Funny ... but not quite that simple, Brad.

Something about the new version of tolerance really stinks.

True tolerance would be allowing everyone to freely express whoever and whatever they are, and teaching our children to respect other people's expressed beliefs (no matter how silly we might find them). HL Mencken's comment about this applies: "We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart." That would be true tolerance.

Instead, we are systematically erasing all forms of personal expression, and naming that erasure "tolerance." But it is not tolerance, merely a pale and watery, blandly insipid, and completely anemic imitation thereof.

I'm not offended by Target's corporate policy to suppress the word "Christmas" in their stores. They're the ones paying for the signs, after all.

I am, however, deeply bothered by the trend it represents, simply because I find the world far more interesting and decidedly less bland with the crunchy bits left in. I think, for instance, that instead of traipsing around a big box store with generic 'seasonal' signs that really look no different from the ad signs that are up the rest of the year, it would be a lot more pleasing to shop at a place with signs celebrating the Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Those signs, of course, would go up after the Ramadan & Thanksgiving signs, but before the 12th Night and Chinese New Year signs. Such a store's television ads, instead of carefully skirting any mention of specific holidays, would instead truly celebrate the differences between them.

There's no point in pretending Americans don't celebrate different things this time of year, or in pretending that we all celebrate some spiritless and generic "holiday season" when in fact there probably isn't a single person in all of America who celebrates "holiday" without putting a name to that holiday. (And an ironic aside: if the goal is to include everyone and offend no one, Target has already failed in that attempt, as there are many people who do not celebrate holidays at all and who find the very notion of a holiday quite offensive. But with half the year's sales coming from the holiday season, what else is a poor capitalist to do?)

But back to the more general case. Trying to erase any mention of specifics is, in the long run, really pointless ~ especially since a significant number of American families have members who celebrate more than one of the holidays, to varying degrees. And among those who celebrate only one, who knows? Maybe the increased exposure to other people's religious holidays might, you know, also increase both understanding and tolerance.

One can hope.

pax

You missed a possibility for alliteration: concerned caucasion customer, not shopper. :D

A better example would be: On May 31, the stores decide to have a "Spring Holiday" sale, not mentioning that the relevant holiday, the reason for the long weekend, is Memorial Day, because, after all, some people are against the military, some people have relatives who have been killed by the US military and every ethnicity has a spring festival of some kind. We don't even get any time off for Easter any more.

It's Newspeak to say "Happy Holiday" without mentioning the reason for the holiday. You can say "Happy Holiday" on any holiday year-round and "Season's Greetings" in any season. The minor festival Chanukah and the non-existent Kwanzaa would not have given anyone a reason to take time off and celebrate if it hadn't been for Christmas. Ramadan of course rotates around the year. Anyone ever say, "Happy rotating Lunar Holiday" to a Muslim? Even (especially) in Muslim lands? It reminds me of the use of "BCE" instead of "B.C.". Can't mention Christ! Have to say "Before the Common Era". Which leaves unanswered the questions, "Why exactly is this computation used? Why is this Era Common?" No wonder kids are confused.

If the reason white people were buying so much stuff was merely because they are white, this might be a better analogy. The reason so many people buy so much stuff is because Christmas, secular (and therefore not Christian) holiday that it now is, now carries with it all this commercialized money-spending. You'd think there'd be a mention of Christmas, even if they acknowledge that there are other holidays that people celebrate at this time of year. It's not inclusiveness to be afraid to mention the word 'Christmas'. It's exclusiveness. I think it's pretty stupid to think Christians are legitimately being persecuted in this, and I think it's pretty outrageous to complain that you're being ignored simply because someone won't mention the name of the holiday that you're spending lots of money for at your store. Still, there is a double standard in pretending to be inclusive but not allowing Christmas or any Christmas content. That's what many people are complaining about.

I remember having a conversation with black or African American co-workers and friends if you perfer about O.J. Simpson's aquital. Their response to the person was that they had tried to frame O.J.! Some thought it was the "Hollywood Jews" keeping the black man down type thing, others saw it as a lesser by-product of racism. These were by and large intelligent rational people! It seems to me to be a phenomena of any disenfranchised people become somewhat paranoid as a by-product of their social, economic and political situation. So now it would appear that black people may have some power and white people are now feeling disenfranchised and are becoming paranoid. The racial, socio-economic and political landscape of America is changing. Demographic shifts resulting from poorly thoughtout imigration policies are being manifest within the country. The system appears to be being manipultatied by big business and left of center politicians for narrow self-interests. America's economic sustainablity is being pushed past it's breaking point. Most legal or undocumented imigrants I have worked with are decent hardworking people. There seems however little or no commitment to the American nation state. The consequence of this is that historical American peoples black, white or red will be made to suffer and are being denied their birthright for an foolish shortsighted agenda by both the left and the right. Black Americans have never been given their full slice of the pie, as neither have Amerindians. Now white people too are going to be denied their place at the table for big business and corrupt politicians pocket lining. The left imagine that they will sustain themselves in power through the current open borders negation of the law of the land. This too shall come to haunt them. As someone once said be careful what you wish for. The distruction of the American nation state as we know it is at hand wheather it is by design or a natural part of human migration.