Dear Editor:
Re: Christmas hasn't vanished, The Record, Letters to the editor, by Jim Cowan
Mr. Cowan: In response to your opinion of my letter to the editor, I fear you have missed the point.
The point of my letter was that the Dutch community is upset about the cancellation of the Sinterklaas parade (Dec. 6) due to the Zwarte Piet character and the perceived racist overtones to that character. You noted that you were sympathetic to the issue but got lost in the fact that Christmas was not Christmas anymore.
My intention was not to raise the issue of the word and idea of "Christmas" losing ground to the "politically correct" term "holidays" as in "holiday trees, "holiday cards" and "happy holidays" or the term "the season" as in "season's greetings" or the "seasonal holiday." However, you must see that Christmas is slowly losing ground so that we may appease people from other cultural backgrounds who may not believe in Christian themes yet still want to take advantage of the "Christmas" season (i.e. the presents, the great shopping bargains, the statutory holiday, etc. etc. etc.).
My point was that a cultural tradition (albeit a European tradition) is being attacked by people that do not or will not understand the history behind the tradition. Your seemingly endless points of argument of the "words" used for Christmas did not make your point any stronger, you simply suggest that the commercialism of "Christmas" is what will keep it alive and thriving instead of the actual idea of Christmas and what it actually represents. You did note that there were churches celebrating "Christmas," but alas that is what is expected of churches, imagine a church having a "holiday service" or a "seasonal service" - that really would be something, wouldn't it?
The Sinterklaas event is (was) a community event for people of northern European descent, it is a time-honoured and cherished event to those of us that participated in it, and for someone who must also have their own cultural traditions to object to us having ours, is an unfortunate shame and is more proof that the "political correctness machine" is taking over all the traditions that we have held, do hold and will hold so dear to our hearts.
If there was any confusion on your part of the suggested nature of my letter, then please understand that "Christmas" was not the targeted topic of my letter, the targeted topic was the cancellation of the time-honoured Sinterklaas parade and the suggested "racist" overtones thereof.
To you, Mr. Cowan: Merry Christmas and, as we say in Holland, Prettige Kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!
Roland van Kaauwen, Surrey
