Women to become like knights in chess; leaping from square to square in search of safe space for abortions

There are those people with dreams that the Supreme Court of the United States is on the verge of striking down their 1973 ruling that made abortion of a pregnancy a legitimate medical procedure.

Queen the 'most powerful' chess piece, but women could become more like knight, hoping around the states looking for safe space when it comes to abortions

They fantasize that the overturning of the “Roe vs. Wade” court ruling will allow states to go back to the old days, so to speak, when a woman losing a child would be reason for a police investigation – to see if anyone did anything deliberate to cause the loss of a child.

WHICH ALSO MAKES these people the ones whose blood pressure shot sky-high Wednesday, when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act into law.

That’s the measure approved this spring by the General Assembly (the one that got Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton excommunicated from the Catholic Church by the bishop for Springfield).

It is the one that says any attempt to take down a woman’s right to end a pregnancy by her own choice at the national level won’t change things in Illinois. Because our state will remain one where the issue is perceived as a gynecological one – rather than something involving morals.

Of course, that enhances the concept that our nation is destined to become a chessboard, of sorts.

OUR NATIONAL MAPS will start to have versions where abortion is regarded as a health issue – as opposed to one where the police are called for whenever a pregnancy ends unsuccessfully.

Abortion restrictions continue to evolve into national chessboard effect

Think I’m kidding?

Take our own Midwest. We could wind up one of the most split regions of our nation when it comes to abortion policy.

For Illinois is establishing itself as a state where a woman can go, if she needs/desires the procedure. While our bordering states are becoming places eager to establish themselves as one where we call the cops on any woman who doesn’t view the creation of a new life as her most significant function on this planet.

OVER IN INDIANA, the state has a law requiring a fetus to receive a proper funeral (either through burial or cremation), which would create more of a hassle for women viewing an abortion as a way of getting out of an inconvenient pregnancy. The Supreme Court recently upheld that.

Whereas over in Missouri, one of the controversies of late is the fact that officials are refusing to renew the permits allowing Planned Parenthood to operate a clinic in St. Louis that includes abortion amongst the services it performs.

That clinic happens to be the only one anywhere in Missouri where a woman can get an abortion. Meaning the clinic in nearby Granite City, Ill., is now likely to become jammed up with women crossing the state lines so they can no longer be pregnant.

Whose choice should it be … 

The Mississippi River could become a boundary women will have to cross. So too could State Line Road – the street that literally separates Chicago from Hammond, Ind. AND Illinois from Indiana. Since our Hoosier neighbors have made it clear they also view abortion as something that ought to be a police matter.

WITH THAT STATE’S attitudes receiving national prominence because many of its efforts to restrict abortion access came about back when Vice President Mike Pence was Indiana governor – and he makes it clear he’s not only not repentant, he’s one of those who’s hoping all the Southern states (Alabama, Mississippi, etc.) pushing their own anti-abortion measures ultimately result in giving the Supreme Court an excuse to take down “Roe vs. Wade.”

… with regards to that potential for a baby inside?

It’s going to be the chessboard effect – with some 30 of the 50 states enacting laws intended to make abortion, if not a criminal act, one that is next-to-impossible to obtain. Women in places like Illinois, New York or California (or other states dominated by a sizable urban area) will have it, while those in more rural places will be like the knight in a game of chess – leaping over state lines to wind up somewhere where political people are more tolerant.

Even though there is evidence that many women everywhere are supportive of the notion that abortion is a medical issue – a recent poll for NPR and PBS found 63 percent think a woman who is raped or suffers from incest (which are criminal acts) ought to be able to end a pregnancy, while 86 percent think saving a woman’s life or health is sufficient reason.

While only 24 percent think that a doctor performing such an act is a criminal – with 71 percent opposed. Just one more bit of evidence on how out-of-touch the ideologues are when they spew their rhetoric about the, “cruel dehumanization of unborn Illinoisans on a mass scale.”

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EXTRA: The ‘good’ from the ‘satanic?’

“I’m here to separate the good Jews from the Satanic Jews.”
--Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam

  -0-

What does Farrakhan need Facebook for?

And he seriously wonders why Facebook would lump him in with assorted right-wing bigots in banning his use of their medium on the Internet to spread his thoughts?

The Minister Louis Farrakhan of the South Side-based “nation” doesn’t exactly need Facebook to spread his thoughts. As it turns out, Rev. Michael Pfleger of the St. Sabina church opened up his Gresham neighborhood facility to Farrakhan to publicly discuss the issue.

