Author Archives | Lexi Kayser, Staff Writer

War on Christmas?

It’s the most wonderful time of the year—and recently, also the touchiest.

The past few years have engulfed jolly well-wishers in a fairly intense inter-religious crisis. According to many Christians, there’s a “war on Christmas” going on with  Jesus as the main point of conflict (or, at least his name). Many people are angered at the gravitation toward “Happy Holidays!” rather than “Merry Christmas!,” believing that this is blatant disregard for the true meaning of the season: Christ.

Christians are fighting back viciously against this modern trend. We’ve all seen that “Put Christ Back in Christmas!” bumper sticker and heard of the controversy surrounding Starbucks’ plain red “holiday” cups that didn’t ink Christmas across their fronts.

As someone who was raised Christian, I just want to invite everyone to step back from the situation, relax and have a little bit of empathy.

We don’t need to “put the Christ back in Christmas.” You may do that, in the comfort of your own home and your own place of worship, if you so please. You may read the Bible before opening any presents. You may sing “Silent Night” in place of “Frosty the Snowman.” You may set a Nativity scene up on your front lawn. You may do all of these things because to you they make the holiday more meaningful, memorable and magical.

But doing these things will not have the same effect on everyone because not everyone is a Christian, and not everyone celebrates “Christmas” as the birth of Christ.

Yule was, at first, a holiday coined by German pagans that wanted to celebrate the longest night of the year, the Solstice, from which point onward the days would become sunnier and brighter. Holly and mistletoe were hung to represent the “seed of the Divine.” Yule logs were burned, Yule trees were decorated, Yule feasts were enjoyed and Yule gifts were exchanged.

Sound familiar?

The line between Yuletide and Christmastide traditions have been blurred over the many, many years of their celebration. Not only that, but other holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa happen to share the same time frame with Christmas.

It just isn’t fair to allow Christians to monopolize this season of giving and happiness.

And why would we want to? By saying that this season is only for Christmas (or, our Biblical ideas of what Christmas should look like universally), we’re basically saying that the authentic joy of waking up to see what Santa brought on Christmas morning, of baking gingerbread cookies and of stringing up lights across our eaves is reserved for children that were brought up Christian. Even worse, we’re saying that those in other traditions—who just don’t care to celebrate Christmas or Yule at all—are invalid for believing the things that they believe and choosing to celebrate a different set of holidays.

This is such a small-minded worldview to have.

I truly believe that we don’t fully choose our religions for ourselves. If you were born where someone else was born, you would believe what they believe. Isn’t it a tad coincidental that God placed you and all of your loved ones into the “right” religion, but birthed billions of others into the “wrong” one? Isn’t it a bit unrealistic to think that the only way to seek a higher power or serve a greater glory is to do so your way?

See, this situation of “Christmas” versus “Xmas” runs much deeper than a minor discrepancy in verbage. The issue rests on the idea that Christianity is right and everything else is wrong.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world, Jewish people believe that Judaism is right and everything else is wrong, Hindus believe that Hinduism is right and everything else is wrong and Muslims believe that Islam is right and everything else is wrong.

Who are we to really say?

It’s okay if people want to celebrate a season of warmth and family without celebrating Jesus simultaneously. It’s okay to believe in reindeer and not in redemption. It’s okay to give gifts without a single mention of gold, frankincense or myrrh.

Let people have their holiday, and let them have it their way. Arguing simply takes the holly jolly out of everybody’s everything.

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We can’t all be friends

In grade school, when the only opinions that we hold have to do with boy band members and ice cream flavors, it’s remarkably easy to be friends with everyone.

In college, well… not so much.

Suddenly, everyone has an opinion on everything, and everyone believes their opinion to be the only one that is right. It’s gotten to the point where discussions of politics are seen as impolite, simply because they aren’t entirely productive. Everyone is so cemented in their ways that it’s hard to bridge mutual understanding without causing someone to feel as if they have to make a moral compromise.

My Facebook feed is always littered with posts claiming that you can, indeed, be friends with people that have differing political opinions than yours. Many say that to cut someone off for what they believe is immature, rude and disrespectful. While I believe in civility, attempting to find common ground and treating everyone’s viewpoint with introspective empathy, I find it fairly challenging to be friends with people that are across the spectrum from me politically.

The way that someone votes can tell you a lot about their character and their values—which just happen to be the very aspects of a person that we evaluate to find out if we’re compatible.

I know that I speak for more than just myself when I claim that my political opinions are direct reflections of my heart. I believe in love; therefore, I believe in marriage equality. I believe in equality; therefore, I believe in civil rights and feminism. I believe in bodily autonomy; therefore, I believe in the pro-choice movement. I believe in freedom of worship; therefore, I believe in the separation of church and state.

