An Abominable Christmas

The Christmas holiday period is nearly over, and not a moment too soon. It's a pretty sad situation when you can't wait for the holiday season to end, but this year in America it was depressing and grotesque. Wasn't the holiday season always about people coming together? Families having Christmas dinner, ordinary citizens joining together for worthy causes? Indeed, because I spent 11 years living far away in Europe, I have come to so cherish American unity. I see this country as my extended family.

But in my 38 years, I cannot recall a single example of where December turned into a civil war in which religious and secular Americans assailed each other so mercilessly and showed each other so much hatred. And in the end, was it all worth it? For a couple of `Merry Christmas' signs in department stores and the singing of `Jingle Bells' in high schools? Are the secularists happy that they made such a big deal of purging the Christian religious dimension of the holidays so thoroughly, as if a nativity scene in front of a City Hall was going to kill them? And are the religious now content that they succeeded in getting Hallmark to print a few more cards that read `Merry Christmas' rather `Happy Holidays,' at the expense of national unity that this country so badly needs and which decent people everywhere so strongly desire? In the end, both groups failed. This year's December was neither a `Happy Holiday' not a `Merry Christmas.' Cards reading `Drop Dead' and being given out from one side to the other might have been more appropriate.

During the presidential election, it was OK for America to be divided. The strong issues that the election brought up tore the country in half and, to be honest, there was no way to avoid it. I confess my part in the division. On my radio show and in numerous articles I went after John Kerry and what I perceived to be his weak vision of America with gusto. Sure, I realized that I was contributing to the disunity of America, but the stakes were just too high not to speak out and make a ruckus. Unity is super-important, but there are things that are even more important, like the ultimate victory of good over evil, and the preservation of human life. I believed that John Kerry would not fight tyrants like Saddam Hussein the way that President Bush has, and that many innocent people would be brutalized by their governments as a result. I also believed that Kerry would not see our commitment in Iraq through to its conclusion, and that as a result the terrorists would be emboldened and America would be less secure.

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