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I don't know about other Christians but I was not happy the Christmas trees were removed because I know they have no religious significance. .... conservative blonde

I don't get it. Why would you be upset at the removal of non-religious greenery? Do you habitually get upset when the grass is cut, bagged, and disposed of? ...... gogogodzilla

Is turkey at Thanksgiving something special or merely "poultry"?

Is giving a young child his first dreidel at Hannukah something special or merely giving a "toy"?

Are Fourth of July fireworks something special or merely "entertainment"?

When a Jewish man was a child and was sick and his Jewish grandmother made him chicken soup, was that something special or does he merely remember that his grandmother sent him "food"?

What Christmas trees and all those other things have in common is that, whether or not they are religious, that are deeply held:

TRADITION!!!!

When you take away a Christmas tree from a 45 year old man that has not stepped foot inside a church ever since his Aunt Betty's funeral service ten years ago, you are going to get an extremely hostile reaction, not because you are taking away a religious symbol, but because you are taking away the America of his childhood.

As I noted in Post 172, the way I interpret the First Amendment, the Free Exercise Clause does allow the public display of overtly religious symbols such as a Nativity, a Menorah or a Koran as long as no religion is specifically prohibited. Once the Courts take it upon themselves to declare that a Menorah is "secular" and allowed but a Creche is "religious" and needs to be excluded, that crosses the line into arbitrary judicial tyranny that the Founding Fathers would be appalled at.

Instead of fighting each other, we should be fighting the judicial tyranny that has completely ignored the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and has created a situation where the words "Menorah" and "Nativity Scene" and "Airport" cannot be mentioned in the same sentence without including the words "Lawyers" and "Lawsuits".

Legal precedent is not engraved in stone. If the Courts are capable of discovering penumbras in the Constitution to allow abortion, given enough legal challenges to past legal rulings that has made Secularism the established state religion, the Courts may some day rediscover the Free Exercise Clause that is right there in the Constitution in black and white.

When that day comes, we can see Menorahs and Nativity Scenes and Korans all at the same public airports as the Founding Fathers intended instead of having Courts fan the flames of religious intolerance.

Legal precedent is not engraved in stone....When that day comes, we can see Menorahs and Nativity Scenes and Korans all at the same public airports as the Founding Fathers intended instead of having Courts fan the flames of religious intolerance.

There is nothing preventing that now, other than access to multiple religions with holidays during the holiday season.

This entire episode was misrepresented by the media.

There was nothing at Sea-Tac expressive of Christianity. Though the media called the Christmas Trees, every statement from Sea-Tac carefully and correctly referred to them as Holiday Trees. With no specific religious significance, rather representing all religions in some bizarre way. Christianity wasn't represented at Sea-Tac at all.

Along comes the Rabbi, misinterprets the Holiday Tree as a Christmas Tree, and ruins the party by requesting a Menorah. Which is required under the law.

Of course Sea-Tac is going to deny him. Put up a Menorah, they'll have to allow a Christian display. Horrors, a creche, worse yet someone might hang a cross on the now Christmas, not Holiday, Tree.

It's the height of absurdity. It's a holiday season, as the courts recognize, because multiple religious holidays fall in December, Sea-Tac want's to bar all religious displays, and everyone is up in arms because they think those were Christmas Trees.

I think there's a place for public displays, obviously they should be allowed, but in some ways I think it would be better if they were left to homes and religious institutions. Perhaps some of the meaning would be retained. The last Menorah I saw, it's not Hanukah yet, was at O'Hare airport. A cute picture pasted above a menu picture of a breakfast sandwich with ham and cheese. Could have done without that, my home and synagogue would be enough for me.