Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Xmas trees in Cohousing

[Rebecca Dawn Kaplan (rebecca]

OK, I want to acknowledge Jean's point that the tone i 
used was unnecessarily antagonistic. However, in the
factual responses to my post, it seems you didn't 
read Arne's originial post which I was taking 
to task. Jean says that "no one here" said that xmas
was a universal holiday, and no one here was trying to 
celebrate xmas in the common space of cohousing.
(in fact, i think you also implied that anyone who 
thought christmas was universal would have to be
an uneducated fool).
However, the first post that instigated all of 
this was *precisely* that argument. Someone posted
that they felt uncomfortable with the xmas 
tree being placed *in the common space*. And
Arne replied that we shouldn't complain about
xmas being celebrated in the common space because
it is not a christian religious ritual, but rather, 
a culturally neutral celebration. That assumption 
of universality was what I was responding to.

Jean also asks, where is it that i disagree with Arne
about the public schools not being allowed to 
write xmas? After all, I agreed with him that they 
should be allowed to. My point was that Arne brought up
this "ban" as an example of anti-chsirtian bias. What
i was trying to point out, using the hypoerbole of the 
guilt-freeing conspiracy, was that even though
the word xmas is not used, christians still get their
holiday off. Do you think this is a coincidence?
Of course, it would be silly to make  a school 
in a majority-christian area be open on xmas. And, many
of these things on which we each have strong theoretical
opinions would be much more easily resolved within a
community in which we all knew each other, and were
mutually trying to reach amutually-agreeable
solution.  However, communities are generally
not forced to do so when it comes to the main 
christian holiday. Schools, offices, etc are closed
on Dec 25th whether the local people want them to be
or not. Christians never have to ask for the day off, 
never have to approach teachers 
and ask for a makeup exam, etc. That is why I think
it is unreasonable to argue thaT christians
are oppressed by current multicultural efforts, though
I grant that it is possible for a formerly oppressed
group to gain power & oppress others.
I agree that everyone's culture & traditionsshould be 
valued. All that I was asking, at the beginning of
this discussion, is that those who are asking to 
celebrate xmas *not* pretend that they are not talking 
about their specific cultural tradition. Doing so
puts christians in the position of being able to 
just do their thing, while everyone else is made to feel
like they are asking special favors. Obviously, not
all cohousing groups work this way, and many people 
are deeply sensitive to each other, and I know I 
don't argue this strongly in person, and I am sure
many
cohousing communities can deal with these issues
perfeclty well. However, the double standard is in
the official laws of these United States, and for
those of us who grew up with that double-standard, I
bet it has enduring affects. In Massachussetts, christians are legally
guaranteed the right to hav xmas off,no matter what. (with very
rare exceptions). Everyone else has the right to ask
for their holidays off, and the employer is obligated
to *try* to be accomodating, only to the extent that it
does not threaten the finacnces or other well-being 
of the company.
-rebecca