Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller touched off a Dickens of a fuss on Facebook as he let the world know how to greet him during the Christmas season.
“If one more person says Happy Holidays to me I just might slap them. Either tell me Merry Christmas or just don’t say anything,” Miller wrote Wednesday in a Facebook post that was liked by more than 9,000 and fans and shared more than 5,000 times.
The post was accompanied with an image of a cowboy on a steer riding under a pharmacy sign that said, “We will never take the Christ out of Christmas.”
By taking his private feelings public, Miller asked for the deluge of disagreements that followed. “Mean-spirited” and “bigotry” were among the remarks aimed at Miller.
“Be thankful someone says something nice to you at all,” replied Carole Jones.
“As long as the rules are fair—which means that if you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to me, I get to slap you because you didn’t say Happy Chanukah,” wrote Ken Levy.
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Many comments, including those from the Texas Democratic Party, wished Miller “Happy Holidays.”
Miller replied to several commenters, in some cases wishing people, “Merry Christmas.”
When one poster asked if he had ever heard of First Amendment rights, Miller replied: “I am quite fond of it. I also like the 2nd. How about you?”
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