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Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky says he never asked that the trees be taken down, and the threat of a lawsuit was withdrawn.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 ...
=:- }
OK. Not you, but some people on these threads have been over the top.
"the fact that they usually win is a good sign that the entity they sued was in the wrong."
Not really. The ACLU usually wins, too.
And Rabbi Bogomilsky was the party-pooper at Sea-Tac Airport. He wanted equal time. To make sure he got his got his way, he threatened to sue. Unlike a child who throws a tantrus, he paid for his juvenile behaviour with great embarrassment.
For centuries, Hanukkah was a modest occasion, a minor holiday, and apparently that is still the case. The Jewish Hanukkah and the Christian Christmas cannot be equated, but some try.
If the Seattle Port Authority decided to include a menorah and lighted trees, you can make a safe bet that adherents to Kwanza (whatever that is) and other sects will demand to be represented at Sea-Tac.
I don't expect trees at the airport after 2006.
Thank you!!!!
I was under the impression that the administrators could remove a post at their own discretion. However it happened, I confess that I'm curious as to why.
You might consider repeating what you wrote, in a private message to another freeper on this thread. You might get a different opinion.
I, for one, did not like the Rabbi's tactics, but no one is forced to agree with me.
Why is it demonizable about asserting a right to get what the other guys get? I don't get it. Maybe that is the fate of this secular near atheist cultural WASP not to get it, but such is life.
You realize that there are at least 12 threads about this. Yep. We really know our priorities here.
Unfortunately, given the continuing eradication of Christian symbols from public and private lands all over our great nation, those of us who understand what has happened and is happening, feel absolutely no sympathy for those who are now suffering a similar plight. I realize this is extraordinarily callous, but as evidenced by the passionate responses, many are still angry about this defeat; which has little to no chance of being rolled back in our lifetimes, or ever. The Jewish community was missing-in-action while the ACLU laid waste to our shared history and culture, but far more importantly, our principles. The fact that this monster has turned its sights on conservative Jews, is only because it is running out of Christians to consume.
You and I are minorities within our own religious groups and you far more so than I, if you are Jewish. Even combined, we are grossly outnumbered by those who see nothing wrong with using the fruits of our labor to fund this evil. Divide and Conquer as implemented by the left to destroy our heritage is working masterfully.
Exactly what do you propose to reverse course? Local communities have long since lost the right to decide what they can and cannot do with regard to religious expression. Everything is litigation avoidance whether we want it or not. The black robes tyrants are running things now, accept it.
Two years ago, the county I grew up in voted 3 to 2 to remove a tiny cross from the county seal because the ACLU threatened to sue them if they didn't. They folded like ahouse of cards. I might note that the ACLU had absolutely no problem with this giant pagan godess standing smack dab in the middle of the seal. A few citizens did when they got wind of what was happening and that was removed also. And since they were going to the great expense to replace the seal, the picture of oil wells on he seal had to go to.
Now the irony, the county's name is Los Angeles, or in Enlish, The Angels. Do you think the three county supervisors who removed the cross understand that one day the county name has to go too?
No I didn't actually. This is the first thread I noticed.
I don't care about any of that. What bugs me is when people use the threat of litigation to force their extreme minority holiday displays on the majority (a mere 1% of Washingtonians celebrate Hanukkah). It's a sleazy move. It is bizarre that so many conservatives are rallying behind the rabbi and attacking the Port of Seattle. Would you rather see the airport squander thousands of dollars of taxpayer money trying to fight the lawsuit? I sure wouldn't. Would you rather that the airport just bend over and put up the menorah in reaction to the threat of litigation (like the rabbi expected them to do in politically correct Seattle)? I sure wouldn't.
The airport did the best thing they could have done—they shone a light on this sue-happy rabbi and now we get to watch him backpedal feverishly.
You're welcome! :)
Your post was vile and disgusting. You should be thankful it was removed. Your slander against Christians belonged on the evolution threads, not as the expression of a religious conservative. Your arrogant rebuttals were petty and would lead me to conclude you are the bigot.
If you cannot see the difference between attacking an individual who has willingly made himself a public person, versus an entire group of people, I'll look forward to your defense of the next Rabbi who gets caught molesting a child on an airplane or you can pick any of several dozen Catholic priests to defend if you like.
I wish I would've spoke up sooner, as I was watching this unfold.
Bless you for saying what needed sayin'.
No one can reasonably damn all Jews due to the actions of one rabbi. They do have reason to criticize him.
I won't assume his attorney, Harvey Grad, is a member of the ACLU. Burt Prelutsky, a Jewish man, wrote a column in TownHall, December 11, 2006. Title: The Jewish grinch who stole Christmas. He said that the ACLU is overwhelmingly Jewish in terms of membership and funding, that it is leading the attack against Christianity in America.
I'm not trying to be smart-assed but I think you might also be embarrassed and ashamed about this, also.
Burt is one of my favorite writers and I agree with everything he said in that column.
Except....
I am starting to agree with some of the other posters. Next year, there will be no Menorah at SeaTac. There will be no Cross.
And there will be no trees.
The only way the Rabbi could make this whole thing work is to turn it into an argument about religion. He would have no standing to argue if it was just a cultural issue, if I was from Lower Bagoombah or something I couldn't sue the Port to put up my type of decorations. Well, I could, but it would never get anywhere.
But personally, I can't help but feel it is sort of a sham. What good does it do to SUE to get some religious view into the spotlight? Especially if, like in this case, it makes people angry and disenchanted?
So all the Rabbi (or any other adherent or fanatical type) need do is find just the tiniest hint of Christianity anywheres. The tiniest hint.
Then they can sue, and get the whole thing revamped, and disenfranchise the people who, like it or not, pretty much built this country.
The whole "separation of church and state" thing is a MYTH. The first amendment was written that way because the founders knew they would not be able to hold the government together unless they expressly forbade the Federal government from having anything to do with religion. They wouldn't touch that one with a ten foot pole. They punted it back to the States and communities.
And remember that 53 of them were Protestants, it's not like we're talking about a bunch of atheists here.
So that's it.
Our CULTURE is being stripped from us based on a BAD THEORY about religion. And the ACLU, many liberals, slap happy judges, and fanatics pushing an agenda will have their way.
And I include the rabbi in that group. What he did was, if not outright selfish, very self serving. And I know enough to assume he knew what was really going on here.
You're probably right. And now that I'm angry and depressed I'm going to bed.
While it is a political hot potatoe, the target market is only growing.
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