Posted on 12/19/2005 8:50:37 PM PST by churchillbuff
It was only a matter of time, wasn't it? Since George Washington's executive proclamation in 1789 establishing November 26 as the day that we should give thanks to our Lord for all the favors, kind care and protection he had offered our country, and the Long Island supervisor who objected to a local Catholic priest's religious blessing of a Christmas tree. Jon Kaiman, who is Jewish, made his displeasure known in front of a large crowd which had gathered for the annual lighting of the Manhasset township Christmas tree. Kaiman is the town's supervisor and after the Rev. Nick Zientarski blessed the tree, he grabbed the microphone from the priest's hand and hollered, "This is nonsense. We're not doing this again next year. I can't believe this. I want to make it clear that this is no way a religious ceremony..."
The priest, for his part, had this to say: "I thought about what blessing to give, and it seemed to me that because this was a Christmas tree, it would be OK to use the blessing from my Catholic tradition." To be fair, Kaiman later apologized for his harsh and aggressive manner, but the first blow against the blessing of a Christmas tree has been struck by a Jewish supervisor in an upmarket Long Island town. Now let's reverse matters. And ask ourselves what would happen if a Christian supervisor had grabbed the microphone from a rabbi who was busy blessing the lighting of a Menorah. I'll tell you. He would be arrested and brought up on hate crime charges quicker than you can say Abe Foxman, that's what.
And Kaiman is not alone. Overseas, in Britain to be exact, there are widespread efforts to remove the Christian message from Christmas, with local authorities putting up "winter" lights, schools ignoring nativity plays, and firms refusing to allow decorations in case they offend minorities. And it gets better. A millionaire, Joel Krupnik, who owns apartment buildings on the Lower East Side of New York City and in Israel, has decorated his house with a skinny Santa with a bloody head in one hand and a knife in another. He calls it freedom of expression, but again, it is freedom to insult the Christian faith, no ifs or buts about it.
In San Francisco, in the meantime, 18 police officers were suspended for appearing in homemade videos for a Christmas party parodying the Police Department. They are accused of homophobia. The New York Times gave it the full page treatment. But not a word appeared about the Manhasset supervisor. You'd think San Francisco was in New York State, and Long Island in California.
Taki is a famous Jew-hater, but sad to say he is right about everything he says here nonetheless.
Here in Boston, there is a Holocaust Memorial across the street from City Hall. It is right smack dab in the middle of town, literally feet away from Faneuil Hall, an area of historic interest to the city.
Boston was not responsible for the Holocaust. While Jews are an important part of our population, I dare to say they are no more important a part than any other ethnic or religious group. One could argue the Irish (which have a tiny statue group in front of a bookstore several blocks away) and the Italians have far, far stronger claim to being the core ethnic constituents of the city, but that's not important, because in the very heart of the city there should be no "ethnic" monuments--and there haven't been until now.
Yet this towering structure--six transparent columns about 50+ feet each--dominates the already crowded strip where it's been erected.
It's an absolute eyesore. I can say I loathe this piece of garbage.
I cannot say this openly here in Boston, because I'd be called a racist.
My point is that as an agnostic, I can say that certain things cannot be said without being instantly construed as being anti-one religion or another.
Yet in all these cases of people who don't want trees blessed, or creches put in public spaces, the suggestion that the anti-Christmas folks are somehow anti-Christian is seen as ludicrous.
So explain, how come one is considered anti-Semitic for objecting to a massive, ugly sculpture that's up all year round, yet someone who can't let a tree go up for one month is considered a civil rights champion?
I am Roman Catholic and Irish. I don't have a problem with the Memorial. The Holocaust is part of history. God forbid we should lose the lessons of history.
I don't like the memorial where it is because it's ugly as sin. But if you want to claim I am denying the Holocaust and that we should forget it, I can't stop you. (sigh)
I agree. I have heard enough about the Holocaust. America is not responsible for the Holocaust. It is not our creation and we did not do anything to encourage or implement it.
"So explain, how come one is considered anti-Semitic for objecting to a massive, ugly sculpture that's up all year round, yet someone who can't let a tree go up for one month is considered a civil rights champion?"
