By: R. Seth Liston
Thumbing through the
“You’ll shoot your eye out,
kid!” Every Christmas my family
and I gather around the television
to watch “The Christmas Story” yet
again. As repetitive as the film may
get, a part of me can’t wait to hear
those words come through the ste-
reo and greet my mother and me on
the longer, more comfortable couch
in our living room. Another, more
cynical side of me looks forward to
seeing my father and brother as im-
patience settles in halfway through
the movie because they have seen
the conclusion too many times. But,
as the Christmas music takes to the
airwaves, and stores and homes
hang their decorations, families all
across the nation ready their own
traditions.
With Christmas and its
familiar customs right around the
corner, I’ve been putting a lot of
thought into “the meaning of Christ-
mas.” What is Christmas today?
Has it changed? It is an expression
of faith by the faithful, but have its
core values been lost in an increas-
ingly secular society? The idea of
faith and its position in modern
times has posed a lot of questions
for me.
Recently, I was settled on
my own couch with an issue of
Newsweek.
pages, I stumbled across the ar-
ticle, “Two White Guys Walk into
a Bar…” by Lisa Miller. In this
article, she discusses the recently
released documentary, “Collision”,
which tackles the age-old debate
between Faith and Reason. The film
raises the question: “Is Christianity
good for the world?”
In March of 2009, CNN
covered a survey by Trinity College
in Hartford, Connecticut which re-
ported that 75% of Americans con-
sider themselves Christian. While
this number seems high, the report
mentions that that number has fall-
en from 86% in 1990. Miller states
12% of Americans say they do not
believe in a God. Is faith evaporat-
ing in America? The United States
is the heart of Western individual-
ism, but is faith something we want
falling to the wayside as our culture
continues to progress? Is faith no
longer considered good for our so-
ciety?
When I think of Christmas,
I think of the intangible and almost
unexplainable holiday spirit: the
bright lights, the tantalizing smells,
the embrace of family, and the con-
tagious holiday cheer. Everyone
seems to be in high spirits and act-
ing a little more gracious toward
one another. The holiday shopping
war aside, the Christmas season
allows us to take a break from the
challenge of our busy lives and re-
minds us of the human element that
unites us all.
The founding fathers of
this nation made it clear that they
had faith in a Supreme Being—
God. Plaques in public buildings,
our currency, and even our Nation’s
official motto all read, “In God We
Trust.” This country was founded
on faith, or rather the belief in a su-
preme being, so that men could live
a morally and ethically just life. No
man was believed to be more im-
portant or valuable than another.
A higher power had created their
lives, and this faith allowed them
all to work together for the “pursuit
of happiness.”
Regardless of your per-
sonal religion, the faith that perme-
ates this season is in believing that
something bigger than you exists.
Family, friends, even strangers are
all more connected—more humble.
It allows our society to remember
each other and to reassure each
other that we are all in this pursuit
of happiness together. Faith is a
uniting factor, and as far as I am
concerned, it is beneficial for any
society.
On the other hand, as the
tradition of Christmas has aged
with this great country, one could
make the argument that it has been
absorbed by the machine of capi-
talism, and faith has been all but
removed from its meaning. The
decreasing percentage of Chris-
tians adds evidence to this argu-
ment. While Christmas for many
is slowly but surely becoming a
secular tradition, I take confidence
in that simple phrase that pops up
each holiday season: “the meaning
of Christmas.” Every year we are
reminded—in movies, cards, and
songs—that we must not forget
why we are celebrating this holi-
day. Instead, we remind ourselves
that although life is hard, it is a col-
lective effort within our society to
retain the faith in something better.
I hope during this holiday
season, you feel what I feel when
I am with my friends and fam-
ily—joy, peace, and a warm belief
in your own personal faith. I hope
you realize how easy it is to become
troubled by the trials of our hectic
lives, but remember that although
life is hard, unfair and seemingly
targeted at the individual, this is a
group effort and there is something
larger at play.
Happy holidays.
By: Tyler Cralle
Online Editor-In-Chief
Contrary to what Barack
Obama, Joe Biden, the main-
stream media, or anyone else in-
volved in the current administra-
tion might tell you, we are still
in a recession. This means that
all those store owners out there
are going to have an even harder
time convincing customers to
shop in their stores. However,
it seems there may be one way
to either keep current customers
or attract new ones. It may be
as easy as saying Merry Christ-
mas.
