RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

His not-so-serene Majesty -- sorry, that's President -- Bush, has admitted to ordering NSA eavesdropping on phone calls and emails in the US without court orders. He asserts that there just wasn't time to get an order beforehand, but has no explanation for why he couldn't get a retroactive order afterward, which the law allows.

Let's backtrack on that: the law in question is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. It was passed 20-odd years ago, and created a special secret court called the FISA court, which has the authority to issue warrants for various kinds of eavesdropping without any input from or notice to the other side. It also has the authority to grant such warrants after the fact, within 48 hours after the eavesdropping or search occurred. Not surprisingly, the FISA court has granted warrants almost every time the government requested them. Most of Congress thinks this should be enough of a restraint on arbitrary use of presidential power. I find this hard to swallow. My gut says the FISA court is part of the problem, not part of the solution. It has refused warrants in less than .01% of cases where the government requested them. But this lapdog court apparently is still not tame enough for Bush.

And, finally, somebody in Congress has used the I-word. California's Barbara Boxer is publicly using the word "impeachment." It's bloody well about time.

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THE DECEMBER BATTLES

Do you say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"? What kind of tree do you put in your living room -- a "holiday tree"?

Apparently the American Family Association has run out of genuine grievances, and is now trying to bully seasonal store clerks into greeting customers with "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." As if the clerks don't have enough problems trying to keep customers happy and afford their own holiday festivities on what the stores pay them! But Donald Wildmon is demanding that we put the Christ back in Wal-Mart. He not only accepts the commercialization of Christmas, he demands the Christianization of commerce. Not, of course, the stuff St. Paul says about how "the laborer is worthy of his hire," or "thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads the grain," nor the nasty things Deuteronomy and Isaiah and Jeremiah have to say about people who oppress laborers. No, just "Merry Christmas and shop till you drop."

Okay, let's talk about "political correctness." Whatever that means. Apparently it means that the privileged majority is entitled to assert its privileges in public regardless of who else feels excluded or offended as a result. They whine about a "war on Christmas" whenever people who are not evangelical Christians have the audacity to claim that they too are entitled to have a good time around the winter solstice. Please, guys. This isn't war. It isn't politics. To the extent that "P.C." is an issue, it means Plain Courtesy. Can't the clergy move over and listen to Ms. Manners?

IN SEARCH OF A FEW MEN OF GOOD WILL

George and Laura are in trouble with the fundies. They made the mistake of sending a million of their closest friends a card that uses the scriptural passage "The Lord is my strength and my salvation" (from the Psalms) and wishes the recipient "Happy Holidays." The fundies are outraged that the card uses "only" a quotation from the Old Testament, and doesn't even mention Jesus or Christmas. Laura graciously responded that "we have friends of all faiths," which, while undoubtedly true, probably only makes the fundies madder. Why is the First Couple palling around with infidels?

And, of course, the American Family Association is still demanding that good Christians boycott any retailer whose employees wish them "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." The AFA appears to be totally ignorant of ecclesiastical and American history--our highly Christian founding fathers, the New England Puritans, not only didn't celebrate Christmas, they made its observance a crime. They considered it a pagan festivity.

Anthropologically and historically, they were right. The "Christmas tree" which the First Family is not allowed to call a "Holiday Tree"--it's pure Norse and Celtic paganism! Martin Luther hijacked it for his flock because it was a good symbol for a good party. It didn't make its way into Anglo-Saxon society until a couple of centuries after that.

The use of the December 25 date was hijacked from pagan sun-worshippers by the Roman emperor Constantine when he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Any halfway-competent biblical scholar can tell you Jesus was not born on December 25, but sometime in the spring of the year (when shepherds kept their flocks--outdoors--by night, which they sure wouldn't have done in midwinter.) But Constantine decided the December 25 date would appeal to a lot of people who had been celebrating it anyway in honor of the Winter Solstice. Which is to say, once again, it was a good symbol for a good party.

Unlike our Puritan forbears, I have nothing against a good party. Especially during the darkest, coldest, gloomiest part of the year. A good winter solstice party is a significant contribution to the quality of life. The Holy Blessed One undoubtedly endorses that concept. What She almost certainly doesn't endorse is using a religious symbol as an excuse for a low-level ill-mannered religious war.

So, gentle reader, when somebody wishes you a "Happy Holiday," please don't growl "Holiday, bah humbug." Let "peace on earth" begin with you!

HEADLINES IT'S HARD TO RESIST

"DeLay Demands Speedy Trial."

RAISIN CONSCIOUSNESS

Physicists say that time

Is what keeps everything from happening at once.

But holidays

Are what keeps everything from feeling as if it’s happening at once.

Holidays are like the raisins in rice pudding.

Without them, it turns into a glutinous untextured mass.

The raisins add texture,

And sometimes, sweetness.

WINTER SOLSTICE SONG

I wish you more

Of whatever lights your darkness;

Fire by night, a friend's embrace,

A lover's touch, the wisdom of the past,

Whatever bears you up through life's endeavor

And whispers to your heart that winter

Will not last forever.

I wish you more

Of whatever warms your winter,

Wine and tea and coffee,

Song and dance and sweet waiting silence,

Whatever ties to life time cannot sever

That call to your mind that darkness

Cannot last forever.

As winter closes,

Night devours your days,

Join me and those who light

The candles, logs, or trees that fire our faith

That life is more than bending to the weather,

And sing, proclaiming in the winter darkness

That darkness will not last forever.

Marian H. Neudel

2000