote these criminals out of office.

Contact Sander Bellman

Published, Marietta Daily Journal, 12/18/05

 

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