Saturday, August 30, 2003 2:47 p.m.

A Jewish Christmas and other weird political views I never knew I had

(note: seeing as how I was without internet for over a week, this entry was written yesterday, but just now added)

I really miss the internet. I�m so ready for some type of routine to begin. I�m ready to take advantage of all those opportunities I came out here for. I�m sick of being cooped up in this same apartment, the pile of things-still-left-to-do staring me in the face. I think I�m also ready to get to know other people than just my roommates.

We got into our first roommate �discussion� today, over religious holidays. The Jewish roommate doesn�t want to celebrate Christmas, and told us all about how hard it is to be a Jew during the Christmas season. Which confuses the HECK out of me because she claims to not be a religious person, yet seems to take so much offence at a holiday which has origins of a Christian holiday. I do realize that I don�t know exactly what it�s like to be a Jew during this time, but I don�t understand the bitterness�I enjoy Christmas. I don�t enjoy it because is an �insult� to other religions, hell, I don�t even think of it as a religious holiday anyways! Sure, you can celebrate it from a Christian angle, but you can also celebrate it from a completely non-religious, atheistic angle. Gingerbread men, Santa, snow, Christmas trees, caroling, etc. have nothing religious about them. I can understand if you choose not to take part in nativity celebrations if you do not believe in the religious symbolism involved in them, but I see absolutely no reason for the bitterness towards everything about the Christmas season. Especially if you are not even a religious person, why do you get so upset and passionate about celebrating your religion�s holiday (Hanukkah) and blocking out all the other �religious� celebrations? How can you say that any religion (including yours) is better than any other? Can�t you just accept that you choose to celebrate differently than everyone else without trying to conform their thinking to yours??

I think this has really touched a nerve with me, although I�m not outwardly showing it. I guess I maybe have a lot of Southern conservatism in me. But the main problem I face is that people from up north or even here out west seem to think that their ways are right over everyone else�s. They refuse to try and understand other viewpoints, yet think that they are already so �open-minded� and �diverse� and �benevolent� toward us �poor, uneducated, deluded, conservative folk� that they overlook the possibility of truth existing outside their own. I�m excited about this city for the freedoms it presents, yet worried that I am not free to think as I do. If I am not willing to think that everything is ok and everyone discovers their own truth, then my thoughts are not welcome here.

(p.s. and please don�t think that I�m just stereotyping Northerners as liberals, because even though I am, I�m also stereotyping Southerners as conservatives. I�m just generalizing, so play along�)

I am too liberal for the conservatives, yet too conservative for the liberals.

Homosexuality. I do not believe it is a natural, �I was born this way� type of thing. I believe it is a choice one makes due to various influences in their lives. I cannot sit here and tell you that it is wrong or evil or bad, because I do not posses the all-knowing ruler with which to judge these things. I am not homophobic; however, the only thing that makes me uncomfortable is their attitude that they couldn�t help their sexual preference and that they are right and that the whole rest of the world is wrong not to agree.

Abortion. I think there was a time when this whole issue was milked to death, but it�s still important. I am practically pro-choice, and do not think the option of abortion should be illegal. However, I find it very, very odd that the same people who fight so hard for abortion, also fight so hard for the abolishment of the death penalty. Both demonstrate a human�s power to legally end another�s life. One because of a crime they committed, one because of an inconvenience they present. Abortion, to me, seems more cruel than the death penalty, yet I cannot find it in me, for some odd reason, to say that women shouldn�t have that choice. I consider myself pro-choice, but pro-life.

I feel like I should go ahead and add a third political view because things always seem to go better in threes. But I just realized how long this entry was getting and how passionate I�m getting about these useless things which I�m not going to be able to change anyways.

But still, this is going to be an interesting city, Los Angeles. Or maybe I just have interesting views. It�s amazing how this whole liberal/conservative, North/South battle still, and always will, rages.

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