The political uses of Christmas as an American triumphalist holiday is what I'm talking about. The ways it is being tied to the 'military mission' on television, for instance. All the local TV stations, on the nightly news, show soldiers serving overseas sending "holiday greetings" to loved ones back home. There is a nightly news story about military families. The Marines running "Toys for Tots" campaigns in full military dress uniform in front of the TV cameras.

One of the media messages we were talking about that sparked the comment comparing the American Christmas holidays with Northern Irish loyalist marching season, was the militarization of the holiday, and the not so subtle message that it is unpatriotic not to celebrate the American Christian holidays.

We secularists are certainly getting that message loud and clear every night on our local nightly news, and when we read the American Christian moral outrage stories of banning nativity displays and Christian Christmas hymns from the public schools.

As secular public educators opposed to American military imperialism, we definitely feel under siege this time of year, but especially this year, in the wake of Bush's victory, and the complete media blackout on stories like US torture of prisoners of war, failure to challenge things like the Medals recently awarded to the three men who were architects of the failed Iraq invasion and occupation strategy by Bush, etc.