Certainly Not the News of the Day

I’ll bet there are a lot of Jews out there that are thankful Chanukah comes so early this year. They don’t have to grin and bear those pesky other folks chucking Christmas in their faces during the same time they are lighting the menorah. Even though many might say Santa’s season starts on Thanksgiving Day, at least Chanukah gets first dibs on a religious celebration the night prior. Well, unless you’ve been to any number of so-called “superstores” lately. They pretty much rolled out the sleigh bells, garlands and started subtly piping carols over their loudspeakers Nov. 1. Nothing new there.
As Rabbi Jeffrey Lipschultz points out in his column today, “we could call it a great miracle that we get to see in our lifetime the only time that the wonderful American holiday of Thanksgiving gets to overlap with our wonderful tradition of Chanukah.” Hallelujah, I concur! Being a non-practicing Catholic and having recently wed a woman of the non-practicing Jewish persuasion, I am very thankful for this once in a lifetime overlap. It offers me the opportunity to try and clear up a misperception I have occasionally witnessed within the community that has to do with the Herald’s so-called ‘religious slant.’
News is news. Opinion is opinion. If the Publisher of this newspaper wants to discuss church and quote the Bible in his column then that is his right. His religious opinions should not and do not crossover into the realm of the news sections. In my short time here, I have seen zero instances where the two opposing universes of news/opinion have intertwined. The very fact that the Herald does have a Rabbi who writes (and writes well) a regular column should be proof positive that it is open to other schools of thought. This newspaper allows for continuing conversations with its letters to the editor (just keep it under 600 words, please) as well as the ever-electric, never-disappointing Spout Off section. Give us your arguments, your proclivities, your own humble religious thoughts and in these pages will they be printed. As long as we all have respect for each other and are civil with our language, the opportunities to be different should be equal among us. Furthermore, if you ever found yourself reading a particular news story where you believe the Herald was not being forthright with journalistic integrity in any regard (be it religious or otherwise), I’m sure that the Managing Editor, the Publisher and myself would all appreciate hearing about it. Everyone here has the same mission and that is to provide our readers with no-nonsense news in a straightforward manner.
Being still fairly new to this job and this column, perhaps I should keep my fingers quiet. Maybe you’ve already read between some of my lines and found messages that I didn’t even realize were there (or did I?). If so, Paul is dead, forgive me. I hope I am wrong and that general perceptions of the Herald are not as I have laid out. The philosophy, however, that is printed every Wednesday is: ‘Dedicated to the Service of God and Mankind.’ OK, well first, we still ‘trust in God’ on our money so start in with the government if you have that beef. Second, this particular aforementioned credo doesn’t mention which God. Perhaps that last point won’t hold much water when the Publisher makes no bones about his personal beliefs but I know for a fact that the sentiment speaks to a moral code more so than a religious one. So what if the former is borne of the latter? Is it so awful to want to serve your community with a set of high moral ethics at your disposal?
To play devil’s advocate (which devil?) though… no matter who you come across in your life—whether they be Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist or whatever else—everybody’s individual beliefs are bound to affect whatever else it is they do on some level. To reiterate: that is why successful news organizations dedicated to serving communities do their best to compartmentalize their views when it comes to hardnosed reporting and, if they feel it necessary, will showcase their otherworldly views in the Op-Eds.
What I’m driving at here is that even if you aren’t terribly big on God as a firm institution in your life, you may be like me and respect the many traditions and beliefs behind each individual sect. I have a theory, you see: I believe that whatever you believe is what will come true for you after this world has washed you away. Be good in life and thy will be done. There is a word for this ‘belief in all beliefs’ and that word is omnism. The first fair soul to coin the term was a poet named Philip James Bailey in 1839 in his best-known work, Festus. An excerpt:
“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives,
Who thinks most — feels noblest — acts the best.”
No disrespect intended, but Amen to that. Of course, this is all just a brief page of my humble opinion and though it is good news for me, it is certainly not the news of the day.