THAT EVENT WOUND up getting national news coverage – with many people putting links to those stories on their own Facebook sites.

Personally, I find it intriguing to listen to Farrakhan try to defend himself against claims he’s bigoted against Jewish people by making such a silly statement as he did.

How would he react to the ignorance occasionally expressed by white people that they differentiate between “good” black people and “bad” black people. Or, if we want to be blunt about it, they probably substitute some racial slur for “black people” while attaching the labels “good” and “bad.”

I’d argue that with that one line, Farrakhan confirmed the worst suspicions of the rancid rhetoric that often gets thrown out against him.

YES, I’LL CONCEDE the point that Farrakhan has the right to spew whatever nonsense he chooses to think. But he doesn’t get the right to have the absolute last word.

We, the people, have the right to think he’s a babbling buffoon for spewing such trash talk. If he thinks referring to “good’ Jews and “Satanic” Jews is going to win over any converts, he’s got to be kidding.

If anything, it would sink Farrakhan and his followers to something along the level of the local government officials of Hoschton, Ga. That’s the municipality where it was publicly disclosed recently that a man who applied for a city administrator job was rejected solely because he was black. With the town’s mayor saying her lily-white community “isn’t ready for this.”

Just as we’re quick to dump all over that municipality’s officials for thinking we’re still in 19^th Century “Jim Crow” style Dixie, rather than the 21st Century, we’re going to call out Farrakhan’s nonsense-talk – even if he has a “right” to think it! For that is the “American Way” truly at work.

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Taunting the taunters; or is intimidation really the all-American way of life?

By now, I’m sure everyone inclined to care (and probably even many who don’t care) have seen the photo of that smug teenager feeling compelled to taunt an American Indian activist who was partaking in a march to celebrate his culture.

Will this boy's image from Saturday become as well-known … 

The event was the Indigenous Peoples’ March that took place in Washington, D.C., and we’ve now seen the group of protesters from Catholic schools who felt compelled to have their anti-abortion protest at the same time and place.

WHICH RESULTED IN the confrontation that included students getting in the faces of those people wishing to celebrate their American Indian cultures. There even are the pictures of teens doing that silly Atlanta Braves-like gesture with the tomahawk – as though they are clubbing the activists and mocking their culture as well.

But the image that most will stick in the public mindset will be that of the kid wearing one of those Donald Trump-style red caps with his “Make America Great Again” slogan. Even though the way we’d really make this country great again would be to have the indigenous activists put a boot or two up the behind of every single one of these snot-nosed brats.

What bothers me the most is the fact that these kids claimed they were expressing themselves (which they have a right to do in our society) as some sort of religious gesture.

The Catholic school these kids attend, to their credit, has already denounced their conduct and hinted they could face some sort of official discipline for their garish behavior.

… as that of this teenage girl from mid-1950s Little Rock, Ark.?

BUT I SUSPECT these kids are going to grow up into adults who, on some level, will take great pride in the fact that they acted like a batch of twits. Perhaps on some level like all those Southern whites of some 60 years ago who protested against all those black Civil Rights activists.

Who may well have held their greatest contempt for those white people who sided with the blacks in their desire for equal treatment!

As much as many of us would like to think this Age of Trump is just a silly fad that will die off once the man is removed (one way or another) from the presidency, these kids are likely to grow into adulthood carrying on such attitudes.

Intimidation was the intent, both now and back then

They may well try to pass them along to future generations. They certainly are going to resent anybody who tries to remember them as behaving like a batch of brats this past weekend.

IT WAS TRULY an embarrassing sight for us to have to see such tacky behavior in public. Even though we’re officially going to regard it as such, there also will be many who will want to defend it.

As though they think they have a right to harass and intimidate those in our society who aren’t exactly like themselves.

So yes, I can comprehend that when it comes to racial and ethnic relations, things are better now than they were a half-century or so ago because we no longer have the letter of the law reinforcing the attitudes of the more ignorant amongst us.

Does this man who protested in Boston against school busing think using the flag as a weapon makes him a "real" American?

But there are those individuals determined to cling to the past, and take it on as some sort of crusade to restore the narrow-minded ideals of the past. Which may well be the most contemptable aspect of the Age of Trump – his existence gives those people aid and comfort to support their ignorance.

