Mark's Notebook


	Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. - Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Non-Christians in winter: Don't be rigid about greetings

Tallahassee Democrat

Wednesday 22 December 2004, 1:43 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

By June Wiaz

Christians may wonder what non-Christians do on Christmas Day. We go to the movies and eat Chinese food. Sometimes Indian. You wouldn't believe how crowded Asian restaurants and theaters are in South Florida and New York on Christmas.

When a TV reporter for a local station asked my 10-year-old at the Winter Festival parade downtown a couple of weeks ago what was at the top of her list for Santa, she really didn't know how to answer. The reporter asked her three times before giving up and going to the next kid. When I talked to her about it later, Lily said she didn't want to make the interviewer feel bad so she didn't mention that she doesn't celebrate Christmas. Pretty thoughtful, I think.

I will not pretend that this is an easy time of year for American Jews, Hindus, Muslims or Buddhists, especially children who are constantly reminded of how they don't fit in. Some grow to wear their difference as a badge of honor; others conform to the majority later in life. Here in the South it's especially challenging since, as the unthinking reporter showed, some people just don't even stop to consider that there could be a few fig leaves mixed in with the mistletoe. Truth be told, often there are not. But when there might be, what harm is there in issuing a hearty and more encompassing seasonal greeting?

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/news/opinion/10433597.htm

Mark says: I don't know whether I'm more dismayed that a TV reporter might not be aware of disturbing a 10-year old, or endeartened that a 10-year old would be concerned about making a "grown up" feel bad.