Recently, upon leaving
a retail store, I heard the words
“Have a happy holiday.” Now
if, like me, you are not offended
by the phrase, “Merry Christ-
mas,” congratulations. You hap-
pen to be in the biggest major-
ity this country has seen since
Ronald Reagan won 97.6% of
the electoral votes in 1984 (I use
electoral votes since the media
has made it quite clear that is
the biggest indicator of whether
or not an election is landslide or
not).
Ninety-five percent of
people are not offended by the
phrase “Merry Christmas,” ac-
cording to a Zogby poll done in
2006. Therefore, when a store
chooses to extend a generic
holiday greeting, they are try-
ing to appease the other 5%.
This would make good busi-
ness sense, if not for the fact that
same study found 51% of people
were bothered by hearing, “Hap-
py Holidays.” To make matters
worse, 36% of people said they
would either cut a visit short or
not shop at a store that used a
generic holiday greeting.
Now the question you
must be asking is, “What does
a store risk by using the phrase
‘Merry Christmas’?” According
to the Zogby poll, only 10% of
non-Christians were offended by
the use of “Merry Christmas.”
According to The American
Religious Identification survey,
only 18.9% of the US population
is non-Christian. So, wishing a
consumer a “Merry Christmas”
only risks offending 1.8% of the
population. Compare that with
using a general “Happy Holi-
days” that may offend 36% of
potential customers.
It doesn’t seem like a
very tough decision. All these
numbers are great, but it doesn’t
really mean much unless there
is some real-world evidence
to back it up. Back in 2005,
Walmart shifted away from us-
ing Christmas in advertising and
advised its employees to avoid
the phrase “Merry Christmas.”
The company decided to be more
politically correct and advised
its employees to greet custom-
ers with “Happy Holidays.” This
launched protests and boycotts
by the American Family Associ-
ation and The Catholic League.
The tactics apparent-
ly worked, because in 2006
Walmart’s spokeswoman Linda
Blankey told USA Today, “We,
quite frankly, have learned a les-
son from last year. We’re not
afraid to use the term ‘Merry
Christmas.’ We’ll use it early, and
we’ll use it often.” Zogby even
asked its participants if this re-
cent change of heart by Walmart
would affect their shopping rou-
tine. 35% of the respondents
said they would be more likely
to shop the large chain now.
People, however, tend to
say one thing but do another. So
the real question is, “Did more
people shop at Walmart after the
whole debacle?” All numbers
point to yes. Walmart’s net prof-
its for the 2006 Christmas season
were up 350 million dollars - an
almost 10% increase from the
year before. Now, this could be
a coincidence. However, due to
the fact we were seeing signs of
an economic slowdown by then,
it seems there was something
else helping increase Walmart’s
sales.
The beauty of living in a
free society is that everyone has
the right to do what they want.
Therefore, if store owners want
to risk offending 50% of their
potential customer base by ap-
peasing just 5% of them, they
have the right to do that. How-
ever, my advice is simple: When
a customer walks in and sees
your employee standing next to
Christmas decorations and wear-
ing Christmas colors, advise that
employee to wish that person a
“Merry Christmas.” After all, in
this economy, you don’t really
have much to lose.
NOTE: The Conservative Hawk
will begin a feature on the the-
conservativehawk.com that will
post Christmas-friendly stores
in the Wilmington area. Anyone
that would like to help contrib-
ute to this list, just send an email
to christmaslist@theconservativ
ehawk.com.
 ITSD Update
By: Kevin King
Editor-In-Chief
Since the last issue, The Conservative Hawk has drawn a
lot of attention. The most notable example of this attention oc-
curred during our monthly appearance on “The Morning Beat”
with Curtis Wright, on The Big Talker FM. While on the air, Cindy
Lawson called in from the University to clarify the inaccurate
things we had published about the ITSD department. The full audio
can be heard at theconservativehawk.com. In short, we still have
no answers. The Freedom Of Information Act request we filed was
returned with a two-sentence response. This is less than adequate,
and extremely insulting. If the answers are simple, why can’t they
just show the full documentation as requested? We are on the case,
UNC Wilmington. Stay tuned.
 41-60 of the Top Salaries at
UNC Wilmington
We are through the top 60 salaries at UNC Wilmington, and still
haven’t broken six figures. Does that bother anyone? How many private
sector businesses have their top 60 employees making over six figures? Af-
ter all, the University is just trying to be more competitive with the private
sector. I hope that all of you who read this will begin to ask the necessity of
these salaries. Furthermore, I hope you begin to ask what they are doing to
help out in these tough economic times when we are all cutting back. Un-
til then, you can find these and more online at http://starnewsonline.com.
Sincerely, Kevin King, Editor-In-Chief