"Amen!"
 

"AMEN", Ed! In my workplace we have Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish cultures, and we all share our holiday spirit, food, and celebration. I believe that an inclusive, multi-cultural environment is a healthy one.

When "drinking the kool-aide" became a discussion on political correctness; threads often take on a life of their own.

It means you believe what the establishment wants you to believe!

Barefoot :Perhaps as suggested in an earlier post of mine could this be an alternative gensis to the "kool-aid meaning. Hmmmm Thank you

Ed: Every Christmas our office was inundated with greeting cards. what I discovered is that in the last few years that I worked not one of those greeting cards held a religious connotation, a lack that I attributed to political correctness.

You speak of being a life long Christian and as such it seems that you better than many other people would unerstand the importance of christmas to christians and that anyone making claim that they may be offended or not be offended or understand is a lame execuse used by those people who are determined to end Christianity and/or Americans believe in God. to wit the call at the Democratic convention to remove God from the agenda.

I for one am becoming very annoyed with groups such As "Freedom From Reigion (Wisconsin based group) that petition the courts in Texas to prevent football cheerleaders who signage Bible verses

As my hero Popeye says"I can't stands no more."

As for cards coming to the office, I believe that it signifies a recognition by the senders that the office may not be totally made up of Christians and therefore the cards should simply celebrate a holiday season that is celebrated differently by different religions. It is usually considered good business to be as inclusive as possible. I would assume that you, as I, recieve many Christmas cards with religious themes, but you and I are known by our friends to be Christians. If someone sends me a secular or Santa themed card, I think no less of the sender or the message. while it is and will always be, true there are groups and individual athiests who will try to stir the pot, it may also be true that we Christians have used our majority position to make things occaisionally uncomfortable for folks of other persuasions. Popeye indeed said that, but he continued to be harassed by Bluto.

I once made $5.65 selling Kool aide at my Kool aide stand. Grape was by far the favorite flavor.

Merry Christmas to Villages PL !!

Merry Christmas Gracie !!

Merry Christmas Ed !!

Merry Christmas and God bless us, everyone.

The changes have actually crept in quite insidiously over the years.
Insidiously to mean having a gradual and cumulative effect.......

When our children began school back in 1972 and 1975, the Christmas Musical Show was held each December and looked forward to by all the children, parents, grandparents and townsfolk. All parents are proud when the little ones are up singing, dressed in their Christmas duds.

Non religious "carols" were sung by all the grades separately and together as well as "winter" songs, Jewish dreidel songs, etc. for the one or two families who attended our elementary school..........it was fun for all.

Now, we have dear Indian friends who are good neighbors for the past 35 years........but when a handful of Indian families (Hindu) moved into town, they complained and suddenly our "Christmas" shows ended.
We have two colleges in town, so occasionally, we get new residents from various countries.....

I believe it was actually all because of ONE family. They didn't want their children to participate in singing the Christmas songs. It was a public school.

Even though the Christians were the majority!! Our town was founded by Irish settlers, English settlers and the wonderful French Canadians who came down to Vermont from Canada........... but a handful of newcomers changed the entire landscape.

At the same time, our classrooms stopped saluting the flag during the morning assembly. My husband didn't think that was right. Both of us had saluted the flag all during our school days.

The irony of the lack of the Christmas pageants is that the teachers began having "parades" for the Aztec sun god . Go figure. Christmas was eliminated but the kids could march down Main Street for the Aztecs.
I doubt if we have one citizen in our town of 12,000 folks who is descended from the Aztecs.

We've seen a definite shift.

Neither of us is racist. I had a little black girl friend in kindergarten and first grade in New Jersey. My daughter had a dear friend all through her elementary school in Vermont...........my mom worked with wonderful black ladies and we'd wrap up Christmas gifts for them.........

We had an Asian daughter in law. We love all the ethnic groups.

HOWEVER, IT REALLY IS MAINSTREAM AMERICA WHO IS BEING FORCED OUT OF THE LOOP.

Vermont always was a conservative state..........but with the influx of the city folks (of which we also were at one time) it has changed to liberal left.
So, I know of what I speak about political correctness and it is not always fair to ALL PEOPLE.

When I wrote my cards out, I also wrote "Happy Hannukah" to our Jewish friends........and our Jewish friends' children have married Christians , thus it has become very ecumenical.........ditto for our Indian Hindu friends. We've always been ecumenical...........but getting back to the workplace, they are NOT always ecumenical back....my husband's pet peeve was those who would say Happy Holidays and not Merry Christmas.

Although we were raised in a city and did know "diversity", our kids were raised in a very small town.........they sought out diversity by becoming foreign exchange students.* We also had students from other countries in our home for months at a time. When they were all in high school, any kid from a foreign country was treated like a celebrity....as it was quite a novelty to the small town kid. *Plus traveling the world, even to third world countries when they grew up.........we raised them to be open minded and friendly to all people.

Again, we are not racist and never were............I take each person individually as they come.

Even though we lived through the Newark, New Jersey RIOTS of the '60s, my husband having to pack a gun to get home safely from work, etc. we remained understanding..........then we moved to Vermont, which was a totally new world from N.J. Back then it was the whitest state in the entire U.S. and probably still is, for the most part. We did have the hippies and the "back to the land" movement.

No, the 40's and 50's were not utopian days...........they were simple days and a struggle for some, with the wartime rationing, etc. , fathers being off at war.......however, for decent hardworking people, one didn't have to mince words or watch everything they said for fear of ridicule. People were more plain spoken. Now everyone dances around the issues for fear of saying the wrong thing.

NO ONE LIKES A BIGOT..........we all have , hopefully, risen above that.

However, being so "politically correct" about everything in the universe gets pretty old after awhile.

Our daughter has gone back to teaching in northern Vermont; she was telling us that one of the towns near Burlington has become a "resettlement area" for Muslims from African countries and the middle eastern countries. That was news to us. Now, they have to celebrate and get days off from school for the Muslim holidays.......she's been teaching women in head scarves. So, even Vermont is changing.

Our cousin in New Jersey has had to deal with a large Muslim student population in the college where she works...........they are NOT ALL FRIENDLY to the older secretaries. However, she tries to be nice to all, to maintain the peace.

The Villages seems to be a very homogenous type place with similar types. It's easy to be open minded and welcoming of all......it's also what we've also done during our lifetime........however, people our age have noticed a definite change in society as far as it becoming lopsided......and not in our favor.

We do believe in being kind to all people. It's our nature.

Again, there was no way we could possibly know that someone had died in Jonestown massacre...related to a Villager. It's like knowing a Martian landed in the Green Mountains of Vermont.........who would know?
Although U.F.O.'s have indeed been spotted in our skies......more than once....but that's a new thread.

isn't that the case for any and every service worker? If you don't act nice to patrons, would you expect to keep your job?? if you do, you won't have a job long because the business will close...as several have in the Villages just due to lousy service and 'help' that thinks they don't have to smile and do their job like they enjoyed it, bsides, a smile earns more tips than a frown.

YOU are so RIGHT.:BigApplause:

And if you want to be the head of the company, work hard and try to be polite. No one is interested in your "true" feelings. We all have had to keep our feelings to ourself in order to keep employed.

GG We all have to keep.... does not apply to many... for instance Somlians working in Minneapolis won't handle pork products when working as grocery store clerks. somlian taxi drivers won't transport passengers who are carrying alcohol purchased overseas. I could go on with numerous examples .

The facts are that the attacks are against christians and their way of life because it is representative of the majority and there is an intent to remove the majority in all aspects.