PARTICULARLY SINCE THE kids in question come from a Catholic school in Kentucky – meaning these kids made a special trip to the national capital and felt compelled to express their xenophobic hang-ups.

I guess they’ve never heard that old cliché about remaining silent and be thought of as a fool, rather than speaking out and removing all doubt. Then again, they probably think Mark Twain was just a guy who wrote a boring book they’re forced to read in English classes.

Which also makes me suspect they’re going to be inclined to think of Monday’s Martin Luther King, Jr., birthday commemorations as something that brings them mixed feelings.

They get an extra day out of school, but they’re not about to do anything meaningful to acknowledge their day off!

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Some in Catholic church want to attach “exorcism” label to homosexuality

An exorcism, of sorts, took place just last week in the Avondale neighborhood.

A 'Page One' controversy

There, officials with the Resurrection parish held a ceremony where they burned a decades-old banner; as part of their desire to express their opposition to homosexual behavior of any sorts.

THE BANNER THAT was burned is one that belongs to the church. It’s their own property, which means that the letter of the law says they can do what they want with it.

The banner is one that used to be prominently displayed in the church – it incorporates a Christian cross with a colorful rainbow. It most likely was intended to be a peaceful image. As in, “Love of Christ” and all that kind of talk.

But in today’s mentality, the ideologues determined to put a hostile spin on just about everything see a similarity between their banner (which had been in storage in recent years) and the multi-colored rainbow-motif flags that gay rights activists often unfurl on behalf of their own cause.

Which led church officials to hold the ritual of exorcism to chase the demonic influence away from their church building.

SERIOUSLY!

Church officials said they viewed their peaceful banner as having evolved into something by which pro-gay propaganda was trying to express itself within their allegedly hallowed halls.

To me, I can’t help but see the activity at Resurrection Church as bordering on grotesque. People with far too much free time on their hands trying to come up with yet more ways to taunt those who aren’t like themselves.

CUPICH: Being challenged by his priests

I’d be willing to dismiss it as too petty to be taken seriously, except that it seems these church officials are eager to look to their past to find ways of justifying their backward thoughts.

ALL THE MORE reason why I find the idea of “Make America Great Again” to be inherently false. I suspect these parishioners think they’re merely making their church ‘great again’ by seeking out absurdly-outdated ideology.

Then again, these people probably are the same ones going about wearing their red caps in hopes of intimidating others around them. It’s embarrassing that too many church officials have the same mentality of the schoolyard bully of old.

What scares me is that this rhetoric, which officially is being denounced by Chicago Archdiocese Cardinal Blasé Cupich, is too similar to the acts back in 2013, when the Bishop of the Springfield, Ill., Catholic diocese decided to express his opposition to then-Gov. Pat Quinn approving the law that made gay marriage legitimate in Illinois by holding an exorcism on behalf of the whole state.

Are we literally going to have church officials holding their ritual to chase the Satanic spirits they see around every corner? Which to the masses merely brings up tacky memories (Ragen’s head twisting completely around?) of that 1973 horror film, “The Exorcist.”

I SUSPECT THAT most people don’t understand a thing about what exorcism really was. Just as many people probably have the whole of their religious knowledge coming from scenes of the 1956 film “The Ten Commandments.”

Extent to which most comprehend exorcisms

Is actor Charlton Heston really their vision of a holy man?

My comprehension of exorcism is that it was often used in olden times as a way of dealing with ailments we now comprehend as evidence of mental illness. It’s not a process anybody turns to these days, unless they’re desperately determined to live in the past.

Although I suspect many of those who approved of the banner burning that took place last week are amongst those who would be grossly offended if the banner had been the Stars and Stripes, and who have holy-like visions in this Age of Trump when they think of our nation’s current commander-in-chief.

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Is Sept. 11 a date to unify us all, or a date for critics to ‘shut their pieholes’

It has been 17 years since that date when nut cases acting in an irrational way to show their Islamic religious faith staged their attack on the secular western world by inflicting damage upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

This became fish wrap in the coming days

That’s the way I recall the events of Sept. 11, 2001 – even though others are inclined to want to think in different ways to justify their own irrational hang-ups along religious and ethnic lines.

IN SHORT, THE bigoted amongst us in society want to remember the happenings of all those years ago as evidence that their warped way of thought is somehow correct; and that those of us who view life in a more rational manner somehow ought to pipe down and keep our crazy thoughts to ourselves

Yes, I remember the happenings of that day and the national mood that followed as a scary time, largely because it bolstered the level of absurdity that already existed in our society.

