Where Are We Headed?
Food For Thought:
I received this information via email today and felt that it was very worth passing on – it is definitely food for thought! I checked it out and found that the following post was put on Ben Stein’s website on December 18, 2005, apparently in response to the White House referring to Christmas trees as ‘Holiday Trees’:
“Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no 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 creche, 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.”
I say, “Good on you, Mr. Stein!”
For those who don’t know who Ben Stein is, he is an American writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic and social issues. In his earlier career he was a speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He later became involved in the entertainment industry as an actor, comedian, and game-show host. He has written and co-authored several books, mainly on investing and economics.
If you would like to read this article at Mr. Stein’s website, you can click on his picture, above, or use this link: www.benstein.com/121805xmas.html
