Holiday’s origin ignored in letter

The Nov. 25 Daily Herald included USA Weekend as a supplement, and a feature of that supplement was “The 2011 Obama Holiday Letter” written by President Barack Obama for consumption by the general public. Although this letter was warm, and although its wishes seemed genuine, I found the piece somewhat disturbing.

The media and many politicians regularly tell us folks here in “flyover country” that Obama is just about the smartest person ever placed on earth. If that is true, then isn’t it quite astonishing that the president could write this lengthy “holiday” missive without once writing the words Christian, Jesus, Jesus Christ or Christmas in it? I guess that he never got the memo that revealed that “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

The national holiday is, in fact, Christmas; and it is the celebration of the birth of Christ on Christmas Day that spawned these holidays for which the president wishes us well. It just might have been nice if these facts were acknowledged by our national leader in his “Family Holiday Letter.”

I know, of course, that Team Obama is just practicing more of that politically correct nonsense that has been so corrosive to our society. He is certainly not alone in this practice. But, had the president mentioned Christmas or the birth of Christ, I believe that it would have in no way diminished or offended Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, those who celebrate Kwanzaa, or others whose religious holidays may occur around Christmas. Heck, in his letter, the president could have acknowledged the faith traditions of those folks as well. It’s just silly to pretend that the “holidays” don’t have their origins in Christmas, and doing so makes our president look silly, too. Merry Christmas.

Charles F. Falk

Schaumburg