There were those people who claimed then (and still try to claim now) that our nation was unified – people put aside their partisan leanings and saw ourselves as one.

What actually happened is that the right-wing elements of our society (including many of those who have admiration for this Age of Trump we’re now in) became more outspoken in their thought process – and the rest of us felt a sense of intimidation.

IT’S AS THOUGH many people felt too scared to have thoughts of opposition and felt they needed, as actor Carroll O’Connor’s “Archie Bunker” character would often tell wife Edith, to “stifle” themselves.

The fact that many of us haven’t permanently silenced ourselves may be the ultimate evidence that the “terrorists” of Sept. 11 didn’t prevail. If they had, we probably would have become a nation of people where the majority of us currently agree with whatever irrational thoughts get spewed out via the current president’s Twitter account.

So when I think of all the happenings that will occur on Tuesday (most timed to coincide with 8:48 a.m. and 9:29 a.m. – the moments that day when the World Trade Center towers were struck by hijacked jet planes), to me the focus ought to be less on all the pseudo-military ritual that will take place.

Yes, there will be those who will gather at many a City Hall across the nation to watch uniformed police officers salute and national anthems be played out of some sense that we’re showing we weren’t beaten down by those people who wanted to show contempt for our society because it is a multi-cultural place.

BUT I’D BE inclined to argue that we’re really showing our survival as a society by supporting those of us who differ from the “norm,” or what certain people would like to think ought to be the norm for all of us to follow.

Yes, Sept. 11, 2001 was a date of confusion – many of us didn’t have a clue what was really happening. Our lives seemed thrown all out of kilter.

Yet from the perspective of a Chicagoan, what I recall was that many downtown businesses shut down for the day as the area evacuated. For the most part, life returned to as close to normal as people of certain ideological leanings tried to use the chaos to impose their own thoughts upon all of us.

Perhaps the last thing we ought to be doing is getting obsessed with minute details of pseudo-patriotism. Personally, I think the people who get all upset that someone didn’t show the proper degree of respect for singing a national anthem or reciting a Pledge of Allegiance are the ones who are a real threat to the freedoms upon which our society is supposed to be based.

NOT THAT I’M going to be offended by those of you who feel compelled to attend one of the many ceremonies being held Tuesday to remember what happened 17 years ago. If it makes you feel comfortable, the better for you.

Although you thinking that Tuesday is an excuse to force your thought processes on others – if you think about it, that’s a downright un-American concept to have.

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Death penalty proponents may view Papal pronouncements as fightin’ words

It has been a few hours since Pope Francis’ comments Thursday about the death penalty being “inadmissible” in all instances, and I’m still trying to figure out why anyone should view this as a radical change.

FRANCIS: Church to more actively oppose death

As a reporter-type person who has, on several occasions (although none since 2001 when the federal government put Timothy McVeigh to death), covered the process leading up to executions, one of the standard pieces of the story is that the Catholic Church is opposed.

THE POPE HIMSELF invariably will make statements about how cruel the concept is of putting someone to death as a form of criminal punishment. As though it is Homicide, committed in the name of Justice.

I know church officials I have spoken to have always tried to describe capital punishment as something obsolete – something that there’s just no need for in the modern-day world.

There are provisions in Catholic teachings that were taught in the past to justify an execution as a form of public protection. Meaning that the criminal in question was so violent and such a risk to society that putting the person to death was the only way to ensure that nobody else was hurt by his acts.

The governors who did away … 

Modern-day prisons and life-without-parole prison terms are considered sufficient protection – thereby eliminating the need to take away an individual’s life.

ONE THOUGHT I always was taught was that execution as a form of providing someone with vengeance for a criminal act was wrong – if not a sinful thought to have itself.

Almost as though someone who is eagerly awaiting another person’s execution ought to be making a trip to their priest to perform confession of their sin – and seek penance so as to avoid the pains someday of Hell and eternal damnation.

… with death penalty in Illinois, … 

But now, Pope Francis is proclaiming that execution “attacks” human dignity, even in those who have committed violent criminal acts. A thought that is not going to be a popular one amongst those who publicly proclaim their desire for more executions – and those who think that one of Illinois’ drawbacks is that we had the sense to do away with the state’s capital crimes statutes nearly a decade ago.

