Merry Christmas

On Fri, 2003-12-26 at 10:32, ec wrote:
> And most importantly, WE have freedom of speech!! But
> the PC crowd is trying to take that away from us!!!
---
I honestly don't believe that is the case at all.

One of the basic principles of this country was the freedom of religion,
to practice whatever faith that you had. The guarantee is that no
function of government was to engage in any religion whatsoever. This
makes certain that government doesn't take any side, whether it is
Christian, Judaism, or even the non-practice of any religion. Government
- nor any agency is not to have any place in any of the religions.

This in no way affects what any individual says - as you clearly have a
freedom of speech that is unaffected by all of this.

So on this message base which is neither sponsored nor supported by a
governmental agency, it is only a question of whether the moderators of
the list believe that the discussion of religion is germane to the list
members. I believe that the political correctness has to be considered
in that context only.

As for a different perspective, being Jewish meant that I had to be
involved in all of the Christmas activities in public school which I
never quite understood but this culture is dominated by Christians so I
endured. Singing Silent Night Holy Night was no more meaningful to me
than Over the River and Through the Woods. And more on the perspective,
it almost seems to me that Christmas is a pagan worship of gifts and
commerce and has all but lost the connection to its namesake (not that
the Jewish community hasn't translated that vice to Hannukah) (note
Hannuka is spelled a variety of ways and tends to identify the speaker
with Ashkenazi or Sephardic roots)

Anyway, I certainly would never want to take away anyone's freedom of
speech including that which expresses their faith. I wholeheartedly
agree that the act of putting the 10 commandments in stone in a federal
courthouse building isn't a secular act and cannot be allowed. And I
would no more want my children to be led in prayer in school by a
Christian than by a Muslim or a Wiccan.

With that, I apologize to all for this off topic posting.

Craig