Conservative Blogger: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I absolutely love the Christmas season. I really do. The lights. The music. The decorations. The cheesy television specials that play from Thanksgiving all the way up through Christmas. I like to spend Christmas Eve with all the Christmas lights on watching my favorite movies: White Christmas, A Christmas Story, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and, finally, I end the evening with It's a Wonderful Life.

This is just one of the ways in which I carry on the traditions that I like to celebrate at Christmas time. There are still things my family does every year at Christmas time that I'm sure I'll do with my own family someday.

I can tell you this, though. Some of the things that my family has been doing to celebrate the holidays may actually pre-date Kwanzaa.

I get a little annoyed with people who wish me "Happy Holidays," like wishing me a "Merry Christmas" was such a horribly offensive thing. I'm supposed to wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah, and I do. I've even wished people a Happy Kwanzaa. No one wishes you a Merry Christmas anymore unless they know that your family's celebrated it for generations, and even then.

I was in line at a department store the other day and the cashier wished me "Happy Holidays." I teenager which holiday he celebrated and he drew a quick blank and told me it was Christmas. I inquired if he'd finished his shopping and he said he hadn't even started yet. I looked at him, smiled, and wished him a "Merry Christmas," and he just gave me a nod. He didn't even say it back...or couldn't...I'm not sure which.

Now, I respect the beliefs of others. I know that Hanukkah has a basis in Judaism. I know that Christmas has its roots in Christianity (even if Madison Avenue and retailers took it over years ago). I know that Kwanzaa has it's roots in...well...I guess I don't know where Kwanzaa is based in. Come to think of it, I didn't know anyone who did.

Then I decided to look into it.

Kwanzaa, the holiday whose name means "first fruits of the harvest," is not a religious holiday; it is described as a "spiritual, festive and joyous celebration of life." The purpose of Kwanzaa is to reaffirm African-Americans' African culture, to reinforce the bonds between them as a people, and to introduce and reaffirm the value of the Nguzo Saba, The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa.

The Seven Principles are:

Umoja (unity-pronounced OO-MO-JAH) to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (self-determination-pronounced KOO-GEE-CHA-GOO-LEE-YAH) to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (collective work and responsibility-pronounced OO-GEE-MAH) to build and maintain our community together and make our sister's and brother's problems our problems and to solve them together.

Ujamaa (cooperative economics-pronounced OO-JAH-MAH) to build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses together.

Nia (purpose-pronounced NEE-YAH) to make our collective vocation the building of our community to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (creativity-pronounced KOO-OOM-BAH) to do as much as we can to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani (faith-pronounced EE-MAH-NEE) to believe with our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

OK...well...those aren't so bad. But, it hasn't existed for centuries. Hell, it hasn't even existed for half a century and it isn't even from Africa! Kwanzaa--a decidedly American holiday--was the brainchild of Ron N. Everett, who later took the name of Maulana Karenga.

Karenga created Kwanzaa on December 26, 1966. Kwanzaa isn't even forty years old.

In the early days of Kwanzaa--the 1970s--Kwanzaa was glorified and popularized in part by Rev. Al Sharpton. Karenga would have done it himself, but he was sitting in jail. What was his crime, you ask? Staging a sit-in? Organizing a protest? Civil disobedience of some sort? No...not quite.

On May 9, 1970 he initiated the torture session that led to his imprisonment. The torture session was described in the L.A. Times on May 14, 1971. "The victims said they were living at Karenga’s home when Karenga accused them of trying to kill him by placing crystals in his food and water and in various areas of his house. When they denied it, allegedly they were beaten with an electrical cord and a hot soldering iron was put in Miss Davis’ mouth and against her face. Police were told that one of Miss Jones’ toes was placed in a small vise, which then was tightened by the men and one woman. The following day Karenga told the women that ‘Vietnamese torture is nothing compared to what I know." Miss Tamao put detergent in their mouths; Smith turned a water hose full force on their faces, and Karenga, holding a gun, threatened to shoot both of them. The victims Deborah Jones and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothing."

Karenga was convicted of two counts of felonious assault and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced on Sept. 17, 1971 to serve one to ten years in prison. After being released from prison in 1975, he remade himself as Maulana Ron Karenga, went into academics, and by 1979 was running the Black Studies Department at California State University in Long Beach and converted to Marxism.

Marxism. Now, there's a concept that just screams of a "spiritual, festive and joyous celebration of life," huh? That just scratches the surface of Karenga, too.

I'm all for celebrating good things and respecting the beliefs of others, and I'm sure that Kwanzaa has good things about it. I'm all for new traditions and bringing people together. Their holiday is no more "real" than mine is, yet both are celebrated by people who believe in what the holiday stands for.

One thing is for sure, though. I definitely don't want to hear criticism anymore from people who can't believe that we teach kids about a man who comes and brings presents if they've been good. If people expect tolerance and acceptance for their holiday, then they should extend the same courtesy when it comes to mine or others.

Wishing someone a Merry Christmas, even if it's by accident, isn't a horrible thing and we shouldn't have to feel like we need to say "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" instead.

William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com

Posted by WilliamSmith on December 17, 2004 11:07 PM to Conservative Blogger