Nathan Scandella (personal)

The Green Grinch

Since religious people decided to throw an atheist plaque in a ditch last week, I'm going to feel quite justified about this one: I am sick of Christmas lights already. As I drove through West Seattle tonight, the number of houses with ostentatious displays of holiday lights was shocking.

What does this have to do with Christianity? Did Jesus adorn his house with thousands of little lights? Is wasting electricity one of the good deeds mentioned in the Bible?

We have climate change. We have an economic crisis. Don't people have the common sense to stop putting up lights just for the sake of allowing their house to be seen from space? It's like the jerk in the SUV at the coffee shop, who has to leave his car idling for 10 minutes while his wife waits in line for her latte. Could you be a little more demonstrative that you just don't give a damn?

And of course, electricity is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of yuletide wastefulness. There's the wrapping paper, the trees cut down just to be displayed for a month, all the packaging, the gifts that nobody wants that get thrown out December 26th. Is it too much to ask that people just stop wasting everything? Do we need to have another Great Depression for people to care?

Well, that may just happen.

Posted at 02:49AM Dec 09, 2008 by Nathan in Environment  |  Comments[0]