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The News: Fran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, writes in Counterpunch, explaining why the ACLU has launched a full-scale assault on yet another Christmas creche.
"There are many more examples, because the ACLU is committed to preserving the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom for all. We agree with the U.S. Supreme Court's firm rulings that this freedom means that children who grow up in non-Christian homes should not be made tofeel like outsiders in their own community's courthouse, legislature or public schoolhouse."
"To our "Merry Christmas" correspondents and all other Americans, we wish you happy holidays."
The Note: This is an example of precisely why the ACLU gets hated on this point. What the hell does it mean to say "made to feel like outsiders in their own community" What kind of nonsensical victim wailing is that?
If you are a religious or ethnic or sexual minority in a given society, by definition, you will always feel "not part of the majority" -- and by Venn diagram analysis, you will be "outside" the majority. That does not translate into being an "outsider in your own community" it simply means that you are a minority insider and can't be otherwise, unless you join the majority. What's the big fucking deal?
To a certain extent, all minorities suffer this kind of "exclusion". It goes with the territory. If you are gay, you are excluded from and inevitably made to feel excluded by baby showers, baptisms, mothers days, and the whole general social and economic construct built up around nuclear heterosexuality.
If you are Jewish in a Christian country or Christian in a Jewish one, you will feel like an outsider on certain holidays. In fact, you can feel like an outsider even when you are the majority. Ever try getting into a Lubovavitch dance circle as a Christian?
Diversity ends up meaning that all sorts of people are exlcuded from all sorts of things. The reason, we have secular holidays, like the Fourth of July, is so that we can have a time to celebrate our commonality and sameness, as distinct from those times when we celebrate our communion with specific portions of society.
The notion that government funding of a Christmas tree or reference to a "Christmas" tree is oppressive to the few when this is something 90% of the population celebrates is simply turning things on its head.
The idea that in order to protect people from the victimization of outsiderhood one has to suppress differences and erradicate any public display that might not coincide with a minority view is simply a perversion of the idea of the secular state.
©WCG, 2005
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Diversity ends up meaning that all sorts of people are exlcuded from all sorts of things. The reason, we have secular holidays, like the Fourth of July, is so that we can have a time to celebrate our commonality and sameness, as distinct from those times when we celebrate our communion with specific portions of society.
The notion that government funding of a Christmas tree or reference to a "Christmas" tree is oppressive to the few when this is something 90% of the population celebrates is simply turning things on its head.
The idea that in order to protect people from the victimization of outsiderhood one has to suppress differences and erradicate any public display that might not coincide with a minority view is simply a perversion of the idea of the secular state.
©WCG, 2005
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