To the editor:

The recent editorial which stated some people think we should get rid of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has a valid point to make.

But IÏ㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥™m sure there will be some folks who will give him flak over his comment.

I did have an uncle once who had a red nose but that was from drinking. The fictional Rudolph was never known to drink, so that is another topic entirely.

But perhaps it is important that parents tell the story of Rudolph leaping over tall buildings and through fog banks, as kids must learn sometime that adults lie to them.

While kids will eventually figure out that Santa Claus was merely a figment of a PR campaign done for a soft drink company, those now enlightened kids will grow up and keep Rudolph to push excessive consumerism at Christmas on their own kids. Go figure.

And if infected by the religious virus from their parents (the most common source of infection for the religious virus) they never realize that they still believe in a mythical figure even as they outgrow one mythical character and latch onto another. God, Rudolph, same difference.

Christmas itself originated under false premises as it was a pagan celebration culturally misappropriated by the church from the Romans and other ancient cultures who celebrated the birth of their gods and the arrival of the Winter Solstice on that date.

So, it seems that the old adage, that has been used in various forms since first used by a Prince of the Church during the Renaissance, that as people want to be fooled, let us fool them, is still just as true today as back then.

It is still working now as people prefer imaginary friends over reality.

While IÏ㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥™m sorry to say there is no Santa Claus, I am grateful that Christmas/pagan pudding with rum sauce is very much real, at least, and I thank Odin for that.

Robert Rock

Mission City

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