Posted by Bob301 at dialup-171.75.6.219.dial1.phoenix1.level3.net on July 05, 2003 at 05:42:37:
In Reply to: So what did everyone do for the 4th? posted by shitty speller...DEAL WITH IT! on July 05, 2003 at 02:23:35:
One of my pet peeves is the gradual renaming of holidays because people are alzy or ignorant (I'm not saying you are). I hate those damn X-Mas signs. I think, if you're going to have a holiday to remember something or someone, it's pretty damn stupid to rename the holiday. And that's what those signs are gradually doing: making it okay to refer to a holiday as something other than what it is intended to remind us of. Where is Christ in that X? Does the letter Xbring to mind loving and caring, sharing and warmth? To me, the letter X carries connotations of the unknown. It's like when you are writing somehting out and don't know a quantity, you would write 'X amount'. Maybe it brings to mind filling out forms. 'Put an X in the correct box' or 'Sign by the X'. It certainly doesn't make me think happy thoughts.
Independence Day has fallen to this same abuse. Independence Day is not like Cinco de Mayo, which is the name of the Mexican holiday. It has it's own name, and it's name is supposed to remind us of the Declaration of Independence; we should remember the ideals set forth in that proclomation: All men are equal, we all have inalienable rights, and no one should live under tyranny and oppression. Independence Day is celebrated to make people think about the past, about the battles fought and the lives lost in order to gain the lifestyle we have today. We should not be concerned only of picnics, barbeques, and fireworks. Even if that is all we can think of on this day, we owe it to our forebears (that's a pretty haughty word (shit, did it again)) to at least remember them in name, if not in spirit. I think we should reclaim the title Independence Day from Hollywood; when we think Independence Day, we should think of freedom, not Jeff Goldbloom and Will Smith and crazy megalomaniacal, tentacled alien assholes who killed Data. But then, that's just my two cents.
Who knows, maybe Thanksgiving will soon be called The Fourth Thursday, or Presidents' Day will be just called "The Third Monday'. The will, of course, be shortened over time, so we'll celebrate X-Mas, the Third, and the fouth twice. So goes the deterioration of the English language. Oh well, it's not that great anyway.