Comments on: It's OK to wish me "Merry Christmas"

By: Digital Earth Weblog » Blog Archive » Cultural Sensitivity

Digital Earth Weblog » Blog Archive » Cultural Sensitivity — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 01:25:53 +0000

[…] David Megginson says it’s OK to wish him Merry Christmas, and says he’s tired of people searching for culturally sensitive things to say. In the interest of culturally sensitivity I thought I’d pass on a message received from a friend, minus the culturally insensitive first paragraph. Greetings to Everyone at this time of the generally accepted calendar. […]

By: John Cowan

John Cowan — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:42:56 +0000

Fair enough; the debate’s pretty strange to me too, here in the future Independent Republic.

And why shouldn’t she wish you a merry Christmas, anyhow? Frankly, Daveedkeh, you look like a goy.

By: david

david — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 14:20:56 +0000

Thanks for the link, John. It looks like that posting is more about a deliberately-misleading survey and a (to us in Canada) strange, foreign political/cultural debate than it is about the phrase itself. My posting is actually about personal greetings — I can sympathize with a retail business choosing to use neutral language like “Happy Holidays” (though the woman behind the counter at our local kosher bagel shop just wished me “Merry Christmas” this morning) — but more generally, I wouldn’t want someone like Bill O’Reilly to have any effect on what I say, positive or negative.

By: John Cowan

John Cowan — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 10:43:19 +0000

Geoff Nunberg’s Language Log article at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003954.html may provide some insight into what the actual issues are.

By: Godfrey Harrison

Godfrey Harrison — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 09:23:09 +0000

Happy Christmas, David and anybody else who’ll be glad of the wish!
There’s at least oddity, and perhaps hypocrisy or delusion, when one is frowned on for using words that for a long,long have been in general use and are not intrinsically insulting BUT indisputable evils – like thousands of children weekly dying from Malaria – aren’t anything many of us seem to get upset over. Arguably, that would be too distressing?
I am six feet four inches tall and so, having lived mostly in Britain or Eat Asia, have many memories of banging my head on beams or doorways built hving in mind people less tal than I am. I could call myself ‘vertically callenged’ ~ I’d not dream of doing that although I once asked a shop assistant of about 4′ 9″ in height if he would agree the politically correct way of refering to his [hysical stature would also be apt for mine because of the ‘blows of outrageous transoms’ I suffer; he did agree.
Then there’s ‘fat’ If a human being weighs over 250 pounds & is not over seven feet tall there’s going to be enough of him or her that is fat to make that noun an apt adjective for describing one aspect of the weighty person.
Similarly, on various days of the year a particular group of people will clebrate some anniversary they believe the day marks or the start of a New Year on one of the many calendars people have devised. One of the few open aspects of Singapore was the acceptance that on, let’s say, Deepavali if somebody smilingly said something to you that was completely incomprehensible the chances were you were being wished a happy new year as Hindus start one.
I stopped being a Christian long ago and I’ll argue with anybody who want me to accept that the first chapter of Genesis is a convicing account of how there’s anything. Maybe they’ll come to my point of view, maybe not, maybe I’ll become a creationist, though I doubt it. I don’t need anybody to protect me from views that seem ill-founded by my lights. Diversity is part of this world and to seek to constrain expression is the opposite of tolerance ~ even if attempted to prohibit offending those who hold other views than another – like mine or yours.
This is too long!