The Word #3 Holidays (originally aired 12/23/08)

Hello, Von Erich here, and this week, the word is "holidays". Very appropriate for this time of year. I'm sure everyone has been hearing it lately, happy holidays, or have a nice holiday. But my question remains the same, which holiday? The definition of holiday is 'a day set aside to celebrate a particular event'. In this instance that holiday is Christmas, a day when gifts are exchanged in remembrance of the three wise men bearing gifts after the birth of Christ. That seems harmless enough. I dont see how people would be afraid to offend anyone by using the word- Christmas. Anyways, this country was built on offending others. Did President Andrew Jackson worry about offending anyone when he sent all Native Americans westward on the trail of tears? Did business owners in the late 19th Century worry about offending people when they hung signs in the front of their shops that read Irish need not apply? Or did our government worry about being offensive when they, during WWII, they placed Asians in Containment Camps in Southern California and it didnt matter if they were of Japanese descent? But I say thats fine, I will have a nice holiday. But dont dare be offended when on MLK JR. day, Passover, Valentines Day, or Cinco De Mayo, I wish you a merry 'holiday'. This has been Von Erich and may God have mercy on us all.