The Tragedy of Abdication
By Erik Rush (11/14/07)
Every time I publish a column on the issues of race or race politics, I invariably get a slew of emails from white people who shower me with kudos for saying what’s been on their minds "forever" but which they have come to believe they cannot verbalize out of concern for being labeled racists. Many have employed phrases such as "I've given up" apropos expressing themselves due to the climate of Political Correctness, a hypersensitive minority subculture and opportunistic parasites commonly known as "civil rights activists."
Last week, a similar scenario played out very close to home, geographically-speaking, when Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly interviewed two parties on his television program about public holiday display policies of a certain city in Colorado. This phenomenon, which has erupted seasonally over the last three winter holiday cycles, is of course a manifestation of secular socialists across America, occasionally aided by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), seeking to do away with public religious holiday displays, particularly those pertaining to Christmas, and ultimately Christianity itself.
This originally began in December of 2005, when a local synagogue was prohibited from displaying a free-standing menorah in a downtown area which is actually privately owned but overseen by a city agency. Despite entreaties from local Marxists and slavering attorneys to sue everyone involved and their distant cousins, the rabbi declined to do so and the menorah lighting was hosted by a local establishment in the downtown area, with the city’s mayor and other dignitaries in attendance. In truth, the problem lay in bureaucracy, business covenants and the fact that any fool with a chain and a pickup truck could have quickly put an end to the display, rather than any intolerance on the part of the city government or citizenry, but activists and the media seldom acknowledge such trivial facts.
In 2006, the same predicament arose; this time around, a New York Times columnist wrote a piece spinning the issue into one of intolerance. When I responded with a rebuttal column in the local Gannett paper, the Times reporter reacted with an insulting and juvenile letter to the editor which was nevertheless published in the paper.
This year, under pressure from local activists and hoping to circumvent the ugliness of the past two holiday seasons, the city formed a “Holiday Display Task Force” over the summer to brainstorm equitable solutions to such problems. The Task Force includes a member of the local ACLU chapter, which represents a poison pill right off the bat. The “Not in Our Town Alliance” (another far-Left component of America’s race relations enforcement community) provided another member. The Task Force’s recommendations to the city were silly and didn’t even address the area of contention – so the carny began anew. The Task Force’s recommendation that the city dispense with Christmas trees, colored lights, nativity scenes and the like in favor of white lights, snowflakes, icicles and “unadorned swaths of greenery” caught Mr. O’Reilly’s attention. He pointed out with some irony that Colorado at this time of year is replete with snowflakes, icicles and unadorned swaths of greenery to start with.
One the afternoon following O’Reilly’s segment, I was interviewed by the local Fox radio affiliate. Scott James, the show’s host, asked me the same question that Bill O’Reilly asked his guests (to paraphrase): How can these people [activists] wield such clout and engender such apprehension given that (as in most communities) they’re among the tiniest of minorities?
“Frustration and fear” was my answer. Tragic and dangerous, but true.
Let’s drop the pretense; this perennial movement isn’t about free speech or equal time for non-Christians or about Christians trying to ram Jesus down America’s collective throat with cannon plungers. It’s about hateful secular socialists attempting a cultural coup d’état – period. Christianity, the preeminent religion and moral anchor in our society, has got to go if the work of conditioning Americans to worship the idols of secular socialism is to be completed.
The Colorado city in question, like many in America is fairly conservative, as opposed to say, Boulder. In any such community, however, with the print and broadcast media being predominantly far-Left and legitimizing such things as gay pride celebrations as though they were on a par with the county fair, it’s no wonder that the public at large receives the impression that 80% of their neighbors are either far-Left activists, anti-American, gay, or belong to some other dissatisfied, disenfranchised minority; further, that any protest against same will mark them as homophobes, bigots, sexist – in other words, social pariahs in a city small enough for such a designation to carry truly negative consequences.
So they – in this case, those who celebrate Christmas – tired of and frustrated with invective and false witness given against them, have begun to abdicate their civic and religious responsibilities, standing for their constitutional rights and their faith while proclaiming their tolerant nature because they’ve been intimidated, demoralized and guilted into the belief that doing so is in itself intolerant. In the meantime, the truly intolerant gain more ground every year.
Well, to hell with that. I happen to be a Christian; what anyone else believes in is between them and the Supreme (unless it involves violence against others, in which case I’d advise them to sleep lightly). We the People can and must in no uncertain terms encourage the socialists, anti-religious, anti-American, the hedonists, the intellectually immature and politically ignorant to crawl back under the rocks from whence they came and stay there. The United States of America wasn’t built upon the garbage that the aforementioned human refuse professes. Religious or not, like it or not, it was built upon the moral foundation of Judeo-Christian philosophy. From that sprang the freedoms, prosperity and culture we all enjoy – and which, in their ignorant, suicidal insanity these enemies are trying to destroy.
For those who want to live in a vast bordello, drug den, socialist “paradise” or Third World toilet: I’ll be happy to help you find one and personally drive you to the airport.
This is our country. You know where you can put your unadorned swaths of greenery. Be sure to pick out an arrangement with plenty of thorns.
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