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Will there be a real move some day to Cancel Christmas?

October 25th, 2009 Rocco Martino No comments

Will there be a real move some day to Cancel Christmas and all other holidays, including Thanksgiving, that have any connection to religion?  Could it happen?  In this novel the attempt is made because it would increase profit by eliminating Christmas vacation pay.  In real life, the notion of a religious occasion being sanctioned as a public holiday will undoubtedly be challenged in the courts by a person or persons.  I am certain it will happen.  When it does, what are the chances that it will succeed?  And if successful, where does it stop?  Thanksgiving was initiated as a day of thanks to God for the harvest.  Will it be challenged as a religious feast?

Yes, Christmas is a religious feast; and so is Thanksgiving.  In fact the very term holiday comes from the medieval times when Holy Days were days of celebration, when work ceased, and people were relieved from labor.  The Church started this custom as a form of relief for workers, ever mindful that productivity can increase if workers are not unduly tired or stressed.

That is the history.  Tradition over the centuries has now given greater significance to these holidays than originally planned or perhaps even intended.  Thanksgiving has become the day when families gather in grateful thanks for all the good things that have happened to them over ht e past year.  For believers, atheists, and agnostics, there is a feeling of joy and gratitude, often shared with the closest family members.  Thanksgiving has become the time of assembly of families at the ‘old hearth’, often reserving Christmas for personal family celebration, especially when there are young children in the home.

Christmas too has come to be more than a celebration of the religious birthday of Jesus Christ,.  While this is certainly a very important and major event for Christians, it is also a period of time when good fellowship reigns, and a spirit of happiness and joy seems to permeate everything.  Gift giving is a manifestation of this good fellowship.  For believer and non-believer alike, Christmas is a traditional time of joy and recognition of the fellowship of mankind.

And yet our system is such that one person alone can bring suit to have the custom cease.  That person can use the concept of incursion of religion into the state, invoking the rule of separation of Church and state to strike down the observance of Christmas and Thanksgiving as religious feasts that have no basis in law as public holidays.

Could such a suit prevail?  Could it happen?  Can the will of the majority be superseded by the will of a single person?  But that single person will say it is in the Constitution.  But is isn’t.  The phrase ’separation of church and state is NOT in the Constitution.  In fact, the exact opposite is there.  The First Amendment includes the statement: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”  This is often used to say that the framers meant that religion had no place in public functions or places.  That is NOT true.  In my opinion, the framers of the Constitution intended the exact opposite.  They wanted religion in the public square.  They wanted freedom of exercise of religion.  The phase, ‘or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’ has been ignored for too long.  Denying prayer in the schools is exactly that – ‘or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’.  So is removing the ten commandments from a courthouse; so is challenging the phrase ‘in God we trust’ on our currency; so is challenging prayer in Congress; and so too any attempt to eliminate observance of Christmas and Thanksgiving!

Yes, I am sure it will be tried.  Hopefully common sense will prevail and justices will be served, and that idiocy will not be permitted.

I wrote this book to call attention to this possibility.  I also wrote it because I love Christmas.  I wish it would go on all year long.

Why I wrote the book

October 20th, 2009 Rocco Martino No comments

During the winter and spring of 2009, I became increasingly perturbed at how the Congress was using taxpayer money.  As a nation, we were in the midst of a severe recession, millions were out of work, pundits were crying that the sky was falling, and speeches were being made by the President and senior members of Congress that we needed a stimulus program to get the economy going again .  A massive spending bill was passed – The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – otherwise commonly referred to as the Stimulus Bill of 2009.  It contained thousands of earmarks for special requests and spending measures by individual members of Congress.  The total of these was in the billions.  Earmarks are ways that individual Representatives and Senators can secure specific funds ‘earmarked’ for programs in their districts and states.  The purposes stated are to help businessmen, to fund research, or for any purpose whatsoever that the member wishes, that the leadership will allow, and that will not result in a hue and cry from other members.  Historically a significant number of these earmarks are questionable.  Funding has been approved in the past for roads to nowhere, unnecessary bridges, ridiculous research studies, and funding for dubious reasons.  One wonders if re-election ranks as a primary motivation behind many earmarks.  While for many years I would ‘grin and bear it’ as the saying goes.  As I recognized what was going on, I became angry when this disgraceful performance increased by using a national emergency as a means of furthering personal rather than the national interest.  I decided to do something about it.

That’s when I started writing this book.  I chose exposure through humor, and a clash of personalities in a novel.  I chose a traditional occasion – Christmas.  For Christians, of course, it is primarily a religious observance; but in actual fact, for most people, Christians and non-Christians alike, it is a festive time when the best in people comes out.  Good fellowship reigns, and there is a spirit of appreciation of life and of others.  Gifts and merrymaking are only outward manifestations of the inner glow that many people have during the Christmas Season.  To attempt to modify a traditional observance for strictly personal pecuniary gain would certainly raise a lot of hackles.  Hence the introduction of the big lie technique to cloak the real intention with a lot of spurious opinion polls, using manufactured facts and spin to fool enough people to win the point.  The objective was to get Congress to pass a change of date act, and to have it enforced before people realized what was really going on.  That was the basic plot.  The spin masters behind the program were all motivated by the concept that “people don’t count’, and anything can be done if there is enough advertising and artificial support for the effort.

But people do count.  I chose people to be the foils for the attempt at twisting a tradition into a means of making or saving money, and of being re-elected.   I let the characters of the book act out in what was goes on in Congress.  I also feel that Congress, like any organization, has its good apples and its bad apples.  I tried to show both sides, but I also wanted to show the basic attitude of many that re-election is an issue that is more important than the national interest or anything else.

