As winter vacation approaches, we anticipate Hanukkah celebrations or Christmas dinner with our families, friends and other loved ones. We look forward to seeing family, exchanging gifts and enjoying the solace of the winter season.
Even though Thanksgiving has passed, it is still important that we keep in mind all the blessings we have this holiday season, and especially remember those individuals who are elderly, lonely, poor or not as privileged as we are. The importance and necessity of this idea has unfortunately, over time, been diminished by the need of some to take political correctness to an extreme. This has had bad consequences for society.
Political correctness, more or less, is the radical, ridiculous trend of some in society to be offended by any little saying or phrase. Political correctness has gone to the extreme and society needs to get its priorities back on track.
Instead of worrying about the latest celebrity gossip, worrying about the poor on the streets would serve a better purpose.
Instead of worrying about a Ten Commandments monument outside a court, worrying about how many murders there are on the streets would serve a better purpose.
Instead of worrying about whether you're wished a "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holiday," worrying about those who don't have anyone to wish them a Merry Christmas would serve a better purpose.
There are numerous examples of where political correctness has taken the focus away from real issues, because of ridiculous, meaningless cases where a hypersensitive person was offended.
Comedian and actor Ben Stein eloquently conveys the harm of society's lack of priorities and obtuse sense of political correctness in his piece "Christmas," which he wrote and recited on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary on Dec. 18, 2005.
I believe that this article really sheds light on the nature of our society and the need to improve it. While everything stated in the article is causally accurate, the connections made between certain events are especially interesting and thought-provoking.
It is also important to note that whether a celebrity or someone society would consider a nobody had written the article, we must listen to the true needs of those hurting this holiday season instead of those who have grievances of "being offended."
I implore everyone this holiday season to take Stein's words to heart and look to those people and issues that so deserve our help.
We know this is necessary when an 8-year-old girl is suspended from her elementary school because she paused to say grace and thank God for her lunch. We know this is necessary when Nick and Jessica are given more attention than those who will be cold and lonely on Christmas.
Ultimately, we know this is necessary when political correctness has blurred society's vision so much that anybody's insignificant feeling of "being offended" by words such as Bible or Christmas is one of its priorities.
Maybe you'll find it in your heart to help out at a soup kitchen or gather a group of friends and sing Christmas carols to the bedridden at a nursing home.
The least you can do is remember those who cannot afford to be offended because their most pressing concern is finding food or warmth. Doing this will go further, and mean more, than you could ever imagine.
And contrary to the likes of the politically correct, I wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And may God bless you as well.
Information from - benstein.com
Christmas
By Ben Stein
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? It's not so bad.
Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.
It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a cr?che, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.
I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
- As recited on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary
(Dec. 18, 2005)
