Susan Martinovich, head of the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), must have been living under a rock for the past couple of Christmases. Indeed, for at least the last two years there has been major public backlash against efforts by government and retailers to “take Christ out of Christmas” by referring to the Christmas holiday at schools as the “Winter” holiday, calling Christmas trees “holiday” trees, banning the public recitation of Christmas carols which mention Jesus’ name, and even changing the traditional “Merry Christmas” greeting to “Happy Holidays.” How else to explain this November 27 directive Martinovich sent to NDOT employees:
“In this spirit of the season, it should be remembered that parties and other events in the workplace should be referred to as holiday parties, and so on, so as not to slight any religious group.”
Um, which season is this again? Oh, yeah, right…CHRISTMAS. And in that spirit, said Martinovich, the politically correct way to celebrate CHRISTMAS is to not mention the word CHRISTMAS. This, according to “Scrooge” Martinovich, is to assure that no religious group is offended…OTHER THAN CHRISTIANS.
Makes perfect sense.
Martinovich’s internal directive became public today, resulting in howls of outrage directed at the governor’s office. And our PC transportation chieftess has now executed a major-league U-turn.
“A recent e-mail message regarding what to call workplace parties has generated an expression of concern by many of our employees,” Martinovich writes in a CYA follow-up email today. “Please understand there was no intent to slight or offend anyone. However, that is exactly what has occurred and for that I am sorry. The intent was to respect the beliefs and practices of all our employees. To accomplish this, please feel free to call the celebrations what you feel most appropriate, while respecting the practices and beliefs of others and in keeping an appropriate workplace environment.”
Isn’t that special?
Merry Christmas, Suzy.
Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Leave a Reply