Christmas in a Casino

Here's the truth. "Happy Holidays" is not code for, "Screw you and your Merry Christmas too". Happy Holidays actually translates to, "Whatever holiday/s you may choose to celebrate, I hope they bring enjoyment to you." Awesome. Even most Jehovah's Witnesses can appreciate that...I know this because I've asked dozens. "Happy Holidays" is a seasonal greeting that could not possibly be less offensive to most people.

Well...it USED to be, anyway.

Now (for about the past decade), the winter season brings out the, "It's MERRY CHRISTMAS, NOT HAPPY HOLIDAYS" supporters in the same way Black Friday brings out the voracious shoppers.

"It's Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays." Really? It's NOT Happy Holidays? Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally? It's not the season of Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, Bodhi Day, non-denomination-gift-giving Day, etc.? It's only about Christmas?

I don't celebrate Christmas unless small children are involved in my life (which isn't often). When our nieces and nephews were kids, we wrapped up presents and trotted our rears to their home on Christmas morning and enjoyed spiced cider, pumpkin bread, Christmas ham, and kids tearing into holiday-themed gift paper. It was fun. I enjoyed it. I have many fond memories of those days, including the time we bought our thirteen year old niece her favorite CD and wrapped it in a kitchen stove box so she wouldn't guess what it was before opening it.

I have nothing against Christmas. Or, as my husband said on our first Christmas together when we lived in Las Vegas and went skiing on December 25th, "It's just another day, with short lift lines." And speaking of Vegas, if you've ever been in a Vegas casino on Christmas, one thing is obvious...lots of people aren't celebrating. And you know what? That's perfectly okay. My husband and I now live in a place where the nearest ski lifts are closed on Christmas, so we go to the movies and/or hang out with friends (most who also don't celebrate Christmas) and drink wine, talk, go cross-country skiing, window shopping in our historic, quaint downtown. It's just another day, with no traffic. I've worked on Christmas, been a volunteer Santa Elf in a children's hospital. It's a good day. I enjoy it.

The holiday season means different things to different people. I submit that your meaning is different from mine, and that's wonderful. Let's get together and share the similarities, the differences, make connections, chuckle over horror/funny stories from holiday seasons past. ENJOY. Have a Happy Holidays. And please understand that if you take my favorite seasonal greeting, "Happy Holidays" as some kind of bitch slap to your Christmas, then that decision is ALL YOURS. The fact is, I'm not smacking down your day and I'd appreciate it if you don't smack down mine (Winter Solstice). Let's be friends. Thanks.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking on the first Friday after Election

1. I keep my political thoughts to a minimum on all but one of my social media profiles, but even if you know me only from those politically-anemic profiles, you probably know which way I swing on the political pendulum. I am not secretive about it, I am merely selective.
   
   
   
   With that thought in mind, read the following at your own risk. Thanks.
   
   
   
   Right leaning voters took a hit in the recent POTUS election. The speculating is wild - everything from - Obama's side stole it - to - the count is wrong. Odds are overwhelming that neither assertion is true. Want to hear what is true, though? The right is out of touch with modern America. Even the GOP sees this now. What it offered, America didn't buy it. America bought the competition's product. The GOP wants to know why. This post suggests a possibility.
   
   Fact - America is a diverse hodge-podge of individuals with various interests, concerns and values, but the overwhelming majority of us want a roof over our head, food on our table, a living wage job, a healthy future for our children, reasonable healthcare expectations, relative safety on our shores, and equality for all. People on the left want this, people on the right want this. The break happens in how we best get there. 

   
   

   I submit that the right focuses on getting there by fear and threats. Examples -
   
   "Get off your lazy ass and get a job."
   
   "I shouldn't have to pay for your healthcare or birth control."

   
   

   "Entitlements!"

   
   

   If you want Americans on your side, I submit that you might want to stop accusing them of malicious intent.
   
   Treating Latinos as suspected illegal citizens, accusing women of mooching off Planned Parenthood, pointing the "you're lazy" finger at those too poor or sick or self-employed to buy healthcare...isn't going to sell your product, EVEN if the group you're trying to appeal to is not Latino, not female, and comfortably-covered with a spiffy healthcare policy.
   Why will the sales pitch fail?
   
   Because you sound like a dick when you talk about Americans like they are lowlifes. Believe it or not, telling a gay person their legal right to marry should be denied because YOUR PARTY doesn't like it - even if you personally are okay with same-sex marriage equality - is an insult to every LGBTQ (and their family, friends, co-workers, etc.). Suggesting the DREAM Act is a brilliant way for Obama to reward anchor babies, is an insult to immigrant families and their (often white) friends. Offering a woman adoption in lieu of the right to privately choose, insults the hard work people like my grandmother did to further women's rights. Telling people who are struggling with chronic illness that, "we need to improve healthcare delivery in this country, but Obamacare is sociialism," insults those who are living with needless pain and sickness every day. It's also an entirely WRONG statement.
   
   
   

   Americans who aren't white, aren't straight, aren't employed, aren't male - are not moochers, "illegals", marriage destroyers, sluts, lazy turds, or welfare queens. They are AMERICANS. You can search all day for a handful of moochers but please don't be blind to the millions who are doing the best they can with what they've got. Americans are waking up to the (yes, get ready for that word - SOCIALISTIC) idea that we are all in this together. This is the United States of America, not the Fifty Statistans of North America.
   
   Consider this - who tells you about the welfare queens? Who informs you about the continued terrorist threats? Who tells you pot is bad and unfettered banking is good? Who shares with you the cases of women using abortions because they are too irresponsible to get birth control?
   
   Who told you about those wicked people in America? And who KEEPS telling you about them?
   
   I'm not going to answer that. Hopefully, you are. If you do it right, the answer will include introspection and time for things to click. In the interim, try this. Start assuming the best about everybody, no matter what. If you faithfully treat people like they are awesome, an amazing thing will happen. Most of them will be. I have personal experience to back this up. Every first Sunday of the month, my group hosts lunch at the local soup kitchen. Our doors open and in mosey single moms, meth addicts, poor old people, Latinos who may or may not have a green card, children, people who smell like BO, teenagers with cell phones, people who feel entitled to a free meal because their life sucks, people who cry and hug you when the plate gets set in front of them because their life is blessed, seniors, disabled people, those with companion dogs, those with no companions at all, and those who show up early and leave late, to help us with our chores. Lazy moochers? Shit-out-of-luck losers? Heads-of-household who have hit hard times and can't feed their families? Mentally ill? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
   
   Yes. They are all of that. They are here. They are my neighbors. They are my community. They are the ones I bump into on the streets and in the grocery store. They are my fellow human beings. They are Americans. Just like you, with your warm home, healthy kids, and friends you share summer burger and beer parties with.
   
   If the right wants to appeal to a wider base, it simply must implore its sympathizers to open their eyes - not to the freeloaders and nanny-staters...but to the parents and the workers. To the Americans who work hard, believe in the same values you do, (liberty, freedom, responsibility, compassion, and the pursuit of happiness). THESE are the Americans who voted for Obama, and yeah, he really did win because of them.