I was also perturbed at what I perceived to be a return of the technique of the big lie.  The idea is to tell a lie so monstrous that people will accept it on the basis that it must be true or else it would not be said.  Hitler and his propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, used this technique to great effect during the Nazi regime.  Other dictators have used it since, most especially Stalin in Soviet Russia and Mao Zedong in China.  It is also the usual approach of the terrorists in brainwashing their followers.  Part of the operational mode of this technique is to push hard, move quickly, keep the opposition off balance, and get things done before anyone knows what has happened.

All of these elements are in this book.

Fundamentally, however, I believe in the goodness of people.  I let the characters of Sam and Cindy grow to represent the people.  I believe rather strongly that people count, and in this book I wanted to counter the blitzkrieg approach of the big lie with the thoughtful development of resistance based on character and goodness.  Self sacrifice for family as in the case of Cindy, or to satisfy a code of ethics on the part of Sam are basic elements of human nature.

The book concerns some serious topics.  A humorous break was needed.  That’s when I decided that senator Christian needed a spittoon.  To be honest, I often burst out laughing as I wrote book this whenever I used the word ‘thwack’ as the senator used his spittoon.  I hope you laugh hard as you read these scenes.  Yet there is a butter truth hidden in this character.

Character and conflicts based on character are an important part of this book.  I used such conflicts to emphasize the message.

Finally, I wanted a sense of mystery to get interjected.  The book ends with unanswered questions:  will a future attempt be made to change or cancel Christmas, will Sam take the job offer, will the romance between Sam and Cindy   blossom, and who is the hobo?

I wanted this book to be a good story with some tension in it, using humor and character development to make a major point.  The underlying theme of this book is that Christmas is an attitude of mind shared by many people, that it does a lot of good, and shouldn’t be meddled with.  The greed of a single person must never be allowed to subvert the function of government so that one person’s profit can be achieved at the expense of many.

That’s why I wrote this book.  I hope you like it.  Please let me know.

Why you should read this book

October 6th, 2009 Rocco Martino 1 comment

Cancel Christmas is a book of today.  Wrapped around the Christmas celebration, it is a tale of the eternal struggle for power and wealth.  The impact upon others is not of consequence.  ‘People don’t count’ is the main theme of those who would use their authority and wealth to promote their own cause.

Cancel Christmas should make you angry.  It might make you laugh.  But it will certainly make you think.  It could happen.    Greed, ambition, and the misuse of taxpayer money are nothing new.  What makes this book interesting for the reader is the intertwining of these elements to attack a cherished tradition.  The technique of the ;’big lie’ is shown at work.  This alone will be disquieting to the reader in extending the analogy to much of the hype and spin placed on the actions of the newsmakers.

Can the media be bought?  Can lawmakers be influenced to vote a position because of personal gain?  The media everything, This book depicts the classic struggle between might and right; and between raw power and thoughtful evaluation.    For some, the will of the people doesn’t matter since ‘people don’t count’ as one major character says in the book.

Cancel Christmas is about character, and the conflicting emotions and forces that permeate human life – greed, fear, love, tradition, duty, and conscience.  One reviewer stated, “…a timeless tale that speaks volumes to all of us….a modern Christmas Carol.” This story pits people into conflicts spawned by circumstances and by their individual motivation.

The fictitious industrialist Oliphant Timber Bleakheart is portrayed as a ruthless miser.  Nothing can interfere with his goal of ever richer, and hopefully the richest man in the world.  No person, no justice, and no tradition will interfere with him having his will done.  Political figures are bought and sold one way or another; people are ignored; and the only worthwhile goal is money.  He went into figurative orbit when he determined the cost of the Christmas vacation period during the Christmas Season.  For him Christmas vacation pay was robbing his pocketbook.  Performance, loyalty, and good will were no factors in his planning.  He becomes determined to reduce his cost. His peremptory command to his staff to “Cancel Christmas!” is the beginning of this delightful parody of people against the backdrop of the Christmas observance.

Timber Bleakheart enlists the aid of Senator Clairemont Roger Bigguns Christian, a senior U.S. senator from the south.  Christian is pressured by Bleakheart to support his efforts in the Senate, even to securing government funding to assist his plan.  The Senator is a throwback to the old days in the Senate with his predilections, including his habit of chewing tobacco and using a spittoon.   For Senator Christian the only aim in his life is re-election; and furthering his pet projects.  Representing the people and their wishes is no factor for consideration unless it will earn votes.

Intertwined with this effort is the relationship between Bleakheart’s two closest aides – his stunning assistant Cindy Powers and his General Counsel Sam Flint.  Both oppose his idea but do not dare to openly thwart him.  For them this is a classic struggle of integrity versus duty.

The story proceeds rapidly with those who support and oppose Bleakheart’s efforts to change Christmas forever.  The issue draws national and international attention.  There is a tsunami of activity as the holiday season approaches.

The book moves towards its startling conclusion.

I wrote this book because of my concern over what is happening in our society.  I chose Christmas as the central bargaining chip for the classic struggle of might versus right.  As the story developed in my mind and on paper, the characters took hold and began to control the story.  Hence I can say with complete honesty that this book is about character.  The fictitious characters I invented took over and made the story happen.

I hope you read this book and enjoy it.  I hope you too will look upon it as a modern-day ‘Christmas Carol’. I am deeply indebted to all those over the years who made each Christmas of my memory so vital and important as a time to share happiness and joy.  No matter what the religious belief,  Christmas has become much more than a religious holiday alone.  It has become a state of mind that allows us each year to relive the joy of new life, and to share that realization with others.   So let it be with this book.  Enjoy it, share it, live it.

Rocco Leonard Martino

October 5th, 2009

Welcome to Cancel Christmas!

October 4th, 2009 Rocco Martino 1 comment

The book is available October 5, 2009. Details to follow.

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