Double standard for religious expression

We're about to enter the "holiday season," and rather than the old-fashioned joy of it, we are surely going to enter into another litigious time of year. I'm a little confused over this "separation of church and state" issue that keeps popping up every “holiday season.” The word "holiday" is derived from the words “holy day,” so it's clear there is something religious lurking around in there.

I'm also hearing a lot about a semi-public area, New York City’s Zuccotti Park, which a mob is being encouraged by public officials to take over and use as a live-in campground to display its anger at the Wall Street crowd and a gazillion other things. Protesters are permitted to defecate in public, urinate on the American flag, display Jew-hating signs, threaten schoolchildren and prevent people from going about their everyday chores, like working for a living. Yet any public gathering of Christians or Jews for prayer purposes would be strictly forbidden by law.

Do you think if more people knew about what was happening in all parts of our country (including the White House) that they would be outraged? I can’t figure out if people don’t know because they choose to remain ignorant or if they know and feel helpless . . . just admitting defeat when they hear these things. I know , and I feel helpless, but only because I know that the majority of Americans are clueless, or also feel helpless. Kind of a catch 22, but every year it gets worse and worse.

I'm also hearing a lot about a semi-public area, New York City’s Zuccotti Park
IIRC, the park is privately owned ... not semi-public, whatever that is.

Yet any public gathering of Christians or Jews for prayer purposes would be strictly forbidden by law.
Not true. How many Planned Parenthood buildings have Christians & Jews praying in front of them - in public.

I'm sure everyone noticed the over the top 'Black Friday' madness this year, as we do every year. But did anyone notice anything different this year? I did but couldn't put my finger on it until it dawned on me that this year was the first time I'd heard such widespread use of the term, which in my day was an inside the loop industry term, Black Friday. It was ALL about Black Friday! Nobody referred to the day of the shopping orgy as 'The Day After Thanksgiving' as it had always been referred to in the past. And there was almost no mention of the Thanksgiving Holiday in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. All the news was about 'Black Friday' and when the doors at which stores would open and which stores would open on Thursday, not Thanksgiving but Thursday.

Maybe I'm being hyper sensitive but I don't think so. There wasn't any of the usual emphasis placed on Thanksgiving as the holiday that we all have cherished for so long. No talk in the popular culture about gratitude to God, no talk about family gatherings, about counting blessings or even pumkin pie recipes. It was all about that ugly and almost obscene orgy of greed called Black Friday.

There are out there who are trying to co-opt our culture and rob us of our traditions and heritage and it gets worse every year!

I think it’s more like the average person has more personal things to worry about. There’s only so much worrying that a person can do before it’s not healthy. I think it’s better to worry about what one deems their own problems, which they have a chance of fixing, than worrying about what other folks are worrying about or those things that they can’t personally fix..

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