================================================================== Stuck In Traffic "Current Events, Cultural Phenomena, True Stories" Issue #40 - December 2001 Current Events: Christmas Card Etiquette =================================== Current Events Christmas Card Etiquette From the very beginning, religious freedom has been one of the founding principles of our country. In these post September 11th days, the concept has been getting much air time in the media, although these days the concept has been rebranded as "religious diversity." Hooray for our team. Aren't we so much better than those backward Islamic fundamentalists who can't learn to play nice with people of different religions? But just because everyone backs the concept doesn't mean we can't squabble about the best way to put these principles into practice. Take Christmas cards for example. I was listening to a late night talk show on the radio a couple of weeks about and the hot issue of the day was the stamp that the U.S. government has issued to commemorate Islam. Of course, officially, no one blames Islam for the September 11th terrorist attacks. But we're all jumpy about it. Rationally we recognize that the people responsible are not at all representative of Islam. But we're nervous nonetheless. At very least we're nervous that some unenlightened yahoo will exercise his patriotic fervor on the head of his Muslim neighbor for no good reason. On the radio talk show that night, the consensus was, of course, that nothing should be done to stop the issuance of the stamp commemorating Islam. But apparently an Arab-American organization had called on Americans to specifically buy these stamps to demonstrate their support for Islam. Well, this generated no small amount of debate on the airwaves that night. It seems that most callers to the talk show, balked at the idea that they were specifically being asked to demonstrate support. Not a single caller suggested that people should follow this recommendation. The closest anyone came to endorsing this call for buying the commemorative stamps was from a lady who suggested that if people really felt moved to demonstrate their support, they should volunteer their time to support their Muslim neighbors, many of whom aren't too familiar with the cultural traditions of the United States. Fair enough. The problem was that everyone agreed too much. Not a good thing for a talk show, which thrives on debate and disagreement. So the talk show host, probably anxious to fill airtime more than anything, 8said, "Well, what if you accidentally bought the Islam stamps, would you still use them? Would you put an Islam stamp on your Christmas cards?" Good grief! The calls started coming in. No, people said, they would not put an Islam stamp on a Christmas card. They would put Christmas stamps on their Christmas cards. "Even if it meant and extra trip to the post office?" the talk show host asked. "Does this mean we aren't tolerant of other people's religions?" Yeah, like blowing up thousands of innocent people can somehow be equated with wanting to have Christmas stamps on ones' Christmas cards. I'm leaving his name out of this because I thought he was being so silly and ludicrous. My point here is not to disparage the talk show host, but to discuss what religious tolerance means. Sensing pay dirt, the talk show host moved on to a pet peeve of mine. The sending of Christmas cards to non-Christians. Is it impolite to "impose" one's religion on other people by sending them Christmas cards, implying a Talibanesque imposition on one's neighbors. Here, I'm sad to report, conventional wisdom, as represented by the callers on the talk show that night, departed from mine. It seems that most people think it impolite to send religiously specific cards to people who don't share one's religion. Thus, the trend to send genericized cards that say "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" Conventional wisdom seems to be that it's a sign on religious intolerance. Conventional wisdom seems to be that religiously tolerant people will be careful not to express their religion in the presence of people who aren't part of their religion. I disagree. There's nothing a reasonable person should fear about receiving a card in the mail. (Anthrax issues aside.) A card just contains words, ideas, and sentiments. In an open and tolerant society, we should encourage people to be expressive. I see no reason why "religious freedom" or "religious diversity" can't mean happily receiving cards from people as part of their religious practices. What's the harm? Would any Muslim, Jew, or Hindi really be offended or threatened if they received a religiously themed Christmas card? I for one would enjoy religiously specific cards from my friends. So go ahead, send your Kwanzaa cards, your Hanukah cars, your Ramadan cards, your winter solstice cards, or whatever the equivalent in your religion is. Diversity is something to be shared and celebrated. Not something to be kept in the closet and practiced only among like-minded people. ======================================= About Stuck In Traffic Stuck In Traffic is a monthly magazine dedicated to evaluating current events, examining cultural phenomena, and sharing true stories. Why "Stuck In Traffic"? Because getting stuck in traffic is good for you. It's an opportunity to think, ponder, and reflect on all things, from the personal to the global. As Robert Pirsig wrote in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, "Let's consider a reevaluation of the situation in which we assume that the stuckness now occurring, the zero of consciousness, isn't the worst of all possible situations, but the best possible situation you could be in. After all, it's exactly this stuckness that Zen Buddhists go to so much trouble to induce...." Contact Information All queries, submissions, subscription requests, comments, and hate-mail should be sent to Calvin Powers via E-mail (calvin@cspowers.com). Copyright Notice Stuck In Traffic is published and copyrighted by Calvin Powers who reserves all rights. Individual articles are copyrighted by their respective authors. Unsigned articles are authored by Calvin Powers. 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