Port Apathy

We have been living though a very interesting time where people have demanded to all be treated equally. Just today I saw a map animation of the spread of democracy. It included ancient Greece and Rome. Of course, in ancient Greece and Rome they were an oppressive minority that ruled everyone else by democracy. Now it’s the majority that rules and we are better for it. However, sometimes the majority has special privileges that others don’t have just like a thousand years ago a select minority used to have special privileges.

Take the example of celebrating Christmas. This is something that most people celebrate for religious or secular/culture reasons, and sometimes both. Because it is traditional for the majority they have had the special privilege of having taxpayer money buy stuff and install it on public land. Of course it seems odd to have atheists, Muslims, Hindu, agnostics, pagans, and the other millions of people in North America pay for decorations that exclude them in places where they have to go to pay their taxes, get married, and see wrongs against them come to trail. Realizing this people have done one of two things: they have said ‘let’s not celebrate any particular religion because that’s not fair to the other religions or nonreligious people’ or ‘let’s celebrate everything, because that is fair.’

In 2007 the right-wing Christian group called the Alliance Defense Fund sued for the right to put a Christian manger in the state capital building. (Different link) This building probably had a Christian Christmas Tree in it for decades. At some point the people who decorate the capital building decided to be more inclusive of non-religious people by making it a ‘holiday tree’ and then added a menorah for religious and secular Jews. The Christians won the right to put a completely Christian display at the building which already had those two other seasonal displays. The ruling made it so that now anyone can put up religious or non-religious decorations in the building because that’s only fair. If you can put up some decorations you should be able to put up all decorations. And everyone was happy until a group of atheists did so.

On a side note, so many people are applying to get their stuff on the capital building that they have halted accepting new offers. (Different link)

Now an atheist group has put up a sign and Christians are upset and don’t want equal rights afforded to atheists groups as they are to non-atheists groups. They said, “it is time to chase out of the house of God all the unbelievers and evildoers,” which I find disturbing. (Different link) Atheists are not evil doers. At least, they are no more evil doers than Christians. The capital building is not a house of God, it is a house of the people. Being a house of the people the people should not be chased out. It doesn’t matter what their religious beliefs are.

But it’s tricky. Either you have to give everyone the right to put their nonsense (even atheist nonsense) on the capital building, or you let no one do it which means you take away the privilege that Christians have had for decades or hundreds of years. It disturbs me when people want extra privileges that they refuse to others. Remember the majority just won their freedom a few hundred years ago. And in the last hundred years minorities like different races or religions and other oppressed people like women have won their freedoms and rights. After all that hard won effort they want to take away rights and privileges that they have from other people? It is disturbing.