Pubdate: Thu, 03 Jan 2008
Source: Sandusky Register,The (OH)
Copyright: 2008 The Sandusky Register
Contact:  http://www.sanduskyregister.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1307
Author: Rick A. Mullins

DECLARE WAR ON STUPID WARS

It's that time of year again to declare the war of  "them against 
us". We have the war on drugs, the war on  terror, and like every 
year for so many years it's hard  to keep track, we have the 
perennial war on Christmas.  This is the war where a vocal minority 
of extremist Christians, threaten to boycott those businesses 
that  don't commercialize Christmas in the way that those  extremists 
demand they do.

They insist, "You will say Merry Christmas instead of  Happy 
Holidays, or we will destroy you financially!"  My, how Christian.

The war on drugs has failed because you can never jail  every drug 
user and expect the problem to go away.  Legitimate studies show that 
education and counseling  is cheaper and works better than draconian 
punishments  every time. The war on terror is being used by 
some  fear mongering politicians as a way to infringe on  liberty and 
to pump tax dollars into the military  industrial complex 
corporations. Despite the Bush  administration's claim that police 
actions are inferior  to the military option, except for Iraq, every 
single  terror attempt thwarted to date, worldwide, has been  stopped 
by police investigations and actions, not the  military.

As for the War on Christmas, the majority of decent  Christians are 
aware that December is literally packed  with the celebrations of 
many different faiths and are  capable of sharing the holiday season.

For those few Christians who yearly declare they are  fighting a war 
on Christmas and wave their credit cards  in the air like swords of 
doom, I ask one thing -- at  what point do you actually begin to 
practice what Jesus  preached?

I think it's about time intelligent Americans revolted  against 
misplaced efforts, fear-mongering, and  selfishly childish hysterics 
and religious bullying. I  propose a war on stupid wars.

Rick A. Mullins

Norwalk
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