Happy Holidays

Well, Happy Kwanzaa and Hanukkah! I’ve been telling that to people all day. I love it. Of course, I’ve been getting the “What the hell…?” look (most people around here are Xian), but oh well. It’s bad to say “Happy Holidays” after all…hee hee.

So, this weekend I was at the in-laws and as usual there was no conversation. But every so often my FIL would mention some FoxNews-nonsense like “They don’t let you say ‘Merry Christmas’” Or “those liberals”- he would never say this directly at me because he knows I’m a bleeding heart liberal. Anyway, Little Miss mentioned that she wanted to go to school to become a lawyer and he said “Oh no you don’t.” And I said “Well, she can do whatever she wants” (I was getting ready to pounce).
“I want to help people” she says.
“Well,”he says “as long as you don’t work for the ACLU.”

Ok, now it was time for my pouncing. I told him that the ACLU is a fine organization and there’s nothing wrong with working to protect someone’s civil rights. I’m very, very fond of the ACLU.
But that’s not the point. (The conversation, by the way, ended at that point.)

I’ve been hearing this a lot lately from “injured” people like FIL and my own mother. That the ACLU doesn’t care about America and that they want to hurt normal people. HMMMPH! My own mother (who raised me to respect organizations like the ACLU) says to me “Well, try to get them to help you and see how far you get.” Obviously the ACLU only helps immigrant minorities stick it to the white folks of this country.

Bullshit. You know, I read once that this organization helped a white supremacist organization gain access to a town square to hold a rally. I hate white supremacists, but I respect their right to free speech. I don’t have to like what they have to say and I don’t have to listen, but I have no right to stop them from spouting their garbage.

Something else that caught my eye from their website (for all of those who think that the ACLU is against Xians):

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts declared a First Amendment victory when a federal appeals court ruled in December 2004 that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority violated free speech rights by refusing to display subway advertisements encouraging public discussion about marijuana policies and laws. However, the ACLU criticized a separate ruling that upheld the transit agency’s decision to reject ads submitted by a Christian church group.

The ACLU is an organization that helps protect all of our liberties. Even if we find some of those liberties reprehensible. I applaud that and I will continue to defend them. Of course, people who don’t like people outside of their own circle are going to object to organizations like this, because it brings these other people onto equal ground. They see no difference in a skin head’s right to free speech or a Methodist preacher’s. I like that. I respect that. And I think it’s terrible the kind of rap that they’ve been getting from the neo-cons. Just because they stand up for everyone’s Constitutional rights.

My FIL lives by FoxNews garbage, of course, so he doesn’t know any better. He doesn’t know all the good that the ACLU does for people like him to be able to spout their jibberish. My mother on the other hand has no good excuse. She’s stepping backward into the persona that she’s always raised me to loathe. I really don’t understand it.

**Note: All links in this post point to the ACLU website. They do not, however, appear in any relevant order and may or may not pertain to the subject of which I was writing.**

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