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captain_slinkyI'm not sure if this really happened or if it's just the rose-colored tint of nostalgia distorting my memories, but... did we almost have peace, unity, understanding and/or tolerance in the late-80's/early-90's?
I seem to remember a time, right around the time that "Kwanzaa" became a thing, where there was a huge push for everybody to celebrate (or at least acknowledge) every holiday regardless of religious affiliation. Governmental offices had a Christmas Tree AND an entire bulletin board dedicated to Hanukkah. Easter had very little to do with the commercialization of Jesus and was just a celebration of Springtime. Halloween was about costumes and the history of why we dress-up to go begging for candy. It was...
I guess I'm trying to figure out when it stopped being about all the things you CAN celebrate and started being about what you're NOT allowed to celebrate? But then I started thinking wait a minute - did we ever actually HAVE that all-inclusive celebratory era? Did that actually happen, or was that just my perception???
I remember when it all ended, even if it was just my own perspective. It was a big news item, some self-proclaimed Atheists were protesting because there was a Christmas Tree in their City Hall, which was a HUGE violation of "separation of Church and State". Having been semi-religious at the time (Catholic), I heard it repeated over and over again that these "Atheists" were actually SATANISTS bent on nothing less than THE FULL ABOLITION AND DESTRUCTION OF ALL THINGS DECENT. This was *WAR*, no doubt about it, and so The Forces Of Good HAD to fight back!
But instead of fighting back by just saying "Aww c'mon let us have our pretty little Christmas Tree", they fought back by insisting that NO ONE ELSE gets to have THEIR religious stuff up either. THIS was the big mistake! I'm sure that at least partially the intent was to just point out how ridiculous it would be to try and ban all religious observances, it became an excuse to be ever vigilant against anyone who believed something different than you. Different beliefs and observances are the *enemy*!
Did that really happen???
I seem to remember a time, right around the time that "Kwanzaa" became a thing, where there was a huge push for everybody to celebrate (or at least acknowledge) every holiday regardless of religious affiliation. Governmental offices had a Christmas Tree AND an entire bulletin board dedicated to Hanukkah. Easter had very little to do with the commercialization of Jesus and was just a celebration of Springtime. Halloween was about costumes and the history of why we dress-up to go begging for candy. It was...
I guess I'm trying to figure out when it stopped being about all the things you CAN celebrate and started being about what you're NOT allowed to celebrate? But then I started thinking wait a minute - did we ever actually HAVE that all-inclusive celebratory era? Did that actually happen, or was that just my perception???
I remember when it all ended, even if it was just my own perspective. It was a big news item, some self-proclaimed Atheists were protesting because there was a Christmas Tree in their City Hall, which was a HUGE violation of "separation of Church and State". Having been semi-religious at the time (Catholic), I heard it repeated over and over again that these "Atheists" were actually SATANISTS bent on nothing less than THE FULL ABOLITION AND DESTRUCTION OF ALL THINGS DECENT. This was *WAR*, no doubt about it, and so The Forces Of Good HAD to fight back!
But instead of fighting back by just saying "Aww c'mon let us have our pretty little Christmas Tree", they fought back by insisting that NO ONE ELSE gets to have THEIR religious stuff up either. THIS was the big mistake! I'm sure that at least partially the intent was to just point out how ridiculous it would be to try and ban all religious observances, it became an excuse to be ever vigilant against anyone who believed something different than you. Different beliefs and observances are the *enemy*!
Did that really happen???
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-23 05:50 pm (UTC)A recent episode of Doctor Who had a great thought on it. They were observing this race of people and their ceremony where every year they sing a lullabye to their sleeping God in order to keep him from waking up and destroying them all. The Doctor's companion asked if it wasn't all just silly rubbish and the Doctor replied with something like "Yeah, of course it's all rubbish but the songs are pretty and it's kind of sweet" - THAT'S how I prefer to observe religious stuff, just sit back and enjoy the pretty bits :)