VALLEY PATRIOT EXCLUSIVE Why do we
celebrate
“the Holidays”? 12-07-11
JEFF
KATZ
Tis the season, my friends.
The collective attention turns to “the
holidays.” The main stream media
types have thrown together Chanukah,
Christmas and Kwanzaa as if each is the
same, just some small variation or
strange detail here and there. Of course,
nothing could be further from the truth.
The oldest of the three winter holidays
is Chanukah, the story of Judah Maccabee
and his band of Jewish heroes. The story
takes place around 165 years B.C.E. as a
brutal Syrian King Antiochus goes to
great lengths to assault the Jewish
people and destroy their temples.
The Maccabees fight back and despite
their small numbers and lack of military
equipment, they somehow prevail against
the much larger and better equipped
forces of the King. The Jews then take
steps to clean the Temple and re-sanctify
it. They need oil to light the lamp but
it is clear that they have only enough to
last one night. Nonetheless, they know
that they must make the Temple acceptable
to G-d again after it had been defiled
and so they continue the work. The small
amount of oil miraculously lasts eight
nights. It is clear to the Jewish people
that they could only prevail in the
battle by the grace of G-d. It is clear
when the oil lasts for eight nights, that
anything is possible with G-d. Indeed,
miracles are what G-d provides for us
mortals.
Fast forward a couple of hundred years,
and look at Christmas. For Christians
worldwide, Christmas provides a
wonderful, warm and inspiring time.
Christians see a manifestation of G-d’s
eternal love. Love so deep, it is almost
unimaginable. John 3:16 declares “For
He so loved the world that He gave his
one and only son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.” A clear message to Christians
that with G-d everything is indeed
possible.
Two of “the holidays” down, and
now time to discuss the newest on the
scene. The “holiday” which
according to media types is of equal
importance, and deserving of equal if not
greater attention, Kwanzaa. It is 1966
and a criminal by the name of Ronald N.
Everett decides he’s going to do
something interesting. Everett, in
addition to his criminal activities, is a
stone cold racist and bigot. He heads up
a group called United Slaves a/k/a/ US.
The motto of his group is “anywhere
we are, us is.” He declares the
establishment of the “anti-Christmas”.
A holiday he names Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa’s
creator states in his own words that the
reason for the holiday is to promote a
Black revolution.
Everett, a man who grew up on a poultry
farm in Maryland changes his last name to
Karenga and awards himself the title
“maulana” a Swahili word which
means master teacher. He eventually
ditches all vestiges of his birth name
and becomes Maulana Karenga. Finally,
after years of engaging in gang activity
Ronald N. Everett a/k/a/ Maulana Karenga
gets sent away to state prison.
In 1971 he is convicted on two counts of
felonious assault and one count of false
imprisonment. The Los Angeles Superior
Court sentencing report from September
1971 described Karenga as delusional,
paranoid and schizophrenic. It details
how he talks to the wall and imaginary
people. It also addresses the brutal
details of the crimes leading to his
convictions. Torturing two women by
beating them with an electrical cord,
squeezing body parts in a vise, burning
them with a soldering iron and pouring
detergent down their throats.
As the late Tony Snow wrote, “There
is no part of Kwanzaa that is not
fraudulent.” The name and all terms
used are Swahili, which is a language
spoken by about 7% of the population on
the African continent and on the opposite
side from where most people brought to
the U.S.A. as slaves had lived.
Corn while a big part of the fictional
fabric of Kwanzaa is, in fact, not a
plant native to Africa. And there is no
logical reason why anyone would celebrate
a harvest festival in the dead of winter.
But then the facts are not at all
relevant to the story of Kwanzaa. In
fact, the tenants of Kwanzaa as advanced
by its creator are designed as purely
racist and angry.
All of us can happily acknowledge the
messages of Chanukah and Christmas. The
lesson that G-d protects his people and
provides them with strength and miracles.
The reminder that G-d loves his children
and always has them in His heart. The
lesson of Kwanzaa? Well, I’ll leave
that to you. I wish you a Chag Sameach,
Happy Chanukah and a Merry Christmas!
Jeff Katz, a former police officer, is
heard daily from 5AM to 10AM on WXKS-AM
TALK-1200 in Boston. You can email him
at: jeffkatz@clearchannel.com
Tis the season, my friends.
The collective attention turns to “the
holidays.” The main stream media
types have thrown together Chanukah,
Christmas and Kwanzaa as if each is the
same, just some small variation or
strange detail here and there. Of course,
nothing could be further from the truth.