… and the governor who hints at bringing it back

To the point where Gov. Bruce Rauner’s political re-election strategy has included making pronouncements implying he’d like to see executions restored in this state (there hasn’t been an execution in Illinois since the 1999 date when Andrew Kokoraleis was put to death by lethal injection at the now-shuttered prison in Tamms).

IT WOULD SEEM that instead of papal pronouncements against execution every time a death row inmate comes close to an execution date, it’s now going to be an active part of Catholic teaching to publicly support abolition of execution.

Catholics are now going to have to become truly “pro-life” in their views on mankind and society, instead of using the label to define their opposition to abortion being a legal medical procedure.

As for those political people who happen to be Catholic, I know there are those who happen to think they’re obligated to follow their religious faith over all when it comes to abortion-related questions. There are some clergy who like to make overly public pronouncements of excommunication for any government official who doesn’t rigidly support viewing abortion as a criminal act.

Are we bound to see government officials now facing a conflict with regards to capital punishment? Or could this become the ultimate reason why we should view a government official’s religious faith as a personal view, rather than one controlling their public policy actions?

YOU’VE PROBABLY FIGURED out that my own leanings go against capital punishment. I was supportive back when Gov. George Ryan effectively ended the death penalty in Illinois (although there are those who view his actions as the most heinous of his record – more so than any of the offenses for which he was convicted and incarcerated), and thought it a good day when Gov. Pat Quinn signed the legislation that abolished the death penalty altogether.

GACY: For some, he didn't die painfully enough

I still remember the day I came to my leanings – it was May 10, 1994. That was the date John Wayne Gacy was put to death for the dozens of slayings of young men he committed in the 1970s.

I was at the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet when the execution was performed. There was nothing about the execution procedure that was particularly gruesome (Gacy essentially was put to sleep). But I was most offended by the sight of a trio of nuns and a priest who gathered at the prison to pray for Gacy’s soul – only to be harassed, jeered and taunted by the hundreds of people who gathered outside the prison to cheer on Gacy’s death.

A sight I suspect we’re going to see much more of in coming years as the Catholic Church attempts to show compassion for all of mankind.

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EXTRA: Will Chicago-based federal judge get Supreme Court appointment?

It seems there are those inclined to believe that a federal appeals court judge currently based in the Dirksen Building will soon be on her way to Washington for the (literal) job of a lifetime – an appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.

BARRETT: A Chicago-based Hoosier for high ct

Both of the Chicago metro newspapers on Friday went with the notion that Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a very real possibility for President Donald J. Trump to choose for the post that replaces Anthony Kennedy – who is retiring now that he’s reached his 80s in age.

BARRETT (WHOM SOME have taken to nicknaming the “Conenator” to try to make her sound tough) is far from being a part of the legal establishment of Chicago. She only got her judicial appointment last year (she’s only 46 now), and from none other than President Trump himself.

Meaning she’s someone who hasn’t had a chance to become “tainted” by being exposed to courts based in Chicago or dealing with attorneys who work her.

Just the perfect pick for someone with the mentality that everything in Chicago is somehow tainted. If anything, it would be Trump’s way of delivering a smack across the forehead to the establishment of this city.

He literally picks someone who, in terms of seniority, is at the bottom (or close to it) of judges who work in Chicago and offers her the post of being on the court that ultimately oversees the nation’s whole legal system.

THE FACT THAT she’s Catholic, but part of the People of Praise group that integrates elements of other religious faiths that hard-core Catholics would think of as blasphemous, likely makes her all the more appealing to the kind of people who want Trump (an extremely vocal minority of our society) to stack the Supreme Court in ways that will last for decades. While scaring those senseless those who care about abortion or women in general.

For the record, Barrett isn’t one of those judges who came out of Chicago-Kent or DePaul law schools and likely has little ambition beyond their judicial post in Chicago. She’s a graduate of Notre Dame, a long-time faculty member of the law school, and still lives in South Bend, Ind.

Some wonder if her religious faith is so intense that she’s bound to use it to influence her on any future high court ruling that regards Roe v. Wade – the Supreme Court case of more than four decades ago that legitimized abortion and which some are determined to have the court overturn.

I’m sure on a certain level, a Barrett appointment (if it really happens) would be Trump at his most sarcastic and cynical. Particularly if it puts someone with Indiana roots in a position of overseeing Chicago and Illinois.