Politics are not separate from the person engaging in them, they are a fully functioning part of the mind and soul that guide us towards the creation of a world which we would be proud to live in.

It’s absurd to say that someone’s political opinions have no weight on their overall identity. In reality, it is our political opinions that dictate our interactions with the world, and therefore, the way that we treat each other.

I’m easily able to dig out the aspects of life that are the most important to them after just one discussion about politics. The fiscally conservative tend to value hard work and self-discipline, the socialists tend to value understanding and giving. Those opposed to gay marriage and abortion might use their religious experiences as the breeding grounds for their thoughts, whereas those that are proponents of them may be reliant on more personal experiences and connections.

We need to stop acting as if politics are separate from the person speaking about them. These conversations are vital to understanding one another, and we can learn so much simply by listening. It is okay to distance yourself from friends with differing opinions, however, if their ideals directly oppose your personal moral code. We should continue the discussion between Republicans, Democrats and everyone in between instead of keeping quiet for the sake of maintaining a bond.

I do, quite frankly, lose respect and affection for a person when I learn that they believe in the restriction of or infringement upon basic human rights. To me, all people are equally worthy of a safe, healthy and happy life. When someone contradicts that opinion that is so dear to me, I certainly maintain cordiality and attempt to understand what led them to feel that way, but I know deep down that I could never grow close to someone that hates my innermost love.

That’s OK.

Maybe we can’t all be friends, but we can all be friendly, and we can share a mutual admiration for all who speak their truth, no matter what the words are that flow out.

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Is your straw ban really helping?

If you were to tell someone 10 years ago that in 2018 people were banning straws, they probably would have looked at you like you had two heads. Yet, here we are. It’s 2018.

And we’re banning straws.

I understand the basic premise behind the argument. It’s no secret that as a human race we are taking horrible care of this beautiful, breathtaking planet that we have been gifted. Coral reefs and the sea creatures that inhabit them are dying at alarming rates because of the amount of plastic being disposed of in their oceans. As pictures of fish with pieces of trash wilting in their stomachs and coastal birds with man-made casings cinched around their necks began to circulate the internet, people took it upon themselves to take action. So, plastic straws—being one of the things that most people use in their everyday lives—were the first to be boycotted.

In the individual sense, this change is wonderful. It shows that people care about their personal footprint on the environment. However, when the idea of eliminating plastic straws is analyzed on a broader scale it can be found to be not only exclusive, but unnecessary.

Take, for example, my father. He was diagnosed one year ago with a terminal illness called frontotemporal dementia that presents with symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. This means that he has trouble with basic motor skills, and he can not drink from a cup without a straw. He also struggles with different textures, and since he is most comfortable with a plastic straw, giving him one is the easiest way for my family to keep him hydrated and healthy.

When we went to Walt Disney World a few weeks ago, we found that in some of the parks plastic straws were not available. As a self-proclaimed environmentalist, I was torn between pride and anger. I was overjoyed that such a large company was taking steps to save the globe, yet the means seemed rather drastic to me. When we went to many restaurants, we were either told that we could have a paper straw or no straw at all. With either of these options, we had to watch my dad struggle to consume liquids in the stifling heat.

The reason that I found this so frustrating is because I’ve researched the truth about plastic straws, and we just don’t need to be as concerned about them as we are.

The fact of the matter is, plastic straws only account for 0.03 percent of the plastic masses contaminating our oceans. That means that only 2000 tons of the 9 million tons of plastic that are currently covering the coasts can be accounted for by plastic straws.

If we really want to combat the problem, shouldn’t we be focusing on a larger bulk of it? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with decreasing the amount of fish and shellfish we eat since 46 percent of the plastic dumped in the ocean is from fishing equipment used by the seafood industry? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with using less plastic bottles, as they take approximately 450 years to decompose? Shouldn’t we be more concerned with bringing our own reusable bags to the grocery store instead of using plastic bags (which sea animals often mistake for food, and which retail businesses spend over $4 billion a year producing)?

We’re not concerned about plastic straws because we really care about the environment. We’re concerned about plastic straws because they’re the easiest thing in our lives that we can eliminate in order to feel like we’re doing our share.

This isn’t fair to our disabled population, this isn’t fair to our seas and, above all, this isn’t fair to our future generations. If you really want to make a difference, stop shyly refusing plastic straws at restaurants in the name of the “sea turtles.” We have bigger fish to fry.

I was overjoyed that such a large company was taking steps to save the globe, yet the means seemed rather drastic to me.

We’re not concerned about plastic straws because we really care about the environment.

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