Christmas tree battle
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- December
- 11
Here’s another angry holiday story. Seattle is battling over Christmas trees.
The nine Christmas trees on display at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were taken down over the weekend after Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky asked that a menorah be added to the display and threatened to sue if it wasn’t.
“We’re trying to be thoughtful and respectful, and will review policies after the first of the year,” the airport’s spokeswoman, Terri-Ann Betancourt, told The Seattle Times.
So now everyone is appalled.
The rabbi and his lawyer who said they were worried the Jewish community would be portrayed as the Grinch.
“They’ve darkened the hall instead of turning the lights up,” the lawyer said.
William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, and Don Feder of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, who said the airport should put the trees back.
Christmas trees have been held by the courts to be a secular symbol, though associated with the celebration of Christmas, they said; a menorah is clearly a religious symbol.
I say none of this is in the spirit of anyone’s holiday. And there’s something funny about a group of adults going at it in this season of giving and miracles.
UPDATE: Chappaqua is having its own holiday battle over blue-and-white flags decorated with snowflakes and six-pointed stars.
They’re winter-themed and they’re up in the downtown.
But the town is getting complaints. Apparently some people think the flags look like dreidels. Add the six-pointed stars and the colors of Israel and they’ve concluded the flags celebrate Hanukkah.
Oh, and the flags say welcome. Just as soon as the grumbling stops.
Photograph by The Associated Press of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport minus the Christmas trees.