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Our Father, who art in Heaven, stop our governments from screwing up so bad

The political stink that has arisen over whether Patrick J. Conroy should be serving as chaplain for the House of Representatives makes me wonder what purpose truly is served by the prayers that many government entities feel compelled to have to begin the hearings at which they do their business.

CONROY: Soon to be replaced?

Conroy is a Jesuit priest who has held his Capitol Hill role since 2011.

HE’S THE GUY who was asked by soon-to-be former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to resign the post. Conroy initially complied with that request, but he has since rescinded his resignation – that was to take effect May 24.

News reports indicate that Ryan wanted to replace Conroy because his public prayers were taking on political overtones. As in perhaps he was implying that God was NOT on the side of the Republican majority that now runs Congress and tries to offer its support to the president in this Age of Trump that we’re now in.

For what it’s worth, the fact that members of Congress of both major political parties have been critical of replacing Conroy may well be a sign that the priest is doing something right in the way he handles his duties.

Which, in all honesty, are meant to get House sessions off to a pleasant start – as if in having a holy mood in place, the political people may wind up behaving in a less-cantankerous manner.

These are NOT holy shrines, ...

BUT FOR SOME people, they wind up causing even more offense. Some, because they want to believe only their particular religious denomination is worthy of being heard.

Meaning they’re going to find something worthy of personal offense in any prayer given by someone other than their own personal clergyman.

I think that having a prayer prior to a government meaning merely creates the opportunity for offending a vast majority of people. And also creates a false impression that the Lord somehow endorses government activity.

From having been a reporter-type person covering government activity at many levels throughout the years, I think much of their conduct borders on reprehensible. It makes me think that if there is an afterlife, it is the politicians who will wind up having to pay some form of penance. They’ll have to earn their way into Heaven for all the sinful acts they’re committing now.

... no matter how much some of us dream they are

AND AS FOR those who want their particular religious denomination dominating any public prayer, I’d say this is using religious belief as a way of playing partisan politics. An act I truly find offensive.

I’d like to think God doesn’t take sides on some of the stupid political battles that occur any more than he cared that the Chicago Cubs finally quit their inept ways to win the World Series two years ago.

I know from my experience of sitting through so many thousands of prayers prior to watching government business, I actually enjoyed the practices of suburban Lansing. The southern Cook County village has some two dozen churches in their municipality, and they rotated the prayer duty around equally.

Meaning that roughly every two years, each church would get its turn to have its head clergy on display.

I ALSO REMEMBER covering the Illinois General Assembly where the opening prayers were usually given by hometown clergy of the individual legislators; which created a sense of variety as some were entertaining while others were just so deadly dull.

RYAN: Talk about a government gaffe!

Or perhaps there’s the way of the Cook County Board, where I recall it was not uncommon to have two or three clergy at a board meeting on hand for the duty.

That would allow a variety of faiths and denominations to have a chance to express themselves in a moment of reflection to ask God to make sure our political people don’t screw everything up for us.

Which, if you come right down to it, is usually the theme of every prayer conducted right before a government hearing commences, regardless of where or when it is held.

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Should “Happy Hanukkah” be used as weapon against those who assault us with hostile holiday greetings?

Whenever I encounter one of those types of people who insists on using “Merry Christmas!” as a form of cultural intimidation, there’s a part of me that is tempted to turn to my step-mother for a retort.

Chicago's public menorah from five years ago can create split reactions, regardless of its actual intent. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

As in every “Merry Christmas” I hear coming from someone who is inclined to take Donald Trump’s “War on Christmas” rants seriously, I’d respond with a fake cheery “Happy Hanukkah!”

I DON’T ACTUALLY do that in part because it strikes me as tacky to use my step-mother’s religious faith to score political partisan points against the nitwits of our society. It would make me no better than those who want to use “Merry Christmas” as a weapon.

I bring this up because the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah actually began Tuesday night and will continue into next week.

And with my step-mother being Jewish (my father is a late-life convert), it means the time of year to recall the survival of the Maccabees in the face of elements of society that would just as soon have seen them exterminated is once again upon us.

Now in my own family, the little kids are growing up. So there’s not as much pressure any more to indulge my nieces and nephews with lots of presents so that they don’t feel cheated compared to their school friends for whom Christmas is the thing!

Do people notice holiday decorations when passing through the airport en route to a sunnier locale?

IN FACT, IN my parents’ household, most of the eight days will be marked with the lighting of the candles, a prayer in Hebrew, and little else.

