Note: I posted this item last year two weeks before Christmas. It was just brought again to my attention. I think it's still wonderful. Hope you enjoy it as well!
A friend sent this little speech in an email. I enjoyed it and thought I would pass it along. I checked it out on Snopes and it is legitimate.
Ben Stein
Ben Stein was born to American Jewish parents and grew up in the neighborhood Woodside Forest in Silver Spring, Maryland. He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School, where his classmates included journalist Carl Bernstein and actors Goldie Hawn and Sylvester Stallone. He went on to major in economics at Columbia University's Columbia College.
He graduated with honors in 1966, and then enrolled in Yale University Law School, graduating as the valedictorian in 1970.
If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.
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The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on a CBS Sunday Morning Commentary............
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few
confessions from my beating heart: I have no
freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them
on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am
buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask
the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know
who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will
it change my life if I know who they are and why
they have broken up? Why are they so important?
I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do
not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee
and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just
have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.
If this is what it means to be no longer young.
It's not so bad.
Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors
was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little
bit when people call those beautiful lit up,
bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel
threatened. I don't feel discriminated against.
That's what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry
Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting
me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact,
I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers
and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It
doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger
scene on display at a key intersection near my beach
house in Malibu If people want a crèche, it's
>>just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred
yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a
Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting
pushed around for being Christians. I think people
who believe in God are sick and tired of getting
pushed around, period. I have no idea where the
concept came from that America is an explicitly
atheist country. I can't find it in the
Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the
idea come from that we should worship Nick and
Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we
understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
But there are a lot of us who are wondering where
Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we
knew went to.
3 comments:
That is good.
Hmmm. Seems rational to me - one who is more than a little bothered by the religion of shallow pop-culture. But I do think that a Jew (or a Christian or a [insert religious affiliation here]) who has experienced scorn or discrimination because of his/her religion might not be so calmly neutral and unbothered by bold displays of holiday/religious preference.
I like the Thoreau quote.
I’ve been working more and more on the development of my “professional” photography business, trying to learn the technical stuff I should know, developing a line of postcards and greeting cards, and trying to get organized. As a result, blogging has been on the back burner.
I think of you, now and then sneak a quick look at your blog and what’s happening in your life, but for the most part I haven’t been doing a lot of reading or commenting. It’s probably time for me to take a break and come back when I can spend reasonable time visiting as well as writing.
Thank you for sharing glimpses of your life with me, have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and I hope to “see you” soon!
Wiz’d Wiz’d
Hi Becca - In response to your comment on my blog, I guess I am thinking that a person who has experienced discrimination might be more easily threatened by its possibility. Would they be more tolerant of others? My guess is - again, just my guess - that people who have suffered discrimination might be less apt to impose that pain on others. But then there's the whole reality of revenge... Maybe I am guilty of over-generalizing. We humans are certainly capable of a range of behaviors; at our best (and most tolerant) we are great, but we probably are the worst form of living beings when we are mean-spirited.
Interesting thought on those taking the "high moral ground" while scorning a belief in God. (I hope you aren't seeing me in that way). I do certainly scorn those who claim to be religious but are intollerant of others or exhibit other bad behavior.
One of mankind's biggest problems is communication. If we say what we feel and what we believe in our hearts - without bringing Allah or Jesus or Zeus etc. into it, we might transcend the labels and the symbols and all get along better.
Sheesh! I should be packing! I didn't intend to wax philosophical! May I end this by saying that I have known people of many religions (as well as atheists and agnostics) who are kind, wonderful, thoughtful, good people; and I've met some stinkers in each category.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Becca.
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