Posted by jay on December 18, 2002, at 20:32:01
I thought I would post this, so that most of us who think Christmas should be called "Shopping Season" are not alone!
'Santa is consumption' in North America, say Vancouver Island couple
>
> With reporting by Sylvia Yu
> canada.com
>
>
> Wednesday, December 11, 2002
>
>
> The billboard reads: Gluttony. Envy. Insincerity. Greed. Enjoy your
> Christmas!
>
>
>
> An anti-Christmas billboard sign is slowing traffic on the Pat Bay
Highway, near Vancouver.
>
> The bright red sign says: "Gluttony. Envy. Insincerity. Greed. Enjoy your
> Christmas!"
>
> A Victoria, B.C. couple paid for the $1,200 sign with the money they would
have
> spent on Christmas gifts.
>
> Valerie Williams and her husband Trevor say they came up with the idea to
> attack Christmas on a billboard because the onslaught of consumerism
> "horrified and disgusted" them.
>
> "A lot of people are capitalist sheep and I think our God is consumption.
> Santa is consumption," she says.
>
> The sign is just the tip of the iceberg.
>
> The couple wants to get rid of Christmas altogether -- and other holidays
> too.
>
> "I would say there should be no Christmas," Williams says.
>
> She says she doesn't want to participate in a "white, middle-class,
> heterosexual, patriarchial, Christian Christmas."
>
> Her humbug attitude toward the holidays started when she and her husband
> moved back from Europe to the tony Oak Bay neighbourhood on Vancouver
> Island.
>
> She says they were overwhelmed by the commercialization of Christmas and
the
> "obscene" amount of money spent.
>
> Williams says she and her husband also object to the "commodification of
> goodwill" and believe people shoul do acts of kindness on a daily basis.
>
> She says she gives to charities all year round.
>
> The sign went up last week and will stay up until the end of December, but
> that won't be the end of the anti-holidays message.
>
> Williams is cooking up more ideas to attack other holidays, starting with
> Valentine's Day.
>
> She says the February 14 message will address violence against women.
poster:jay
thread:33601
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20021218/msgs/33601.html