The holiday season is upon us again and with it comes a few traditions. One of those traditions is the annual Starbucks Christmas cup.

There’s been a huge uproar on the Internet about this year’s cup design. People are saying that the plain red cup is symbolizing the expanding tradition of leaving Christ out of today’s culture.

I am a Christian and I have no problem whatsoever with the cup design. I do not feel that Starbucks intentionally set out to make Christians feel alienated.

There are times when this kind of public outcry is needed, but this kind of response should only come when genuine harm has been done.

We have become an overly sensitive society. People are easily offended by everything they see.

I’m not saying nothing out there is offensive. There are definitely things out there meant to hurt and offend specific groups of people. But not every little thing being done is being done to spite someone.

The red cup scandal has been blown way out of proportion. There are much more important things for Christians and everyone else to be focused on this holiday season.

Instead of spreading feelings of hate and drawing lines in the sand around ourselves, we should be enjoying this wonderful time of year.

We don’t have to all come together in peace and harmony. That’s an unobtainable idea at this point in society. But we can put our differences aside, if only for a little while and celebrate the fact that we live in a country where we’re free to express our distress over red cups.

Nancy Peyton can be contacted at [email protected].