Posted on 12/11/2006 10:13:29 PM PST by TheBigB
SEATAC, Wash. — The Christmas trees are going back up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Port of Seattle officials had ordered the trees taken down over the weekend after a local rabbi threatened a lawsuit if a menorah wasn't also displayed at the airport.
Airport officials say they took that action out of concern that if they allowed the addition of a menorah, they would also have to display symbols of other religions and cultures, which was not something airport workers had time for during the busiest travel season of the year.
Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky says he never asked that the trees be taken down, and the threat of a lawsuit was withdrawn.
With the threat of the lawsuit gone, airport spokesman Bob Parker says all 14 trees will go back up -- hopefully by tomorrow morning.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I'm waiting for the airport to put up some real Christmas decorations - a nativity scene.
Christmas is December 25th. Hannakuh is December 15th.
Nobody is trying to put a Menorah in your living room.
Is your faith in christ weak enough that it will be somehow harmed if you see a menorah in an airport? "Oh, I was so enjoying my Christmas, but now I had to walk past a Menorah, and it's ruined, ruined, ruined".
If I were concerned, it would be about how Christmas is now "celebrated" on TV by newscasts showing hundreds of people in line to buy the latest video game (complete with stories of people getting shot and having fights), and endless "christmas" specials about Santa Claus having to have his "christmas cheer" recharged so we can all get presents and remember the important lesson of Christmas, which seems to be that you can always return the stuff you don't like.
Our country IS an open society, where all it's citizens should be allowed to celebrate their heritage. This is NOT the same as LIVING in their own culture -- I strongly believe in the melting pot and think cultural diversity will be our death.
But people have different things that they are proud of, or that they like to celebrate, and I don't mind at all seeing positive symbols of their heritage.
If we all worked harder at portraying our own principles and philosophies in a positive light, we would all be happier. People who can only be happy when other people's points of view are actively suppressed scare me. Muslims are big on suppressing other people's displays of religion.
"The disingenuous of this rabbi is nauseating, and for some reason a lot of the local talk show hosts are taking him at his word. He tried to bully the airport with the threat of litigation, and now he whines that this isn't what he wanted. What a jerk."
You want disingenuous?
How about Christians who get bent out of whack any time that someone wants to take the "Christ" out of Christmas...
...unless it involves putting up a CHristmas Tree, in which case it suddenly morphs into a "Secular Holiday Tree" even though the tree isn't recognized as a religious holiday symbol by anyone except Christians?
Sounds like a bunch of whining hypocritical jerkyness to me.
Employees at both Delta and Frontier airlines took up a collection on Monday and bought a few foot-tall decorated trees for the check-in counter.
"He knew perfectly well. The group he is part of, the Lubavitchers, goes around suing different places to put up menorahs every year, and they usually win. I doubt he paid for that lawyer himself."
This is a load of malarkey.
Can you cite just one example a year going back say, five or six years, in which the Lubavitchers sued?
Even IF what you said was true, which it isn't, the fact that they usually win is a good sign that the entity they sued was in the wrong. After all, according to you, they "usually won."
Cite some sources, oh maker upper of facts.
BTTT! ....for Santa, of course....
"This rabbi is somewhat dishonest. He was on BOR last night and never mentioned anything about the lawsuit. Then again, BOR did not do his homework and made it sound as if the airport officials were all at fault. He never brought up the lawsuit either probably because he did not know about it."
No lawsuit was ever actually filed. There was no lawsuit. Only the mention of one.
Fortunately no one ever took that position, it likely would have had it's supporters.
Yeah, sounds like you guys are as bad as the liberal Jews. Far worse than the secular ones, who buy Hanukah bushes.
Yes they are.
I'm going to go to Israel and complain that I've been offended by the display of menorah and the star of David.Israel's a Jewish state. America is not a Christian nation.
The rabbi was entirely right to suggest that a menorah be included, especially if it would be privately funded. He was wrong to threaten a lawsuit (if he even did).
-Eric
Also, Sea-Tac has a problem with Christmas Trees. The basis of their position was that Holiday Trees, what tradition that represents no one has explained to me, like theirs represent all religions, thus a Menorah, specificly Jewish, would be unnecessarily injecting religion into the holiday season.
Holiday trees?
I thought they were the designated place for seeing eye dogs to pee.
And is this rabbi's faith so weak that he had to have a menorah at the airport. Get this - the reason for the tree - whether you want to call it a Christmas Tree or a Holiday Tree - is because of Christmas, not because of Hannakuh. I cannot verify it but I am pretty positive that Christians in Israel and other non-Christian countries are not attempting to enforce Christmas symbols on the population. So, in a way, you - and people like you - are trying to force a menorah on me.
Our country IS an open society, where all it's citizens should be allowed to celebrate their heritage. This is NOT the same as LIVING in their own culture -- I strongly believe in the melting pot and think cultural diversity will be our death.
But people have different things that they are proud of, or that they like to celebrate, and I don't mind at all seeing positive symbols of their heritage.
If we all worked harder at portraying our own principles and philosophies in a positive light, we would all be happier. People who can only be happy when other people's points of view are actively suppressed scare me.
Well, I think when you - and people like you - threaten a lawsuit, you - and people like you - are in the business of suppression. Again, this season is set aside - in the United States - to celebrate Christmas. Not Hannakuh! Not Kawanza or whatever it's called. What is so hard to understand about that!?
"The basis of their position was that Holiday Trees, what tradition that represents no one has explained to me"
It's Seattle, so it's technically a Wiccan Pagan Yuletide Winter Solstice Tree, and it represents all the evil committed by cutting down trees to build the airport... ;)
My fault for not being clear. I should have said he mentioned filing a lawsuit.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS, Everybody...
http://www.lzxray.com/Ronnie3.jpg
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"I cannot verify it but I am pretty positive that Christians in Israel and other non-Christian countries are not attempting to enforce Christmas symbols on the population. So, in a way, you - and people like you - are trying to force a menorah on me."
The United States is a "non Christian country." There are many who claim Christian affinity but they sure don't act Christian - CINO, let's call them.
"Again, this season is set aside - in the United States - to celebrate Christmas. Not Hannakuh! Not Kawanza or whatever it's called. What is so hard to understand about that!?"
It sounds like you are a Christian who wants to impose Christmas on a non-Christian country. Ho hum.
yet another attack against christianity. Time to start keeping a scorecard, and watching more closely.
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