Funny ... but not quite that simple, Brad.

Something about the new version of tolerance really stinks.

True tolerance would be allowing everyone to freely express whoever and whatever they are, and teaching our children to respect other people's expressed beliefs (no matter how silly we might find them). HL Mencken's comment about this applies: "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." That would be true tolerance.

Instead, we are systematically erasing all forms of personal expression, and naming that erasure "tolerance." But it is not tolerance, merely a pale and watery, blandly insipid, and completely anemic imitation thereof.

I'm not offended by Target's corporate policy to suppress the word "Christmas" in their stores. They're the ones paying for the signs, after all.

I am, however, deeply bothered by the trend it represents, simply because I find the world far more interesting and decidedly less bland with the crunchy bits left in. I think, for instance, that instead of traipsing around a big box store with generic 'seasonal' signs that really look no different from the ad signs that are up the rest of the year, it would be a lot more pleasing to shop at a place with signs celebrating the Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Those signs, of course, would go up after the Ramadan & Thanksgiving signs, but before the 12th Night and Chinese New Year signs. Such a store's television ads, instead of carefully skirting any mention of specific holidays, would instead truly celebrate the differences between them.

There's no point in pretending Americans don't celebrate different things this time of year, or in pretending that we all celebrate some spiritless and generic "holiday season" when in fact there probably isn't a single person in all of America who celebrates "holiday" without putting a name to that holiday. (And an ironic aside: if the goal is to include everyone and offend no one, Target has already failed in that attempt, as there are many people who do not celebrate holidays at all and who find the very notion of a holiday quite offensive. But with half the year's sales coming from the holiday season, what else is a poor capitalist to do?)

But back to the more general case. Trying to erase any mention of specifics is, in the long run, really pointless ~ especially since a significant number of American families have members who celebrate more than one of the holidays, to varying degrees. And among those who celebrate only one, who knows? Maybe the increased exposure to other people's religious holidays might, you know, also increase both understanding and tolerance.

One can hope.

pax