I stole that term from an episode of Sex and the City, to be honest, but today I am finding that term living all around me in spades.
Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, and while I'm far from Jewish I do know it's a time of fasting and repenting, and supposedly a day for going to Temple to reflect, connect and support. But what I typically see is something else entirely; scores of people, Jewish mostly in theory, who take a nice paid day off and do f**k-all, as the Brits say. I find this offensive on two levels.
First, because it took a great deal of struggle by generations past for the Jewish high holidays to be honored in such a way and I think it's blatantly disrespectful to walk away from those traditions under the guise of observing them. Generally, I see lots of Jewish people heading home early with a smirk, knowing damn well that tomorrow they'll be shopping or skiving in some way. If you were raised Jewish and have so little respect or connection to that path that you don't even observe the HIGH holidays, then go to work. And don't call yourself a Jew. Seriously. This is like the alleged Christians who can possibly be bothered to attend church only at Christmas and Easter, but even that is becoming more of a rarity. And I understand that being a true Christian or Jew is about more than Temples and churches, but if you are going to enjoy the hard won benefits of paid days off of work, at least honor your ancestry and path. If you stay home, you could easily be fasting and praying there as well.
My second objection is that the only religions honored with paid holidays for observance in this country are, to my knowledge, Christianity and Judaism. In a country allegedly founded on the principals of religious freedom of expression and becoming a melting pot, I find this hypocritical at best. Within my small building at home I can see at least 5 different religions present and the fact that most of us are forced to decide between working on our holy days or taking off and being docked pay or hours is ludicrous and insulting.
For those of you that do enjoy the national recognition of your holy days by honoring the day appropriately, I salute you. I know my boss and his lovely wife will be hungry and tired tomorrow but they WILL be at Temple. I would like to see the day where Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Pagan holy days are given equal respect and observance. The idea that government or corporate America gets to judge and decide which religions are "serious", legitimate or worthy enough for such recognition is completely disgusting, and exactly the sort of behavior this country was supposed to be rescuing us from when we took it from the Native Americans.
Interesting.
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