Soap Box

Warning, no real knitting content:

The bright and delightful Stephanie said something amazing the other day about Christmas which felt like she stole the words right out of my mouth (you have to scroll down a little past the pictures).

Now Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, even though it comes right after finals, I never get all my cards out on time, I never have enough time/money to get the ones I love the things they deserve, and I'm usually stressed to the max the week before. I love the snow and presents and cookies and the music and all the little twinkle lights. It's all tacky and wonderful. And most of all, love going to church at midnight and symbolically* celebrating the birth of my Savior...

BUT...

I do NOT like people who use this celebration as a chance to parade their piety. I DO not like it when Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving and lasts until New Year's. I do not like all the commercialization and insincerity. I DO NOT like people who think that Christmas is the only holiday that should be celebrated in December.

I will respect any way anyone else choses to mark this holiday, but you MAY NOT expect me to do the same. We live in a plural society. The best way to fight for freedom is to accept and respect other ideas. NO ONE is totally right, but just because your neighbor is different from you does not mean he is wrong. There is a lot of grey area in which we can all live in peace.

Stephanie recieved some hate mail about her comments (see the next post), but really I'm not suprised. There will always be the fundamentalists who believe that violence is the only way to get their way. She's right, you are not entitled to your opinion if that opinion is a hate crime.

And yeah, I'm okay with being accused to being intolerant of bigots and racists, too. You go, girl.


*No, I don't believe that December 25th is literally when Jesus was born. Sorry.