Dumb Rabbi and Idiot Managers

Rebecca sent me a link to a CNN.com article in response to my post about Christmas the other day. The article can be found here. I found it very interesting. First, in the secularization of Christmas and second in the notion that a rabbi can walk into an airport and demand something to be done and a) he is listened to, b) the management of the airport don’t have the experience to know when someone shouldn’t be listened to, and c) he was listened to. The dude was given some semblance of credibility and the airport management complied with his demands.

This is, in my opinion, akin to a little child walking up to his/her mother and demanding whatever he/she wanted and the mother complying in direct opposition to her knowing better. “I want a cookie.” Mom gets one. “I want to watch TV.” Mom turns it on. “I want to eat dessert first.” Mom complied. “I want candy.” Mom gets it. “I want…” “I want…” “I want…”

Granted, the example is relatively poor in that there are millions of children who scream and parents comply; but take the example one step further and the child saying, “I want to smoke.” “I want to drink alcohol.” “I want poison.” And the mom complying. In this case the mother would be charged, tried, and convicted of reckless endangerment and possibly accessory to murder if not murder in some degree because children don’t know any better and parents are meant to teach them the difference between good and bad and right and wrong and a parent who gives in to a child isn’t doing that.

And, “Yes,” this is parenting advice as much as it is a criticism against the airport managers who caved in on the rabbi.

I don’t know who the rabbi is, but I’d imagine he is probably young. And yes, it is a he. He is probably hot headed. And the outcome is that the rabbi made a series of uneducated and bad decisions and because the airport, for any length of time, allowed him to get away with it he will believe that he is inherently in the right the next time he goes somewhere and gets offended at something that isn’t meant to offend.

Do you get that? It’s a Happy Celebration of Christ and people are nitpicking over greetings and becoming offended at the notion that we need less religious significance and more secularization. This isn’t a season of buy lots of gifts. It is a season of love, peace, and joy. Those are religious elements. We may remove the reason for the season (Christ) from the picture, but the outcome is patience, tolerance, understanding, love, peace, and joy – or in the very least, the pursuit of them.