If "apparently not" isn't proof that the author means to express more of a message and not so much a statement of fact, what she follows the first paragraph with is, indeed, proof.
She bemoans the fact that, "Now I look around and there seem to be many stores or restaurants celebrating not Christmas, only holidays."
Would the writer expect stores owned by Jewish-Americans, Muslim-Americans or African-Americans to heretically display "Merry Christmas" in their places of business? Would she expect businesses owned and run by atheists to disingenuously display "Merry Christmas"? It seems to me that she would.
In fact, because 78% of Americans consider themselves Christians, many Jewish, Asian non-Christians, Muslim, African-American and even atheist business owners do, indeed, display signs which read "Merry Christmas" and/or have Christmas displays in their places of business. Many businesses have Holiday Parties or Holiday Bashes for their employees, but many, even those owned and/or operated by non-Christians, have Christmas Parties for their employees.
In a land which had, until recently, encouraged other nations to:
we have become quite selective about who we let through what has morphed from a "golden door" into a velvet rope. Only those who don't make us uncomfortable need apply.
To say that non-Christians make the writer of the letter to the Bangor Daily News uncomfortable may be an understatement.
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