There will be one night of various relatives coming over to the household for something of a party – whose primary purpose it will seem like is consuming the potato pancakes referred to as latkes.

Gary, Ind., govt. brightens their chambers

Much of this, I’ll admit, is lost on me. I was baptized many decades ago by a Catholic priest and personally haven’t felt any need to change.

But that isn’t held against me. I’m likely to be included in any celebration as we recall the old story of how a Godly miracle enabled the Maccabees’ oil intended to last one night actually kept their lamps lit for eight nights.

THE REASON WHY the menorahs include eight branches in their candelabrums – and why a fully-lit menorah has the potential to be a fire hazard if the celebrants get too clumsy.

All of which has just enough of a solemn effect on me to refuse to use “Happy Hanukkah” as a retort to the less-than-solemn “Merry Christmas” talk I have heard in recent days. I’d like to think I’m better than those people who want to turn the Christmas holiday and the birth of Christ that it celebrates into a weapon touting the omnipresent existence of Trump that they’d like to impose on our society.

Because I know it would be the perfect retort in that it would force those ideologues whose use of religious symbolism to tout their beliefs borders on being as offensive as the Ku Klux Klan’s uses of the cross to tout their own racist rants to have to acknowledge that theirs is NOT the only holiday in this winter season.

While I’ll be the first to admit that some of the efforts to equate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa (don’t forget the “aa” at the end) and whatever other festival one can dream up do become absurd, I’ve never felt the need to tout my own thoughts over everybody else’s.

LARGELY BECAUSE I have viewed much of religious-inspired thought as a personal one. It is something we ought to be celebrating internally.

There’s nothing wrong with sharing. But feeling the need to force one’s thoughts or celebration on others just seems wrong.

Just as it can be confusing at times when someone feels the need to say “Merry Christmas” to every single person they encounter. Are they just overly cheerful? Or are they making a politically-partisan statement that requires a retort?

Quite honestly, I resent having to try to interpret every holiday greeting to figure out if the call for sharing and celebration is more intended as an excuse to act as society’s religious-motivated bullies.

  -30-

Should we respect people who want to use “Merry Christmas” as a weapon?

I have my own reasons for being upset with President Donald J. Trump and his attempt recently to use the upcoming winter holidays as another weapon in his ideological war for the mood of the nation.

Would the Macy's department store on State Street offend the presidential sensibilities for winter holiday celebrations. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda

It’s that Trump is just as guilty of watering down the Christmas spirit as those people he thinks he’s lambasting.

FOR TO ME, part of the problem with people losing the meaning or point of the Christmas holiday is that we start taking up its trappings so early. We’re not even at Halloween yet, but there are some people already preparing for the onslaught of Santa Clauses, reindeer and snowmen.

Trump, by bringing up this issue so early, is just as bad!

It’s too early to be thinking about Christmas, particularly since it’s still too early to be giving the Thanksgiving holiday much regard.

That bothers me just as much as the fact that he’s trying to turn the concept of “Merry Christmas” into a weapon that people hurl at those who happen not to share in their beliefs.

SOMEHOW, I CAN’T help but think the true concept of the birth of Christ, with all the significance it carries to those of Christian religious faiths, is grossly disrespected by using such an image to taunt other people.

Does the holiday menorah in Chicago have to go in a Trump-inspired world?

For the record, Trump made his holiday-related rant to a gathering of the Values Voter Summit, put together by the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. He let it be known he’s all for “stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values,” which is how he wants to perceive those people who use “Happy Holidays” as an all-purpose greeting to accommodate everybody’s particular winter holiday.

Odd that an attempt to include everybody is somehow seen as a taunt by those who want their own perceptions to prevail over all in our society, and our society to dominate over all that exist on this Planet Earth.

Sufficient religious display for people about to embark on airline flights?

Which makes me wonder if life is ever found to exist on other planets throughout the galaxy, will the people in support of this Age of Trump that we’re now in try to start up a crusade to ensure that alien races acknowledge and properly worship the so-called superiority of Donald J. Trump?

THE WHOLE EFFORT sounds absurd when you put it in those terms. Then again, absurdity has never stopped the Trump types from spouting out their latest ridiculous rhetoric.

Including the president’s own desire to make “Merry Christmas” a priority. Will this rank up equally with making sure those ingrate pro football players stand at attention during the National Anthem? Or is that article in The New Yorker where Trump criticizes Vice President Mike Pence evidence that he's already moved on to something else?

