Feel Free to Wish Me a Merry Christmas…Again

I must admit that this post was originally a little rant that I wrote last year in an attempt to bring back some of the spirit of Christmas.  Note I said Christmas, not the holidays.  Holidays are something that come in the summer when I go to the beach or take a long well deserved trip.

This  is Christmas time.   Chanukah has long since been celebrated and the Feast of Eid al-Adha has been enjoyed by the faithful of Allah.  So let us say with pride and love Merry Christmas to one and all.

Bob

Please feel free to wish me a Merry Christmas, not a happy x-mas, or dreadful happy holiday.  Well I may be going a little hard on the happy holiday.  You may think Bob, why won’t a happy holiday suffice?

Well I would reply it is the Christmas season, the last time I checked the Chanukah candles have been long blown out.  Don’t get me wrong I have many friends of the Hebrew Faith, and wish them a proper greeting when it is their day.

The thing that gets me riled up is that there are so many forces at work that try to simplify and dumb things down, trying to homogenize our culture as North Americans.  Other forces plead that they don’t want to offend anyone.  Ohhhh there we go offending people with a celebration of family and peace.  Better watch out!  Give me a break.

This whole “War on Christmas” thing has gone on long enough, the only people who are “offended” are by in large other “Christians”. The politically correct few, afraid to say what they believe.  Except when they strive to dumb down what little culture we have left.

Show of hands, how many of you were offended when, someone walked up to you and said Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Chanukah?

All anyone is saying when they say Merry Christmas is Peace.  Let’s face it most of the Christ is long gone from Christmas these days anyways. Long ago replaced by that fat bastard Santa Claus, in trying to deliver dollars to the corporations that re-imagined Old Saint Nick, we can blame Coke for that one.

The Modern Face of Christmas

Also organized religions keep getting their hands slapped for stealing from the poor or doing other far worse things than I care to mention here today.

But we all regardless of creed or belief can do our part to keep the core of the holiday intact.  Remembering what the true meaning of Christmas is, PEACE.  If we can all keep that in our hearts our world, even for a day, could be a better place.

To all of my friends out there, Feliz Navidad, Mele Kalikimaka, Hyvaa Joulua, Mo’adim Lesimkha. Chena tova, Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah, Joyeux Noel, Merry Christmas……. PEACE

Lest We Forget

It seems that yet another Remembrance Day is upon us, and what has the world learned since Nov, 11 1918.  Currently the number of active conflicts around the world seems to be on the increase.  From the conflicts in the Middle East, to the genocides of Africa.  Conflicts in the far corners of Russia and China flare up and are stamped out brutally as the world turns a blind eye.  Israel and Palestine skirmish over narrow strips of land that both claim as home.

Drug cartels in Mexico fan the flames in Central America even as the memories of the 1980’s cartel violence in Colombia fade into history.   All of the conflicts are not fought by armies.  Some place tribal factions against each other in a struggle for survival.  Village destroying village, those who began with nothing, emerging with even less.

Even the great powers of the world cannot hope to extinguish all the flames of war.  The superpowers of the west bogged down by Taliban fighters in the Afghani highlands fight and die, in what may prove to be a futile attempt to bring freedom and education to the masses.

Canadian blood is mixing with the windswept sands, sacrificing lives for a sacred ideal, for a worthy goal.  A dream, a hope that future generations can live free, learn and grow.  Unfettered by ideology and dogma, in a world where the freedom to choose sometimes comes with a high price to be paid.

We are proud of our Soldiers and Sailors and Airmen.  We honour your sacrifice today.  We hope to learn from the lessons of the past, so that one day, hopefully soon the world can live in peace.

Poppy of Remembrance

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae – May 3, 1915

9/11: One Canadian Remembers.

It’s been nine long years since the events of September 11, 2001 happened and much like people who talk about remembering where they were when Kennedy was killed, I know that I will always have that fateful day burned deeply into my memory.

I remember sitting in my shared office at work my co-workers and I reading the newspaper and drinking our morning coffee as we did every other day before and since.  We were joking around listening to a local rock and roll station when the news slowly began to break from New York.

The reports sounded confused at first, a small plane had hit a building in New York, a Cessna one eye-witness had mistakenly reported.  It didn’t sound like a big deal at the time, we all went on drinking our coffee.  Then the news told of a second plane had crashed in New York, hitting the World Trade Centre and this time it was a commercial airliner.   Reports came with every song now, and it seemed prudent to change to a news radio station.

The second airliner approaching the World Trade Centre. (Photo: Reuters)