It's called hypocrisy and selective outrage. Combined with a paranoia over the slightest bit of Antisemitism and we have a Christian-less Christmas.
"While Jews are an important part of our population, I dare to say they are no more important a part than any other ethnic or religious group."
You're right.
"One could argue the Irish (which have a tiny statue group in front of a bookstore several blocks away) and the Italians have far, far stronger claim to being the core ethnic constituents of the city, but that's not important, because in the very heart of the city there should be no "ethnic" monuments--and there haven't been until now.
Yet this towering structure--six transparent columns about 50+ feet each--dominates the already crowded strip where it's been erected."
I also feel that the Irish and Italians suffered more by way of flagerant discrimination. And they've contributed to the very culture of the city.
My point in bringing all this up in this context is that it's just funny to me how people can find--as a previous poster did--anti-whatever rhetoric even in positions having to do with matters of taste and logic (that memorial in that place). Yet when it comes to eradicating a Christian symbol around a Christian holiday (which those same people gladly take off from work, with pay), you don't DARE suggest there's an anti-religious angle there.
The police officer who took most of the punishment for this was a Jew but Theodocrapoulos is careful not to mention that. That would make the Jews look good. Can't have that. Jews can only be villians in Takis Theodocrapoulos' world.
I haven't been to Boston in a decade. If you say the memorial is ugly, then you may be right. I wouldn't know. But I don't think I proved any point for you. If you're arguing asthetics, go for it. I won't stop you.
And don't worry, you can't stop me. ;)
You are right. It's a crappy memorial, mostly because it's designed to make you feel crappy right smack dab in the "fun" part of Boston, the "Irish Riviera." It's like putting a massive outdoor holocaust memorial on Main Street in Disneyworld just to scare the kids. You're having a good time having a couple of beers with some out of town friends at the Bell in Hand Tavern, and then you have to walk through a massive sculpture intended to evoke the smokestacks of Auschwitz to get back to the Government Center subway, and everyone wants to kill themselves by the time they get there. I don't object to a holocaust memorial at all, but taste would dictate that one should not design it to weigh heavily on the drunken lighthearted revelers of Faneuil Hall, who after all are just trying to take a break for a couple of hours from thinking about how crappy life can be.
If it weren't so damned ugly (and unavoidable) I would have no problem with those other issues I mentioned (it being a Holocaust memorial). But it's like that ugly "Arch" that was in front of some building--in NYC?--a few years back, which forced people who used to cut across an open mall to detour around the horrible thing.
This memorial is intended to bring you down. Can anyone say that about a Christmas tree? Not this non-believer.
Kind of a mirror image of Abe Foxman, for whom Christians and Christianity are villains.
I don't buy that. Birthday parties are always festive - and commercial - because they involve giving gifts and having a high old time. Christmas is a birthday party. Christmas has always been a party-hearty time - going back centuries. THat's why the Puritans didn't like it. Now it's the Left that is using a fake concern over the "commercialization of Christmas" as cover for their drive to push Christmas into the shadows and to censor the word, "Christmas."
Amen.
Why would I want to stop you? You're on a roll. Go for it.
How long has the Holocaust Memorial been there? I haven't been in Boston for about 3 years, and we were near Faneuil
Hall, but don't remember anything that ugly or that much of an eyesore. Public "momuments" or even outdoor sculpture (like the famous Picasso that went up in downtown Chicago when I still lived there) are ALWAYS controversial, but, yes, there is something of particular interest when something like this Holocaust Memorial almost seems to be agressively, provocatively ugly, inappropriately placed, and an affront to civic planning or urban landscaping, which may just be what its creators had in mind, as if part of its purpose was to provoke the kind of reactions they could call "anti-Semitic". I would love to see a study of the whole history of public monuments and the stories behind them. Wouldn't be pretty, I think.
... I disagree though, with the assertion that commercialization was the real battle. The commercialization of Christmas was lamented throughout the 1900's and was a phenomenon completely contained within Christendom and its celebration of Christmas.
The expulsion of Christmas from the civic realm that we are witnessing in these days is attendant on the insidious and pervasive ideology of cultural diversity. Blaming commercialization is nothing but a variation on the theme of "we deserved it."
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