Does it all mean that Trump has the attention span of a gnat, and has become bored with that issue and needs a constant influx of confusion and mayhem to keep himself amused?

Sufficient holiday adornment for our govt. buildings?

The whole while ignoring the real problems that confront our society and our planet. Which he probably thinks of as boring details that could better be delegated to someone else so he’ll have time for another Mar-A-Lago-style weekend with golf.

BUT BACK TO the Christmas crusade, which may also be an effort at misdirection on the part of Trump, who was getting some criticism for even attending the gathering of religious-oriented individuals.

Trump is the first U.S. president to ever attend the group’s gatherings, and some activist-types were quick to point out that many of the people inclined to attend were those who use their religious beliefs to justify their white supremacist attitudes towards life.

As in “God Hates You” because you’re not a white Southern male – an attitude I have trouble accepting as being a part of any legitimate religious faith.

Just as I can’t believe that anybody seriously believes in using “Merry Christmas” as their winter holiday weapon of choice, when the attitude they’re really expressing with such talk is something more along the lines of, “Bah, Humbug!”

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Who’s kidding whom – protesters probably wish for ‘Sharia’ law in U.S.!

There were all those protests by right-wing nitwits held all across the country, including in Chicago on Saturday, to try to take up the cause of “Sharia Law.”

This sentiment not popular amongst protesters

Those are the provisions of law in many Muslim nations that are motivated by the Islamic faith, and not by man. They are the ones that often call for brutal physical punishments for those who violate what is perceived as “God’s word.”

SO I’M SURE the protesters, put together by a group calling itself Act for America, want us to believe they have grand noble intentions in terms of looking out for the rights of individuals who often suffer under such regimes from tyrants who claim they’re doing “God’s will” with their brutality.

Yet I can’t help but be skeptical of these socially conservative types, many of whom have as their real desire the intent to undermine the concept that we have freedom of religion and expression in this country.

They want to spew their rhetoric to stir up resentment against the Islamic religious faith because it isn’t their own faith. And they have the unmitigated gall to do so while waving about the stars and stripes and other symbols of our own nation – even though much of what they spew is “un-American” in its underlying principles.

I really do believe that these people probably wish that Christianity had similar provisions that could be a part of our own law and would impose equally-harsh punishments against people who aren’t exactly like themselves.

MY OWN VIEW of “Sharia law” and of the way many governments in Middle Eastern nations operate is that they are examples of the bad that can occur when one permits religion to have too much influence over the daily operations of a government.

They ought to be the ultimate reason why our society is superior for having a Constitution that does not provide for a national religion and, in fact, gets interpreted by the courts in various ways to ensure that religion does not have too much influence over our daily lives.

Which it shouldn’t, unless by chance we make individual choices to allow it to influence ourselves in such a way. It certainly shouldn’t be permitted to allow people to influence the way others think and behave.

So those right-wing nut-jobs who felt compelled to take to the streets and claim they were sticking up for “our” values and what “we” as a people stand for?

WHO’S KIDDING WHOM?

I found it reassuring to read the reports from Saturday indicating that counter-demonstrators outnumbered these crackpots by a significant ratio. The people who felt the need to stick up for real rights of people rather than the ones who want to look out for themselves and torment others are the ones worthy of our praise.

It wasn’t just limited to Chicago. I understand that in many cities, there were counter-demonstrations that outnumbered the conservative ideologues.

I also got a kick out of learning from a one-time reporter-type counterpart of mine who now works in Indianapolis that the Hoosier city had an Indy Pride parade that occurred the same day as the crackpots’ event. Which I’m sure infuriated them even more than anything associated with Sharia Law.

WE’RE IN AN “Age of Trump” in which the ideologues amongst us want to believe they are the majority – they keep hearing that “silent majority” phrase and want to take it literally. They want to believe their 46 percent really means most of us.

Seeing that sensible people keep prevailing may be a sign that our society has the ability to unite in ways that keep the crackpot element from going too far in trying to drag us all down their own depressing path in life.

Personally, I suspect that if many of these types who gathered to protest Islam were to ever meet up with the hard-liners of the Middle East who tout Sharia Law, they’d probably find they have much in common. Such as a desire to be able to torment those unlike themselves.

Just like I used to think that many of the “hard hat” types of our society had much in common with the Communists of old in terms of a willingness to believe there was nothing wrong with a totalitarian society that accepted the repression of personal rights and freedoms.

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