[ OUR OPINION ]

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Christmas sentiments lie
in deeds, not words

THE ISSUE The holiday season can bring out the best and the worst in all of us.

Seldom does Christmas come off without gripes about the desecration of the ostensible reason for the celebration. This year's no different. Among the most publicized was one that sprang from a North Carolina pastor who sent his congregation to stores in Raleigh to insist that signs, displays and employees use a seasonal greeting that reflects their faith or face the ultimate retail punishment: a boycott.

"Happy holidays" won't do, Pastor Patrick Wooden said, because the phrase does not acknowledge the birth of the son of God. Christians, he contended, "get bullied all the time," so he's turning the pulpit to force secular shopkeepers into line. It's "merry Christmas," or his members will take their gift-buying business elsewhere.

As earnest as the pastor's endeavor may be, Christmas in America has long been celebrated pluralistically, reflecting the nation's multicultural populace. Retailers, for their financial well-being, have grown more sensitive to this, many choosing the broader "happy holidays" so as not to offend.

Pastor Wooden and others like him are free to pull their patronage and make the most of piety's renewed political power. But they ought to consider that the thousands of dollars spent on pressuring merchants through high-profile advertising might be better used in subdued ministering, like feeding and clothing the impoverished in their communities. This person-to-person touch might not garner a gig on talk shows, but contains just as much power, maybe more, in spreading Christ's message.

Christmas is undeniably a commercial holiday. Still, it remains truly a time when people contemplate the wealth of affection and devotion to friends and family. It is made more poignant by the absence of those in combat and those lost in war.

It is a time to set aside petty complaints. It's not about the words we choose. It's about how heartfelt they are.

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Ukraine ‘people power’
should be contagious

THE ISSUE Ukrainians will elect a new president tomorrow in a rematch.

CHRISTMAS will not be a distraction from tomorrow's important election in Ukraine, which, like other Christian Orthodox countries, celebrates the holiday on Jan. 7. The Orange Revolution resulted in the scheduling of the runoff election following last month's rigged balloting. The dramatic movement in the past month should result in the free and fair election of reformer Viktor Yushchenko and gain notice in other former Soviet republics.

The peaceful and effective protest in Kiev was similar to the Rose Revolution a year ago in Georgia, where a flawed election prompted a re-election in which Mikhail Saakashvili was elected president. As Ukraine's government agreed to hold new elections, Romanians two weeks ago elected reformer Traian Basescu to succeed Ion Iliescu, a former communist who had been president since 1989.

The Ukraine turnaround is especially significant because of that country's historic ties with Russia; Kiev was the center of the Rus principality a thousand years ago and still is known as the Mother of Russian Cities. Former communist bosses have continued to run it and other previous Soviet states.

Thirteen years after their independence, most of the 15 former Soviet states remain under autocratic rule. Freedom House, the freedom and democracy monitor, says the only former Soviet provinces now truly free are the three Baltic states.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has consolidated control of the media, eliminated elections of governors and this week retreated from privatization, gaining Kremlin control of the main subsidiary of the oil giant Yukos. He campaigned in Ukraine for the election of Viktor Yanukovych, the hand-picked successor of a brutal and corrupt government.

Putin's retreat from democracy has led Freedom House to downgrade Russia's rating from "partly free" to "not free," joining seven other former Soviet states that remain under imperious control. More "people power" is needed.