p2pnet news | Freedom:- Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without humbug and Grinches.

Silver Bells, Silver Bells
It’s [deleted] time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be [deleted] Day…

Soon it will be [deleted] Day
Soon it will be [deleted] Day
Soon it will be [deleted] Day

Soon it will be [deleted] Day

“An elementary school in Ottawa was flooded with hateful and threatening e-mails and phone calls after media reports that it had removed the word ‘Christmas’ from a song to be performed at its Christmas concert,” says the CBC, going on:

The choir at Elmdale Public School did not sing its controversial version of the song Silver Bells at its closed-door concert Thursday after receiving dozens of angry reponses, including some containing foul language.

Lynn Scott (right), chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, said some callers accused the school of being anti-Christian and some threatened teachers and officials at the school.

“Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Vishnu lays down his blue head.”

Huh?

Yup. That’s Lorne Gunter a National Post OpEd which kicks off with:

“It’s not O Holy Night or Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

“Changing the lyrics of Silver Bells – the Jay Livingston/Ray Evans song popularized by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in the 1951 movie The Lemon-drop Kid – is hardly an offence on a par with tampering with a classic Christmas carol.”

He goes on:

“Still, editing Christmas out of Silver Bells, as teachers at Ottawa’s Elmdale Elementary School attempted to do this week, is entirely unnecessary. It’s an example of how amok political correctness has run that some of its practitioners are now expunging areligious references to Christmas, alongside those dripping with Christian meaning — very likely because they are so caught up in the cult of inclusion they have lost the ability to see the difference between the two.”

And >>>

“A Muslim neighbour celebrates Christmas for the fun, presents and food, and would never dream of insisting it be renamed Winterfest or Solstice Frolic or some other name devoid of Christ references.”

Gunter also says:

“To feel the need to mess with the song’s lyrics out of fear of offending ethnic minorities is to demonstrate how completely overcome one has become with collective guilt, and how entirely devoted one is to tolerance as the new secular religion.
“Ironically, it is people from nominally Christian backgrounds who are the most worried about the offence Christmas’ Christian overtones will give others. The concern seldom comes from minorities.”

Says the CBC:

“Teachers had originally intended to replace “Christmas time” and other Christmas references from the song’s original 1951 lyrics with words referring to ‘a festive time.’

“When news of the plan reached the media, some radio call-in shows and blogs encouraged people to contact the school in protest.”

Meanwhile:

Silver Bells, Silver Bells
It’s Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas Day

Slashdot it!

Also See:

CBC – Ottawa school threatened after Christmas song cuts, December 21, 2007

National Post – Christmastime in the city, December 24, 2007

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 8:58 am and is filed under Freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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